BMW Motorsport 30 years

Only within recent times have American and Japanese car manufacturers finally started to show the same intensity for performance orientated cars as the Europeans. BMW takes the opportunity to reminds us that their tradition of sporty dynamic vehicles goes back much further. Marked by the production of the 300,000th M model with the delivery of the an alpine white BMW
M3 Coupe to a customer in Regensburg, BMW M GmbH celebrates their 30th anniversary.

Starting with the establishment of BMW Motorsport GmbH in 1972, it wasn’t until six years later that the limited edition M1 sports car, featuring a mid-engine straight six-cylinder engine, was produced in 1978 with the purpose of motorsports homologation. However, it wasn’t until 1984 that BMW M GmbH established a new corporate philosophy: the development of high-performance automobiles suitable for everyday road use. Distinguished by discrete aesthetics and motorsports influenced suspension technology, the first of these “everyday” performance car was the BMW
M5 with a 210 kW/286 bhp straight six engine. The M5 sports sedan found itself attracted by businessmen for its performance and understated appearance. Two years later, BMW M GmbH produced the M3 in 1986. Since then, the M3 model in all of its variants accounts for the largest portion of BMW M GmbH overall vehicle sales. Currently there are 9 models in the BMW M GmbH range and sales of all BMW M models continue to rise with each new generation. The USA is the most important market for BMW M automobiles, and in Europe highest demand for the high-performance sports cars are in the UK, Germany and Italy. t’s been 30 years since the first BMW wearing a trademark tri-color marking was introduced in a homologation effort as the M1. Since then 300,000 vehicles have been graced with that coveted “M” telltale, and still countless others have had the logo applied in the hopes the letter would add some magic to a plebian 318 or 528. Fully one percent of BMWs sold in 2007 were M models, and the milestone 300,000th car, an alpine white M3 Coupe, will live with its owner in the town of its birth, the East Bavarian hamlet of Regensburg. The M3 is likely the most legendary M car, with the original E30 version also existing for homologation purposes and morphing into the current V8-powered technical tour de force that can now be had in Coupe, Sedan or Convertible guise – a true triple threat. There appears no end in sight for BMW’s M division’s masterful application of the art and science of high performance engineering.