{"id":43710,"date":"2026-06-26T08:19:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/43710\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T08:19:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:19:42","slug":"bmw-m-boss-wants-a-new-m1-supercar-with-a-mid-mounted-engine-head-of-design-wants-it-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/43710\/","title":{"rendered":"BMW M Boss Wants a New M1 Supercar with a Mid-Mounted Engine, Head of Design Wants It Too"},"content":{"rendered":"

Key PointsBMW executives express strong interest in reviving the M1 supercar.Production of a true M1 successor depends on timing and board approval.A limited series M model for collectors has reportedly passed approval.<\/p>\n

From 1978 to 1981, BMW offered the M1<\/a>, but in the quarter-century since the mid-engine supercar went out of production, Bavaria has never offered a replacement, although it got close on more than one occasion. According to BMW Blog<\/a>, the man in charge of go-faster Bimmers, BMW<\/a> M CEO Frank van Meel, would love to change that, and his head of design would too. Speaking to the executives on the sidelines of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the publication asked them about the cars they dream of building, and van Meel responded, \u201cI\u2019m in love with the original M1, but I would love to do a new one.\u201d BMW M Head of Design Oliver Heilmer shared his enthusiasm for a revival of the moniker, but his response gives us a little more insight into just how seriously he and his colleagues toy with the idea.<\/p>\n

BMW M Design Boss Says the Stars Need to Align<\/p>\n

\"BMW<\/p>\n

ChatGPT\/Sebastian Cenizo<\/p>\n

Of a successor to the E26, Heilmer said, \u201cI must be honest, we are always dreaming about it. And maybe someday, we [will] find the right window of opportunity where we have the capacity to work on a car like that. And also, the company, BMW Group, says, \u2018Okay, go for it.\u2019 We never give up, I can promise you that, but actually it\u2019s not here yet.\u201d It sounds like BMW M\u2019s design department is constantly sketching out ideas for what the M1\u2019s true successor (forget about the XM<\/a>) could look like, and according to the publication, BMW has come close at least twice. The BMW Vision M Next concept was reportedly scheduled to enter production<\/a> before uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic and high development costs prematurely aborted a plug-in supercar\u2019s creation, and at one point, BMW was rumored to have been working on an all-electric supercar with over 1,200 horsepower.<\/p>\n

Given that the Neue Klasse platform is capable of 1,341 hp<\/a> (atop which the Vision M Neue Klasse concept and the electric M3<\/a> it will spawn sit), making numbers on the dyno wouldn\u2019t have been a problem, but look at the sales struggles faced by the Rimac Nevera<\/a>, and steering clear of an electric supercar was probably a smart move. However, that doesn\u2019t mean BMW M doesn\u2019t have something special in the pipeline for its most well-heeled customers.<\/p>\n

BMW Is Working on a Dream Car<\/p>\n

\"BMW<\/p>\n

Sebastian Cenizo\/ChatGPT<\/p>\n

In July last year, Sylvia Neubauer, Vice President of Customer, Brand, and Sales at M, reportedly said that a small-series M car has passed approval<\/a>, and although details were slim, the vehicle is said to be a \u201cdream car\u201d that will be \u201cfor collectors.\u201d BMW succeeded with the 3.0 CSL<\/a> as a limited-run, six-figure collector car, and it\u2019s since also seen resounding success with the Skytop<\/a> and Speedtop<\/a>. Perhaps this new \u201cdream car\u201d will be the final piece of vindication BMW needs to approve the costly development of a new supercar. With the S58 engine gaining pre-chamber ignition to keep it legal for the coming years, sometime between now and the end of the decade might be the perfect window to produce a six-cylinder supercar once again.<\/p>\n

\"BMW<\/p>\n

Sebastian Cenizo\/ChatGPT<\/p>\n

About the author\"\"<\/p>\n

Sebastian Cenizo is an automotive journalist and columnist specializing in German sports cars, aftermarket tuning, and emerging vehicle technologies. Since 2019, he has written thousands of news stories, reviews, technical explainers, and opinion pieces, analyzing how innovations and legislation impact American car buyers. A former Senior and Deputy Editor at CarBuzz, Sebastian also served as Chairman of the Volkswagen Club of South Africa and has judged numerous automotive exhibition events. He now contributes to Autoblog, bringing his deep industry knowledge and enthusiast background to every story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key PointsBMW executives express strong interest in reviving the M1 supercar.Production of a true M1 successor depends on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20955],"tags":[37520,6213,5339,22860,37522,25053,37523,32517,33158,37525,24290,42,37524,37521,28004,21251,22274],"class_list":["post-43710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bmw","tag-3-0-csl","tag-bmw","tag-bmw-group","tag-bmw-m","tag-bmw-vision-m-next","tag-bmw-m1","tag-e26","tag-electric-m3","tag-frank-van-meel","tag-m1","tag-neue-klasse","tag-news","tag-oliver-heilmer","tag-rimac-nevera","tag-s58-engine","tag-supercar","tag-supercars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}