BMW M1, M3, M5.. The M means???

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Thu 16 Oct 2003 20:55
BMW M1, M3, M5.. The M means??? - BaseRSXmanual
I read that M1 stands for "mid-engine car, first type". But that was BMW's only mid-engine production car. Now they say the M in M3 and M5 stands for "motorsport". What is the deal? Did they just change what it means after the M1 because they didn't want to make anymore mid-engine cars?
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Thu 16 Oct 2003 22:07
BMW M1, M3, M5.. The M means??? - Honestjohn
As far as I know, "Motorsport".

HJ
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Thu 16 Oct 2003 22:14
BMW M1, M3, M5.. The M means??? - Ivor E Tower
M for Motorsport; M1 was rear engined not mid-engined (I built a model of one as raced by the F1 drivers of the day, and there's no rear boot space).
1 may have been for the first car that BMW's motorsport division built.
Remember the ads for Mobil 1 oil? F1, M1, same one?
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Thu 16 Oct 2003 23:17
BMW M1, M3, M5.. The M means??? - BaseRSXmanual
No the M1 is defiantly considered a ?mid-engine? not a ?rear-engine?. BMW only made the engine for the M1 the rest of the car was built and made by Lamborghini in Italy. I just read a long article on the M1. They only made 450. And that article says the M1 stands for mid-engine, 1st series.
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Thu 16 Oct 2003 23:51
BMW M1, M3, M5.. The M means??? - Chad.R
Not 100% sure about the M1's naming convention but the M in M3,M5,M6 et al certainly stands for Motorsport as in BMW Motorsport Division.

It may well be that when they named the M1 they liked the sound of it that they hijacked the naming convention for Series cars. I'll have to dig out the old BMW magazines now, I'm sure I've got several articles on the M1 - that's my Sunday afternoon taken care of :-)

Chad.
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Sat 18 Oct 2003 08:24
BMW M1, M3, M5.. The M means??? - Guy Lacey aka S3 Geek
I always thought it stood for "Muppet".
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Sat 18 Oct 2003 08:46
BMW M1, M3, M5.. The M means??? - LongDriver {P}
...or Mental

or Moron

or Middle Lane
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Sat 18 Oct 2003 21:27
BMW M1, M3, M5.. The M means??? - Cyrill666 {P}
Mental, Menace or Madness perhaps? How about Manhood? However, I think Muppet about sums it up - well it does round here anyway!

Cheers,
Cyrill666


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