BIMMERPOST Visits BMW M's Secret Underground Garage

[Mark]

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BIMMERPOST Visits BMW M's Secret Underground Garage

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What a treat. While covering the M Event in Germany today, Jason and Southlight were invited to tour the BMW M facility, including underground into BMW M's garage. No not the employee parking garage-- THE GARAGE. Yes, the garage where BMW M stores a copy of every single M car ever made. Many of them you or I have never seen or heard of before. Cars that we may have thought about or dreamed about, but never materialized.

The event itself was a special BMW M Press Conference at M GmbH headquarters in Garching, Munich, held in the M Studio. First up was the press conference where the M3 pickup rolled into the M studio. It was finally (and not surprisingly) announced as an April Fool's Joke. Next up was the biggest surprise of the day - the appearance of the lightweight M3 sedan which will feature a weight and power figure somewhere between the regular M3 and the M3 GTS (more details will be forthcoming at the M festival).

The attendees to the event were then divided up into groups to attend 3 workshops.

V12 Workshop
First was a tour of a "V12 workshop" which featured some of M division's most monster creations to date - the record breaking X5 LeMans, BMW V12 LMR, M8, and the E60 M5 25th Anniversary Edition (which was the only car in the room without a V12).

BMW V12 Workshop

BMW's Underground M Garage
Two flights down and we've come to the highlight of the workshops - BMW's underground M garage. This was Nirvana for any M fans because EVERY single M model (prototype or production) was on display. The cars were lined up in chronological order with the smaller cars on one side (1-series, roadster, 3-series) and larger cars on the other (5-series, SUVs). The unique one-offs which never made production were housed in the rear of the garage. We spent the most time down here as there was just an endless amount of M eye candy to see.

The cars we got to shoot for you are as follows:
Ur-Roadster (Red one) -- which translates to "Original Roadster"
1M Black
Z3 M Coupe
Z4 M Coupe and Roadster
E30 M3 Pickup (with new E9x sibling)
E34 M5 Convertible
E36 M3 Compact
E36 M3 GTR
E39 M5 Wagon
E46 M3 Wagon
E28 M5
M1
Entire M3 Family (E30-E90) including E46 M3 CSL
Entire M5 Family (E28-E60)

Live Tour Video of M Underground Garage

BMW M Underground Garage Photos

M Studio
The final workshop took us back to the M Studio where we were briefed on 1M coupe, M3 GTS, X3 M-sport, 7-series individual, E92 M3 driver training car, E91 emergency vehicle, and 7-series high security vehicle. We got a first hand experience of one of the 7-series high security vehicle's weapons - a deafening alarm (we saw one guy jump a couple of feet literally), triggered accidentally by an attendee.

And finally, we know everyone has read through this to find out about the F10 M5. Here's the official thread about it.

[eVitO]

holy...

[dlbrooks18]

[jrlee53]

Wow, its like being a kid in Disneyland again without the scary mice and ducks.

[nusevad]

holy grail.

[slalomfever]

WOW! nice collection...I dont think I saw an M5 wagon though (E70/73 style)

[///My5UV]

M8... WANT!

[slalomfever]

WOW! nice collection!

[Matski]

I actually don't care about the new M5 now at.. this just made my year...

.. finally I get a proper answer to what the red UrRoadster was! http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthr...hlight=unknown

[termigni]

Mother of g...

[gaifaun]

holy shit! this is THE M collection. The E30 pickup surprised me, so they did do something like this before...

[NL-J]

Wow! Thanks for sharing!

[Ryan@IND]

That garage is worthy of a hybrid emoticon consisting of + +

[ManAndMachine]

Incredible cars,thanks for the insight

[dmboone25]

wow...look at all those choices...now that's a garage!

[yakev724]

Just found my new dream job.

[bpsu07]

Wow...you already know what they do at night when everyone is sleeping.

I'm just picturing the Disney movie "Cars"

I mean track is right around the corner right?

[jbtco]

Originally Posted by gaifaun

holy shit! this is THE M collection. The E30 pickup surprised me, so they did do something like this before...

I seem to recall seeing some years ago that it was put together by trainees as a runaround in the plant.

[uter]

Nice. I don't recall seeing the E46 M3 touring concept before. That back end is different than a production "regular" E46 touring.

[Matski]

Hubba hubba...

although,... no E46 M3 GTR Steet Version?

.. and no E91 M3... SCOTT are you telling me BMW haven't built one yet??? I think they have... and if they have why not show it here... because maybe it's still on the table for production..? (Wishful thinking maybe?)

[EuroCarsOnline]

Incredible display of M Power and tradition. Thanks for sharing.

Regards,
David

[Nate@IND]

Great post! I have always loved that V12 X5