BMW M is celebrating its 50th year of existence. The carmaker has a very good reason to mark the occasion, after years of delivering high-performance vehicles that simply exhilarated drivers and journalists alike. Their current design might now be like by everyone, but that’s ok. At least they’re trying to do something different. Somehow, they once again managed to upset fans and customers with this new marketing ploy.
Nobody forgot how BMW messed up last year when they used Huracan V10 exhaust sounds to cover up the lacking 2021 M2. Just one year later, they come up with a new marketing campaign that’s part emotional, part uncomfortable.
“The film about this most sporting of gatherings shows in a very emotional way what the international BMW M community is all about. However different the vehicles and their people might be – they all love the accelerated heartbeat and the goose bumps that every BMW M triggers. Excited and enthusiastic as they are, they go their own way, are courageous and take a stance. What unites them is the passion for that special feeling every driver of a BMW M experiences. They all feel: WE ARE M,” says BMW about their video.
Celebrating half a century of M cars is no small feat. The German carmaker had to face issues that almost meant it would have never even come close to what it is today if it weren’t for creative businessmen to save it just in time. Or it could have ended as a Daimler sub-brand. There were multiple barriers that the company simply had to put up with. Creating another division, one that specializes in making high-performance, expensive cars, is something that cannot be trifled with. It takes immense effort and an astounding amount of planning. But BMW did it, and the pure passion of Jochen Neerpasch meant a new era was embracing the Bavarians - that of true, dedicated, and regulated sportsmanship. That was the birth of BMW M.
Fast forward a couple of decades, and BMW puts the M1 and the E9 3.0 CSL next to the iX M60 (that's not even a full M car as it has the "60" designation), X6 M and the Concept XM. Why? What happened? The market happened. Fans feel betrayed, as posts in a forum discussion show. But they need to understand one thing: you can’t beat the market, you join it.
Moreover, the video starts with the i4 M50. This is a clear signal of the path forward, one that we all will have to accept at some point.
Yes, it would have been extremely cool of BMW to present us with the series version of the 3.0 CSL Hommage R. It would’ve meant a new halo car of German descent. Unfortunately, that can’t happen. People buy crossovers and SUVs or SAVs (as BMW calls the X5/X6). It’s that simple. BMW is a company, after all, and it has to eye that profit margins, or it would go bust in a couple of months. Just passion and admiration don’t keep a for-profit entity afloat.
Watch the video for yourself and decide if BMW screwed this up too or not.
Car shows on TV and his father's Fiat Tempra may have been Florin's early influences, but nowadays he favors different things, like the power of an F-150 Raptor. He'll never be able to ignore the shape of a Ferrari though, especially a yellow one. Full profile
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