For obvious reasons it couldn’t have been called the M1. That name belongs to the seminal mid-engined coupé of 1978, though even that wasn’t M’s first product. The BMW Motorsport story goes back to the delectable 3.0 CSL that was a six-time winner of the European Touring Car Championship between 1973 and 1979, but the first BMW to wear an M badge was actually a somewhat obscure South African-market saloon racer, the 530 MLE of 1976.
So, no matter that the M is a suffix rather than a prefix, the clumsily titled BMW 1-series M Coupé (we’ll call it the 1M) is a proper M-car. Or is it? You see, many were those at the time who felt that any BMW worthy of that haloed letter – before or after the series number – really ought to be naturally aspirated. After all, every M-car before then had been. But the 1M was turbocharged. Twin-turbocharged, in fact. Is that a problem? Or was it an opportunity? We’re here to find out.
There were other doubters, too. Not only was that engine turbocharged, it was also pinched from another BMW, namely the Z4: M-cars traditionally had a bespoke, handbuilt engine, not one opportunistically plucked from the production
