BMW had three goals for the M1 Homage project. The first was to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the M1 \u2013 which to this day still remains the only mid-engined car produced by the Bavarian marque \u2013 in the same celebratory vein that spawned the Mille Miglia concept in 2006 and, twelve years ago, the ACV30 concept marking thirty years since a Mini won the Monte Carlo rally. The second was to rekindle the old tradition that spurred so many participants of the Villa d\u2019Este Concours d\u2019Elegance in the past to create bespoke cars for the occasion (the M1 Homage was presented at Villa d\u2019Este this April). The third was to offer a glimpse of the style of a hypothetical M1 of the future \u2013 although there are no production plans for the Homage for the time being \u2013 and to make a lasting mark. \u201cEach generation of designers\u201d, says Adrian van Hooydonk, \u201cmust contribute to the image of the brand, as Giorgetto Giugiaro did thirty years ago with the M1. This, rather, encapsulates BMW design language today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Hooydonk, chief designer for BMW, was assigned the challenging project by the director of design for the marque Chris Bangle. The brief was to combine the proportions and graphic themes of the M1, of which approximately 500 examples were built, with the new formal language and surface treatment applied by BMW today.<\/p>\n
Elements from the original reinterpreted by van Hooydonk include the black slit in the nose, which now also houses LED lights, the proportions of the flanks (the M1 and the Miura were the only mid-engined cars without a forward shifted glasshouse), the graphics of the quarterlights, which taper away towards the rear, the louvres on the rear window and, at the tail, the twin BMW badges which \u2013 van Hooydonk reminds us \u2013 had already appeared on the 1972 Turbo concept designed by Paul Bracq.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s new about the car? \u201cThe aerodynamics of the front, giving the car a very low Cd, and the twin splitters under the grille creating an airflow that cancels out turbulence, improves the car\u2019s behaviour and reduces fuel…<\/p>\n
The article continues in Auto & Design no. 171<\/strong><\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>[images picture_size=”fixed” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2008200801_BMW_M1_Homage-1-300×129.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2008200802_BMW_M1_Homage–300×129.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2008200803_BMW_M1_Homage–300×129.jpg” alt=””][\/images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [images picture_size=”fixed” hover_type=”none” autoplay=”no” columns=”5″ column_spacing=”13″ scroll_items=”” show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”yes” class=”” id=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2008200801_BMW_M1_Homage-1-300×129.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2008200802_BMW_M1_Homage–300×129.jpg” alt=””][image link=”” linktarget=”_self” image=”http:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/2008200803_BMW_M1_Homage–300×129.jpg” alt=””][\/images]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 16:21:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autodesignmagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}