Photo: superrenderscars/Instagram
Just when you thought all the M4 renderings have been made, you remember the face swaps. This opens up a world of possibilities.
The BMW M4 is already a fresh face, and we can't wait to see what it can do. However, in sticking to the old formula, the Bavarian automaker missed the opportunity to make something truly cool, like a mid-engined sports car.
The "coolness" of a car brand is often determined not by practicality or style, but purely based on performance and power output. The M3 and M4 reached the limit of what they could do long before a designer ever made a grille that looks like Bugs Bunny's teeth.
By sending lots of power to the rear wheels, the cars were going beyond the limits of traction. BMW already found a simple solution: adding xDrive AWD. Even the RWD models should be a little better now than before.
However, the M4 with xDrive won't be available until next year, and even then it won't be that special. German performance cars have been adding AWD since the days of the last CLS 63, so we know some compromises exist. Steering feel is often lost while weight increases.
The best solution, the one that keeps cars light and agile, is switching to a rear-engined layout. BMW did this with the i8, but failed to make a true record-setter because this was only a hybrid 1.5-liter. For the past decade, reports about a modern-day M1 have been going around the rumor mill.
Each time, BMW denied these speculations to the point where we think it's never going to happen. But upon inspecting this image by superrenderscars, we realized the mid-engined BMW needs to wear a Z badge.
Sports cars and roadsters? BMW makes plenty of those under the M badge. What the Z4 needs to be is a special project, the kind that proves one German automaker has more heart than the others. Or better yet, we could keep the Z4 and add the mid-engined car as a Z8.
Old BMW used to be just such an ambitious company, willing to take on even rivals it couldn't beat. We remember how hard they tried to make the E92 as fast as a 911 around a track or how the first 1 Series competed with the Porsche Boxster. Bring back some of that and forget about infinite variations of SUV.
The "coolness" of a car brand is often determined not by practicality or style, but purely based on performance and power output. The M3 and M4 reached the limit of what they could do long before a designer ever made a grille that looks like Bugs Bunny's teeth.
By sending lots of power to the rear wheels, the cars were going beyond the limits of traction. BMW already found a simple solution: adding xDrive AWD. Even the RWD models should be a little better now than before.
However, the M4 with xDrive won't be available until next year, and even then it won't be that special. German performance cars have been adding AWD since the days of the last CLS 63, so we know some compromises exist. Steering feel is often lost while weight increases.
The best solution, the one that keeps cars light and agile, is switching to a rear-engined layout. BMW did this with the i8, but failed to make a true record-setter because this was only a hybrid 1.5-liter. For the past decade, reports about a modern-day M1 have been going around the rumor mill.
Each time, BMW denied these speculations to the point where we think it's never going to happen. But upon inspecting this image by superrenderscars, we realized the mid-engined BMW needs to wear a Z badge.
Sports cars and roadsters? BMW makes plenty of those under the M badge. What the Z4 needs to be is a special project, the kind that proves one German automaker has more heart than the others. Or better yet, we could keep the Z4 and add the mid-engined car as a Z8.
Old BMW used to be just such an ambitious company, willing to take on even rivals it couldn't beat. We remember how hard they tried to make the E92 as fast as a 911 around a track or how the first 1 Series competed with the Porsche Boxster. Bring back some of that and forget about infinite variations of SUV.
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