Talks about a possible supercar wearing the blue and white roundel have been going around for the better part of the last 30 years. BMW never really made a supercar unless you consider the M1 such a thing and even then, it was all done with the help of others. Yes, the M1 did write history but it has, since then, very well become history itself. So how long until we get to see a new BMW supercar?
This is probably the most asked question officials get during press interviews and rightly so. The Germans have been teasing us lately, showing just how much they can achieve with cars like the BMW i8, for example, that using a rather small engine can post incredible figures. In light of such examples, it’s only natural that fans of the brand start dreaming of something more.
Chip in the fact that hybrid hypercars like the Porsche 918 Spyder and McLaren P1 exist and have become true bedroom poster icons, it’s hard for us, the fans, to admit BMW doesn’t have anything to go up against them. All of this is being taken into consideration though, as a recent interview points out.
Speaking to Australian magazine Drive at the recent New York Auto Show earlier this month, BMW M’s vice-president of sales and marketing, Peter Quintus, finally offered us a glimmer of hope. Unlike other officials who usually stuck to simply denying that BMW might even be interested in such a niche, Quintus admitted there’s some thought going into making such a supercar but that all factors need to be taken into consideration and the money needed to develop it have to be available as well.
“At the moment, our priorities are on other issues. The two big factors beyond that are our development capacity and also the investment required. We would love to do it. Our engineers would love to do it. But there has to be the money to do it,” Quintus said.
Then he went on to confirm that a concept already exists and it should be at least a plug-in hybrid: “Would it involve hybrid technology? Yes, you couldn’t stay with a conventional approach. It should be at least a plug-in (electric). We have concepts. If you said tomorrow, go, we know already what it would look like.”
Well, if the i8 is any indication of what can be achieved, if the project gets the green light we should be in for quite an impressive machine. It would also mean that BMW would get a proper rival for Mercedes’ upcoming F1-inspired hypercar that’s apparently sold out already.
[Source: Drive]
