Photo: BMW
The BMW Motorsport division or M as it is known today, had some incredible ideas over the years, most of them considered too powerful or too crazy for the market at the time.
However, as time passed, the officials decided to unveil some of their ‘Frankenstein’ models to the press and we’re simply amazed at what they could create.
Some of the cars presented in the gallery below were rumors back in their day and a lot of people hoped they would eventually be mass built but, unfortunately, they never made it out of the factory and testing facilities.
One such car is the M8. The car was actually built in 1990, being the most powerful model BMW ever made. It had a six-liter V12 engine with 550 HP packed under a long bonnet. Unfortunately, the car received a thumbs down when it went for approval and we never saw it until 2010 when it was revealed in the BMW Museum in all its glory. The same engine was later used for the McLaren F1 that made history.
Another crazy model (at the time) was an M5 convertible that eventually evolved into the M6 convertible we have today. When the E34 M5 was in production, the engineers made a soft-top version that was supposed to go up against the former E-Class (W124) and take away some of its sales. This too got the cold shoulder.
Probably the car that was experimented the most on was the M3. Over the years a lot of variations of the high-performance model were done but few actually released. There was a pick-up version and a Compact one too. The latter, actually almost made it to the market, being tested and all but, at the last second it was dropped. The same happened to every Touring attempt ever tried, the M division even creating such a model for the E46 version.
Last, but not least, you should know that the first ever X5 M used a V12 engine. It was called the BMW X5 LeMans and it had 700 HP, enough to send the 2.1-tone car to a top speed of 311 km/h (194 mph). However, it still wasn’t enough to make it to production and the world had to wait another couple of years until 2009 to see such a model on the street.
Some of the cars presented in the gallery below were rumors back in their day and a lot of people hoped they would eventually be mass built but, unfortunately, they never made it out of the factory and testing facilities.
One such car is the M8. The car was actually built in 1990, being the most powerful model BMW ever made. It had a six-liter V12 engine with 550 HP packed under a long bonnet. Unfortunately, the car received a thumbs down when it went for approval and we never saw it until 2010 when it was revealed in the BMW Museum in all its glory. The same engine was later used for the McLaren F1 that made history.
Another crazy model (at the time) was an M5 convertible that eventually evolved into the M6 convertible we have today. When the E34 M5 was in production, the engineers made a soft-top version that was supposed to go up against the former E-Class (W124) and take away some of its sales. This too got the cold shoulder.
Probably the car that was experimented the most on was the M3. Over the years a lot of variations of the high-performance model were done but few actually released. There was a pick-up version and a Compact one too. The latter, actually almost made it to the market, being tested and all but, at the last second it was dropped. The same happened to every Touring attempt ever tried, the M division even creating such a model for the E46 version.
Last, but not least, you should know that the first ever X5 M used a V12 engine. It was called the BMW X5 LeMans and it had 700 HP, enough to send the 2.1-tone car to a top speed of 311 km/h (194 mph). However, it still wasn’t enough to make it to production and the world had to wait another couple of years until 2009 to see such a model on the street.
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