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BMW would ‘love to build a supercar’

Could a successor to the legendary M1 be coming? The team wants to make it happen.


Despite shutting down the idea of a BMW dual-cab, Klaus Frolich, board member for BMW Development, wasn't so quick to rule out a supercar or hypercar – certainly not if he can exert his influence on the bean counters, anyway.

Frolich smiled when posed the question by Australian journalists, with the suggestion influenced by the Mercedes-AMG One hybrid hypercar. Would BMW consider entering a segment in which it's never previously shown interest?

"That's a hard question for me, because I am a car guy," Frolich said.

"Personally, once in my life, I would like to make a supercar. I am very looking forward and positive, and I have not given up."

While historically, and currently in the case of Lamborghini, there's life in the naturally-aspirated engine, the technological shift to hybrid power in the higher reaches of performance cars might make it easier for BMW to enter that sphere.

"I don’t think supercars into the 2020s will be V8s and V10s," Frolich said. "Put an internal combustion engine at the rear, and an e-motor at the front axle, and they can deliver stunning performance."

BMW has shown, with the i8 specifically, it understands the way this technology can work to deliver sports car performance from a smaller, more compact, and more efficient engineering package.

We hear lots of talk about 'power units' in Formula One, and that will trickle down to road cars sooner rather than later. As Mercedes-Benz has done with the Project One, F1 technology can certainly work reliably for the road too.

"I have a wonderful carbon-fibre chassis for a sports car in my portfolio, and currently it is used in an i8," Frolich said.

"I would like to use something like that with much more performance, then it will be very soon in the 600hp region and it will not have a weight of two tonnes."

As always though, the subject of money and market size dictates these decisions internally.

"This market segment is so small, but there is always discussion," Frolics said. "Yes a supercar is my personal wish, but I have to persuade my CFO! The i8 chassis is so robust and so lightweight, I would like to use it for a vehicle with more performance."

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Trent Nikolic

Trent Nikolic has been road testing and writing about cars for almost 20 years. He’s been at CarAdvice/Drive since 2014 and has been a motoring editor at the NRMA, Overlander 4WD Magazine, Hot4s and Auto Salon Magazine.

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