BMW BLOG

A little bit early in the game, but the folks at Automobile Magazine France decided to create a rendering of what the BMW 1 Series GT might look like. As we learned recently, BMW is looking into the possibility to extend the 1 Series family by adding some new, niche-oriented vehicles.

One of these models will be a Gran Turismo version of the new 1 Series, a GT model similar in concept as the recently unveiled 5 Series GT. Before we jump into the information provided by Automobile Mag, which by the way are not yet verified by us, we would like to give you a background on the new 1 Series platform.

Looking to reduce the overall costs of a new car, BMW designed a new modular platform for the upcoming 1 Series family. The backbone of these models was designed especially for this purpose so every model can have a variation backbone, simply be moving suspension points and firewalls to areas that will benefit each vehicle. Corroborated with more parts sharing, this new approach will allow BMW to reduce even more the production costs. The new 1 Series vehicles will fully take advantage of lightweight materials and sophisticated bonding techniques.

What we know for sure is that the BMW 1 Series GT will be a 5-door vehicle, a  mix of a hatch, wagon and sedan. Automobile Mag takes this further by stating that the 1 GT will be 2 inches(5cm) longer than the 3-door and 5-door models, but it will sport an unique front-end. To reflect the Gran Turismo design, the 1 GT will have an elevated driving position, something we have seen in the 5 GT as well.

Inside, the 1 Series GT should provide an alternative between two individual rear seats separated by a central console or the classic rear seats setup.The French magazine continues to speculate that the car will be powered by a four-cylinder turbo engine, developing anywhere from 204 to 240 horsepower. The first GT models could carry the 123i GT and 125i GT naming convention. While again we can’t swear by that information, we do agree with them that three-cylinder supercharged engines will power the entry level 1 Series models.

Now what we heard from inside sources is that BMW will indeed offer a hybrid version for each variant in the 1 Series family and the second stage of BMW’s EfficientDynamics program will  bring new options and technologies which will be implemented across the whole BMW portfolio.

That’s all we know for now and unfortunately many of these details are sketchy at this point, but as always, there is a truth somewhere in all of this and we’re hoping to find out more.

P.S The rendering attempt by Automobile Magazine is simply based on their idea of what the 1 Series GT might look like and we highly doubt that the final model will be close to that. We expect the 1er GT to really stand out from the rest of 1 Series vehicles, as any premium car should.

[Source: Automobile Magazine ]

Thanks for the tip Shrawan!