Reposted from 1M Coupe discussion thread:
http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=424637
I see cars in the earlist stage but I have other projects to work on that I cannot afford to be distracted as I have many projects not only for cars but I also conceive stuff for BMWTV.de The German only BMW TV channel which in some cases do not involve cars. With each project now we have started to do Pre-visualisation on the computer because we can show it to the director and production crew and explain this is the angles we want to get the perfect shot.
The time window for this car is extremely tight and originally enthusiasm was not apparent until Dr. Kay Segler came to the M Division.
We had initially toyed with the idea of an 1M when we were conceiving the Coupe and did work with evaluation models then using the engine from the E46 and the upgraded E46 CSL engine but it proved to be too heavy for the car.
Originally in the early days of marketing the standard 135i was originally meant to be an M model.
The 1M that stands before you now has had possibly the most progressive stage from thought-production turnaround for a BMW. There had to be a lot of arm-twisting in the BMW Board because of the tight window between generation 1 and generation 2 of the Coupe. The proposal was greenlighted when BMW decided to use the Coupe model for the BMW eDrive evaluation. Therefore slightly extending it's life cycle.
When I first saw the car it was in a design studio as a full scale claymodel but since then some designers ideas have to make way for aerodynamics and engineering. The initial engine proposal was the N55 but they were having issues that cannot be solved within the time window. BMW Greenlit this car in July 09, now over a year later we see it as it intended , although testing still commences until the launch. Valvetronic was the main cause of the time delay but
BMW have spent some time on this and are using the N55 as a basis for the next M3.
The best way to describe the engine of the 1M is a "Hybrid" but in the original form of Hybrid, nothing to do with "alternatives", but it is not a straightforward transplant.
There is a lot of this car that will carry over for the next generation 1M in which that car will switch to four cylinders to which the M Division engineers are already working on the basics without time constraints or restrictions. 1M (E82) is showing what is possible in a small timeframe 1M (F22) will show what is possible once you do not have restrictions.