It's Time We Stopped Asking BMW For A New M1 Supercar

Not only because BMW is probably tired of being asked.

For years there’ve been rumors flying around regarding the prospects of BMW doing a reborn M1 supercar. The automaker got everyone talking, more seriously this time, when it launched its M1 Concept in 2008. In the end, it turned out to be nothing more than a 30th anniversary tribute to the original and iconic M1 sports car, but that homage concept definitely got people talking. Today, nearly a decade later, talk is still going on regarding an M1 revival, and it really ought to stop. For good.

BMW has no intention or need to build one, as CarAdvice more or less just confirmed. BMW M boss, Frank Van Meel, stated at Frankfurt that BMW is “trying to make cars for customers, and trying to reach as many customers as possible – but to build a car for 200 people would not be our main target.” Why 200? Because he’s basing it on the 250 planned Project Ones Mercedes-AMG will build. Van Meel further made clear that BMW M is fully capable of building a new M1 that could conceivable face off against the likes of the Audi R8 and Mercedes-AMG GT S. Van Meel and his team could even go further and do an outright Project One fighter, though that’d be more difficult because BMW doesn’t take part in F1.

“If you look at the tradition of M, we came from being the first company to take a series of production car and making a high-performance car out of that, and it was copied by a lot of other companies, also AMG,” Van Meel said. More importantly is that Van Meel feels he and BMW have nothing to prove with a supercar. “I also think M is the ultimate driving machine, and I don’t need something to make clear that we really are the ultimate driving machine. We have the M2 to the X6 M to say that – I don’t need a halo car to bring out the message. I don’t feel the need to have a halo car.” Perhaps the closest thing we’ll ever get to a reborn M1 is the upcoming M8, which Van Meel described as “a very, very interesting car, very fast.”

Despite everything, Van Meel did express enthusiasm at the possibility of doing a new M1, but it’s simply not on the list of priorities. It may never have to be, and Van Meel, of all people, fully understands why.