Wednesday 29th October 2008

New BMW Supercar

Plans surface for a green successor to M1

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Johnny's 3-Series was unrecognisable

BMW is hatching plans to revive the ‘spirit’ of its 30-year-old M1 in a brand new supercar with 21^st century green credentials.

The story has been broken in this week’s Autocar magazine, which claims to have information from a source inside the company who has seen early design proposals.

BMW’s new ‘ultimate driving machine’ is scheduled to be launched in 2012, when it will compete with the Audi R8 and new Mercedes SLC, says the report.

The new supercar is described as a ‘puristic two-seater drawing on all the latest BMW technology’, so expect to see lightweight build and and a powertrain that uses bits and pieces from BMW’s Efficient Dynamics programme – direct injection, brake energy regeneration and stop-start among others.

The new M1 is likely to have a version of BMW’s 3.0 six mounted amidships, and will apparently combine supercar performance with economy and emissions better than a mid-range 5-series.

Although BMW revealed a glamorous M1 Homage concept earlier this year, it was described purely as a celebration of the classic M1’s 30^th anniversary, and so seems unlikely to reflect the look of a 2012 spiritual successor. But PH never let the facts get in the way of a good picture, and this latest story gives us the excuse we needed to wheel it out again!

 

[Adrian W]

Maybe Aston Martin should read this

[FWDRacer]

I'll have a tenner on it being Diesel powered...

[slayaz]

They have got to be the worst rims I have EVER seen.

EVER I say!

[Dogsey]

So probably a good job that I won't have the spare cash for one.

[Adrian W]

Looks like a cross between a Detomaso Pantera and an Alfa Romao Montrial but at least it's different.

[FMA]

Wonder if the body panels is going to be all BangleGina'ed. Even as a glorified showcase, it would be cool to see if GINA can actually get out of the showroom.

Better even, with BMWs current clout in F1, maybe the could revive Procar?

[TheForceV4]

What happened to the M10 that never came out?

[Dracoro]

slayaz said:

They have got to be the worst rims I have EVER seen.

EVER I say!

What's worse, the wheels or calling them "rims"?

[Turbo Sarnie]

i quite like it! bmw definitely need a car to compete with audi's new weapon!

[The Milfman]

Does it make anyone else want to ?!

[Dr S]

The arcticle said:

The new supercar is described as a ‘puristic two-seater drawing on all the latest BMW technology’, so expect to see lightweight build and and a powertrain that uses bits and pieces from BMW’s Efficient Dynamics programme –direct injection, brake energy regeneration and stop-start among others.

Where the hell have BMW demonstrated "light weight build" as a competence recently? In the 1.8 tonne 3 series convertible or the 1.5 tonne 130i?

[VladD]

That's not the car, that was just the 30th anniversary tribute.

Will be interesting to see what finally emerges. Won't be a proper car unless it has a petrol V12.

[oagent]

It looks the mutts nuts! bring it on BMW. Love the idea of going back to the M1 roots and using a straight 6.

[snorkel sucker]

gorgeous! sure, its a bit of a rip off of the M1 but who cares - was a truly marvelous car to look at

[White-Noise]

Is everyone at BMW blind!!!? Their designs are getting worse and worse!!

[gofasterrosssco]

Whats the bets the 3.0L '6' is binned in favour of the current M3 V8 to compete with the R8 (would have thought this would preferable assuming londitudinal installation...)

[dinkel]

VladD said:

That's not the car, that was just the 30th anniversary tribute.

Will be interesting to see what finally emerges. Won't be a proper car unless it has a petrol V12.

3 litre V8 revving to 11k . . .

[morgrp]

Is this not just seriously old news?

[morgrp]

Is this not just seriously old news?

[tim200sx]

Dr S said:

The arcticle said:

The new supercar is described as a ‘puristic two-seater drawing on all the latest BMW technology’, so expect to see lightweight build and and a powertrain that uses bits and pieces from BMW’s Efficient Dynamics programme –direct injection, brake energy regeneration and stop-start among others.

Where the hell have BMW demonstrated "light weight build" as a competence recently? In the 1.8 tonne 3 series convertible or the 1.5 tonne 130i?

My thoughts exactly - BMW must be one of the worst offenders for overweight cars, so I fail to see how lightweight build is one of their most recent technologies....