[The HACK]

I think most here have forgotten, or have NEVER known that the M1 was a financial disaster of epic proportions and wasn't even allowed to race in the series it was designed for.

It is only with the passage of time and the limited availability that the M1 has garnered the legendary status it has now. And the culmination of a set of conditions that created a near perfect storm for it to exist.

1. It took an iron will and a insatiable desire to compete from the division head, Jochen Neerpasch. Someone whom racing and motorsport runs in their blood, and a drive, no pun intended, to see a project through no matter the obstacles. The project was initially suppose to go to Lamborghini for production and assembly, but during that time Lamborghini was in dire financial straits and weren't able to even built 400 cars to meet homologation rules. Mountains had to be cleared, and a thousand different threads crossed to get 400 cars built for public consumption in order for the car to be legal to go up agains the mighty Porsche in racing. The body had to be assembled elsewhere, shipped across the continent to mate with the frame and chassis, while engine, transmission, and a slew of other components were all built and designed nearly from scratch.

I'm afraid there's no one at BMW right now, nor its foreseeable future, that can possibly pull of a stunt like this. It's too much a corporation and not enough a small car manufacturer with no f**ks given and one goal in mind. Beat Porsche.

2. Homologation. Sounds dirty. And it is. The M1 was built specifically so BMW can pit a mid-engine supercar in FIA's Series 5 group, up against the dominating Porsche of the time. At the end of the day, due to the snafu with the Lamborghini partnership, not enough cars were built in time to even compete in the series, but HOMOLOGATION was the reason why the M1 exist. So was the reason for the mighty E30 M3.

That requirement no longer exist today. There's no longer a drive to build an x amount of cars for racing rules. The number of cars built and the reason for them to exist is now purely financial, as in revenue driven. Only 5xx S54 Z3 M Coupes built? Not because racing, but because they didn't think anyone would buy it. Only 8xx 1M Coupes built? Because they think after that, no one would buy it.

3. It's a revenue driven company now. There's no financial and revenue sense to build a car like the M1 today. Imagine having to do all that, throw tons of R&D money into it, cost for tooling for unique chassis, engine, and possibly body stamping and component parts, only to build 400 cars, and because it's so few of them built, you'd have to charge exorbitant $$$ for them, and no one bought it because the racing series you're suppose to compete in won't even let you race them so you'd have to spend your own $$$ to create a racing series of your OWN.

Imagine the $$$ involved then, translated to the inflated cost NOW. You're probably looking at billions needed to be invested, only to sell what, about 500 cars that can potentially justify a marketing cost of about $300K?

The bean counters would sh*t bricks.

It's a different time and different company now. Imagine BMW engineers having to go behind the Corporate backs and work secretly at night in off hours to create a hoot of a car based off of their new roadster chassis, and that was how the Z3 Coupe was born back in the late 90s. 20 years ago.

THEY HAD TO SECRETLY BUILT THE PROTOTYPE. Because they know corporate won't approve it.

Fast forward 20 years, we're now at a point where BMW is purely a profit driven company. Do you all think the same engineers that spent their nights dreaming up and fabricating the Z3 Coupe is going to be able to successfully pitch a new bespoke chassis, engine, components...etc to the brass and still have a job tomorrow?

I doubt it.

The likelihood that this is more than just an R&D exercise and will eventually see real production is about as good as me winning an F1 racing seat. And I'm not even dreaming of the driver's championship.

The days at BMW of building something like the M1 is long, LONG gone. Compared to what made BMW BMW, it is but a shell of its former self. Snowball has a better chance in hell IMO.