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Mid-Engined Sports Car Rumored to Be in the Works at BMW

The collaboration between BMW and Toyota seems to spawn an enormous amount of rumors that just keep on coming. The latest suggests that BMW is working on a mid-engine sports car that will rival the Porsche and Mercedes offerings.
BMW-Toyota 1 photo
Photo: Insideevs.com
The info comes to us through Car Magazine’s Georg Kacher that seems to be pretty sure and well informed by an ‘unnamed’ source within the company.

Codenamed “Silk Road 2” the project that involves building this car also includes one for Toyota/Lexus that is going to compete in the same segment. Therefore, a logical question pops up? Why do the two companies need each other?

A possible answer would be the hybrid technology Toyota has at the moment and plans to use in the future for its eco-friendly cars. Having started research in the field a couple of years before BMW, the Japanese could provide useful insight into the matter.

On the other hand, the Germans have their world-famous Motorsport division in their corner that develops some of the best engines in the world and knows a thing or two about tuning a chassis.

These two cars would be the a BMW Coupe (roughly bigger than a Z4) and Lexus ZC/ZR, both of them completely new. The BMW would use a 6-cylinder plug-in hybrid configuration making around 400-500 HP and plenty of instantaneous torque from down low due to the electric motor. The 7-speed DCT gearbox could be used unless a new alternative shows up in the meantime.

Of course, such rumors make us tingle and giggle around like little girls. The BMW fan club around the world has been dreaming of a successor to the legendary M1 for quite a while now and the celebration of the company’s centenary seems like the perfect moment to launch such a model.

However, if BMW will go down this road remains to be seen. Truth be told, the Munich-based company could use a rival in the segment where Mercedes’ AMG GT and Audi’s R8 are currently unchallenged by one of their own cars.

No official answer came from BMW, as expected, and chances are it will never come until the car will be ready. In the meantime, we know for sure that 2016 will be a big year, the one when the M2 will be launched.
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