Photo: BMW
It’s no longer a surprise to hear various BMW officials talk about an M1 revival. For quite some time now, the world has been waiting for the Bavarians to bring forward a cat that would actually compete against the likes of Audi’s R8 and Mercedes-Benz’s SLS AMG models.
Even so, the Munich-based company is still keeping its mouth shut, giving out absolutely not info about what it plans to do in the future. When the world saw the i8 concept for the first time, everyone expected it to be the supercar we’ve been dreaming about.
While the hybrid sportscar is definitely not a supercar, it’s a big step forward, bringing efficiency and eco-friendliness together in a thrill inducing ride. That’s not a small thing to do.
It’s also marking huge evolutionary steps in terms of CFRP and aluminum usage, not to mention hybrid drivetrains. That’s probably why, at the launch of the new M3 and M4 in Portugal, BMW’s M division CEO, Friedrich Nitschke said that creating a revival of the M1 will imply using the new tech.
“[It’s] a question of capacity not a question of know-how,” he said. “I think ‘i’ and ‘M’ are the bookends of BMW, we show with M what we can do on the racetrack and then with ‘i’ we show a big step to the future what we can do reducing fuel consumption and bringing new concepts. We have all the technology in BMW and we can use this technology from ‘i’ and that’s a big advantage BMW has at the moment.”
“With the i8 we showed what is going on and what we can do and it’s absolutely a new step and a step to the future and maybe we can take some parts and technology from ‘i’ [for M division] and vice-versa,” he added.
That would be great news. If BMW would use all the tech infused in the i8, we might be looking at a McLaren P1 rival in 2016, the 100th anniversary of BMW.
While the hybrid sportscar is definitely not a supercar, it’s a big step forward, bringing efficiency and eco-friendliness together in a thrill inducing ride. That’s not a small thing to do.
It’s also marking huge evolutionary steps in terms of CFRP and aluminum usage, not to mention hybrid drivetrains. That’s probably why, at the launch of the new M3 and M4 in Portugal, BMW’s M division CEO, Friedrich Nitschke said that creating a revival of the M1 will imply using the new tech.
“[It’s] a question of capacity not a question of know-how,” he said. “I think ‘i’ and ‘M’ are the bookends of BMW, we show with M what we can do on the racetrack and then with ‘i’ we show a big step to the future what we can do reducing fuel consumption and bringing new concepts. We have all the technology in BMW and we can use this technology from ‘i’ and that’s a big advantage BMW has at the moment.”
“With the i8 we showed what is going on and what we can do and it’s absolutely a new step and a step to the future and maybe we can take some parts and technology from ‘i’ [for M division] and vice-versa,” he added.
That would be great news. If BMW would use all the tech infused in the i8, we might be looking at a McLaren P1 rival in 2016, the 100th anniversary of BMW.
Google News