View Single Post
      02-21-2013, 06:38 PM   #130
BatManWins
Private
BatManWins's Avatar
United_States
7
Rep
76
Posts

Drives: Le Mans Blue X1 35i M
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: South Florida

iTrader: (0)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_M


M-Cars vs. M-badged cars

There are several BMW models which BMW Motorsport made changes on, without them becoming M-Cars. This succession of styling (M-tech I, M-tech II) and performance cues came from BMW Motorsports; e.g. BMW 530i M packet or 325i M packet etc.

Vehicles which have been modified by BMW Motorsport, but are not full M Cars, may feature "M" badges, whilst full M Cars will have "M" badges with the model number (e.g. "M3" or "M5"). Two exceptions would be the M Roadster and M Coupe models, both Z3, Z4 and 1-series variants, which only have an "M" badge with no number displayed on the trunk. These cars are full M Cars.

In recent years, there have been M-badged accessories available on non-M cars, usually as factory options or as part of the "M Sport" package (which is usually more expensive than the regular Sport package). Examples of this include the E39 and E60 5 series sedans had optional aerodynamic packages strongly influenced by M5 styling (for example bumpers with larger intakes). It is not unusual to see "standard" BMW's with "M" badges or ribbons accenting the design. The plain motorsports Badge simply stands for M-tech upgrades on the car, suspension, brakes, looks or any other mod that has been developed by the ///M division. So therefore the ///M badge should not under any circumstances be compared to the ///M+number badge (except the Z-cars, as mentioned), as they are not fully fledged M-cars, just M-equipped. BMW has for example, had these ///M options on the regular cars since the late 1970s, which explains why some cars that carry these ///M-badges from factory.

An example of M-badged vehicles in recent times includes the E60 BMW 550i and E63 BMW 650i; while the regular BMW 5 Series and 6 Series only had a choice of manual or automatic transmissions, but the M Sport package had an optional Sequential Manual Gearbox (SMG) until after the 2007 model year, a gearbox shared with the M5 and M6.[23]
__________________
2013 BMW X1 35i "M"....ordered on Jan 13 2013 / received on Feb 19 2013

Appreciate 0