BMW M1 Hommage

BMW's release called the study "an embodiment of the competence, creativity and potential of the BMW Group Design team", and listed what it borrowed. From the M1 came the contrast of black and orange, in a paint called Liquid Orange made for the car; the air vents in the bonnet (hood); the louvres over the rear window; the black line dividing the roof from the rear of the body; and the two roundels at the tail, one at each corner above the lamps. At the front a small, squat kidney grille sat between black recessed surfaces, and the headlamps were a new version of the M1's pop-up lamps, hidden until switched on. It kept BMW's own proportions, BMW said, with a long engine compartment and the "Hofmeister" kink at the rear of the side windows, in place of the strong wedge of other mid-engined cars, and its outside dimensions were close to the M1's, with a longer wheelbase for a bigger cabin. Of the twin roundels BMW made a larger claim:

The Turbo is in it too. BMW called the Hommage a study "in the tradition of a BMW Turbo", and reminded readers that the Turbo and the M1 had both begun as "'merely' a design study or small series"; the Turbo, in the picture, has two roundels on its tail as well. The release names no designer of the Hommage itself. It quotes BMW's design directors, Christopher E. Bangle and Adrian van Hooydonk, and Klaus Draeger, the board member for development, for whom "heritage is always also a living heritage". Bangle set the study "In the spirit of Giugiaro and Bracq".⁠source 1

That July BMW ran Procars at Hockenheim, during the German Grand Prix meeting, for the M1's anniversary, and Jochen Neerpasch, who had begun the M1 as head of BMW Motorsport, gave Motor Sport his view of the new study:

Neerpasch, who had left BMW before the M1's last road cars were built, also drove Andy Warhol's M1 at the meeting, with Frank Stella beside him.

Dated photographs place the Hommage at the Melbourne International Motor Show in February 2009; at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July 2011, on the same stand as the 1972 Turbo; at Rétromobile in Paris in February 2013; in the BMW Museum in August 2014; and at the Festival automobile international in Paris in January 2015.

In May 2016, at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, BMW brought its Hommage cars together for the first time in an exhibition at Villa Erba, each beside the car that had inspired it.⁠source 4​source 5​source 6​source 7​source 8

The i8, a petrol-electric plug-in hybrid sports car, was the next BMW after the M1 to be built for sale with its engine in the middle. Series production of customer cars began at BMW's Leipzig plant in April 2014, and the first went to customers in June, in the main European markets. Motor Sport's buying guide of 2021 calls it BMW's other mid-engined sports car, and holds that the M1's design was where its concept began. BMW's own designers named it in 2019, with the Turbo, as an inspiration for their next study.⁠source 9​source 2​source 10

On 25 June 2019, at BMW Welt in Munich, BMW unveiled the Vision M NEXT, a study it described as a first look at an electrified future for its M cars. Dated photographs place the Vision M NEXT at Chantilly Arts & Elegance on 30 June 2019 and at the IAA in Frankfurt that September. "The BMW Vision M NEXT provides a glimpse into the future of sporty driving," said Adrian van Hooydonk, by then head of BMW Group Design, and Domagoj Dukec, BMW's vice president of design, called it "a progressive hybrid sports car that makes a very clear and confident statement". BMW presented it as the "BOOST" study beside the Vision iNEXT's "EASE", with a plug-in hybrid drive for which it claimed 441 kW (600 hp) and 0–100 km/h in 3 seconds. It named the Turbo and the i8 as the study's inspiration, for its low wedge, its gullwing doors and its colours, matt-neon Thrilling Orange against Cast Silver metallic. In its release BMW credited one detail to the M1: "The design of the rear window takes its cue from the BMW M1", BMW wrote, and the window's three louvres are made of glass.⁠source 2​source 7

In December 2024 BMW showed an M1 rebuilt as a one-off by Ronnie Fieg, founder of Kith, the New York lifestyle label. BMW named it "The 1981 BMW M1 E26 by Ronnie Fieg" and described a car reconstructed in depth, painted Techno Violet (paint code 299), with a combined M and Kith emblem on the tail and Kith's lettering embossed inside. It was shown first at Art Basel Miami Beach, on 6–8 December 2024, beside BMW's XM Kith Concept. BMW said the XM's side strips, the twin emblems on its tail and the louvres over its rear lamps were inspired by the M1. BMW's release does not say which M1 was rebuilt.⁠source 3