2010 BMW M1 supercar designed in Spain?

By Steane Klose

THERE I was packing my swag, grateful for the little shade provided by the Coolibah tree on the edge of the Billabong when my thoughts turned to BMW’s latest concept car. Probably not destined to be the subject of ADL scrutiny there is however an interesting story for which it provided the inspiration.

BMW’s original M1 supercar turns 30 this year and to celebrate the folks from Bavarian Motor Werks revealed their aptly named Hommage concept (pictured above) – clearly a modern day M1 in the making. It caused a stir to say the least, with obvious retro M1 cues and plenty of comic book styling – many applauded but not everyone appreciated the bold styling and crab-like face.

The official unveiling of most concept cars is often followed by speculation concerning the likelihood of a production version. In the case of the Hommage speculation was rife and the stage was unwittingly set for a very talented CGI artist to boost his profile.

The image you see above found its way onto the auto blogosphere around a week ago and was immediately snaffled by most of the major sites, with headlines touting the ‘return of the M1’ or ‘M1 production model spotted’, usually followed by a ?. Most sites admitted that they were not 100 percent certain the image was real but it was real enough for them not to declare it a fake either. Instead they chose the safe middle ground, where not making a decision meant they couldn’t get it wrong – they were smart to do so.

Based on the current M3 Coupe it is indeed a fake and the work of one very talented Spanish CGI artist going by the name of ‘Hoss’. While I have no idea how the nuts and bolts of graphic manipulation like this work, I have undertaken a little research to see just where Hoss started on his road to a production M1 that had some big name sites scratching their heads.

Take one E92 M3 BMW Coupe.

Add some Alfa Romeo Brera headlights and some curvaceous new panel work.

Those Mazda Kabura Concept wheels look sweet!

Find a suitably mysterious looking background – hard to beat an old hanger even one with a Ford GT in the way.

Blend all ingredients gently in a bowl.

And now for the pièce de résistance, Hoss’s fake M1 for all intents and purposes garnered more blogosphere approval than BMW’s Hommage – much more.