autoevolution's BMW M Month

2022 marks an important moment for German carmaker BMW. It is the year when the brand celebrates the 50th anniversary of the M badge, a letter that over the years has become synonymous with high-performance machines.

Short for BMW Motorsport GmbH, today’s BMW M GmbH traces its roots all the way back to May 1972, when it was set up to advance the Bavarians' racing program, kicked into gear with the introduction of the 3.0 CSL homologation special, meant to open the doors for BMW to enter the European Touring Car Championship.

The immediate success of the model prompted M to quickly expand into the civilian market, and started producing vehicles that need not exist solely as a means for the requirements of some racing series to be satisfied. And this is how we got the M we know and love today.

At the time of writing, the M portfolio includes no less than 14 fully-fledged M models, 24 M-flavored upgrades of series BMW cars and SUVs, and two cooperation vehicles. You can add to that the ones that have stopped being made over the past 50 years, and you get one of the most comprehensive lineups of any high-performance brand out there.

We’ll celebrate them all, and possibly even more, this May, as we run the BMW M Month here on autoevolution.

Editor's note: This special feature by autoevolution was not sponsored or supported by a third-party.