BMW 1M Coupé previewed at US Oktoberfest show

Earlier in the month we speculated the new BMW 1M Coupé might be revealed at the Oktoberfest show which was held in Wisconsin over the weekend. Well, we kind of got it right. The car was indeed on show at the Road America course, but all that was seen was the front left quarter panel as shown above.

However, even though the car was mostly under wraps this still revealed a few design elements of the bodykit that is wrapped around the newest and smallest M machine. Images sourced from BimmerFile show that there looks to be quite a large vent in the side panel, in between the front wheel and the door. At the rear of the car quad exhausts are clearly on view, but again, through the car cover you can get a glimpse of the rear valance and the unique styling that is likely to be apparent when the car has its full reveal (Paris Motor Show would now appear the most likely event for this).

The colour revealed on the car above is called Valencia Orange and will be the signature colour of the 1M Coupé. The wheels are 19″ in size and have been sourced from the M3 Competition Package. The front air intakes are very aggressive and could possibly have intercoolers behind them to assist the N54-based six cylinder engine.

Perhaps the other big news is that the 1M Coupé may be available with a manual transmission only. Costs of adapting BMW’s trick DCT to a car with a limited production run are believed to be behind that decision.

BmiierFile has been track side during the Oktoberfest event and they have a lot of information as a result. There’s also the promise of some exclusive details on the 1M’s engine in the next 24 hours or so. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime you can check two videos of the partial reveal of the 1M Coupé, one is the slick marketing piece direct from BMW, the other was filmed on location at Oktoberfest.

[Source: BimmerFile]