While in Garching today, BMW M folks decided to treat the journalists with a special trip to
the secret underground garage where BMW M stores many of their on-offs and experimental
vehicles
that never made into production.
Among the “usual” M3s, M5s and the new X5M/X6M, there is an impressive lineup of M products
that any enthusiast would love to have in their garage. Let’s recap some of the vehicles
we have seen today:
E28 M5 Sedan, E34 M5 Convertible,
E36 M3 Compact,
E36 M3 GTR, E39 M5 Touring,
E46 M3 Touring, Ur-Roadster and many others
My favourite
Resized to 64% (was 1600 x 1065) - Click image to enlarge
Buried deep in the secret garage at BMW M in Garching lays an exciting M3 that never saw daylight. The E46 BMW M3 Touring is an on-off
car built by BMW that due to homologation issues and profitability has never made it into production.
The E46 BMW M3 Touring is powered by a naturally aspirated six-cylinder engine with a capacity of 3246 cc that produces 343 horsepower and runs to 62 mph (100 km/h) in just over 5 seconds.
Many enthusiasts would have enjoyed an M3 Touring based of the very popular E46 platform and even 10-12 years later, the E46 M3 Touring still looks fresh and eager to conquer the roads. The perfect combination between a super sporty car and a family oriented Touring.
Also....
BMW X5 LeMans
Another hidden gem in the garages at BMW M facility in Garching was a BMW X5 LeMans. The one-off model was built by BMW to celebrate their 1999 victory at Le Mans using the 6.0 V12 in the LMR BMW and test the X5′s limits.
BMW X5 Le Mans is using an engine from the LMR prototype car – a V12 derived from the same S70 block as the McLaren F1′s V12.
An article written by our own Andrew Murphy back in 2008 says that aside from the V12 putting out around 700 horsepower, this behemoth came with a 6-speed manual, 20 inch performance wheels and a significantly lowered suspension.
If that’s not enough for you, it’s reported that Hans Stuck – BMW’s famed touring car and
test driver hustled this car around the Nurburgring in under 7 minutes and 50 seconds – that’s only 25 seconds slower than a Nissan GT-R or Porsche 997 GT2 –
and that was eight years ago!
The BMW X5 Lemans goes from 0 to 100km/h in 4.7 seconds, and it is “limited” at 311km/h.
A massive 720Nm of torque at 5,000rpm is sent trashing through the 20 inch wheels
with 275/40 profile tyres at the front and 315/35 profile tires at the rear.
The weight balance is very slightly front-biased at ratio of 51 to 49, but still perfect
for a racing car.
To maintain a relatively low weight, carbon fiber has been applied throughout
the car and inside, the rear-bench has been removed.