One decade after it officially broke cover, the BMW 1M Coupe remains a formidable car. Not for its straight line performance, because it wasn’t exactly a dragster, but for the way it handled corners. Its nimbleness made some compare it to the classic BMW M3 E30.
If you’re like us, then you have probably looked it up on the used car market and saw that it isn’t the bargain you thought it would be. The best examples are pricier than a new M2, and with only 6,309 units produced, up from the initial 2,700 planned, including the 740 sold in the United States, finding that perfect one for a decent cost is tricky, to say the least.
Now, if by some miracle the Gods have smiled upon you and you have one in your sights, then you should go for it, because it is expected to go up in value. Not to mention that with 335 horsepower and 369 pound-feet (500 Nm) of torque on Overboost, produced by the twin-turbo, 3.0-liter straight-six engine, it will rocket you to 60 mph (97 kph) in 4.8 seconds.
Given enough space, the 1M Coupe will eventually tap out at 155 mph (250 kph), or so BMW’s M Division claims, because we have seen stock examples doing more on the Autobahn. The mill drives the rear wheels through a six-speed manual transmission.
As the title says, this isn’t a used-car guide, but a story that puts the spotlight on a video, said to have been shot at last year’s SCC500 drag racing event in Germany, at the Lausitzring. The 11-minute long footage shows the 1M Coupe going head-to-head with some much more powerful cars, including a couple of Ms, a Mercedes-AMG GT R Pro, a Nissan GT-R and a Porsche 911 (991) GT2 RS.
Better open that bag of chips and hit the play button, now.
After a series of unfortunate events put an end to Cristian's dream of entering a custom built & tuned old-school Dacia into a rally competition, he moved on to drive press cars and write for a living. He's worked for several automotive online journals and now he's back at autoevolution after his first tour in the mid-2000s. Full profile
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