Does M Need to Make a Supercar? Interview with Matt Russell, BMWNA M Product Manager

Egmcartech.com featured a very interesting interview with Matt Russell, BMW of North America’s M-Division Product Manager. When questioned about M Division’s intentions of building an M supercar, he gives a lot of interesting information including the lack of need to make a supercar. Here is his answer to the supercar question:

A lot of people come to me and ask, does M need a supercar? We’ve had the choice to do something like that that when we were planning the 1-Series M Coupe. Amongst its development, we all pondered: do we do a supercar as in a mid-engined wedge, or some super high-priced front-engined wedge? We’ve discussed these possibilities. But ultimately, we didn’t feel the need to make a very exclusive high-end supercar and we still don’t. I already firmly believe that we produce supercars, except that they’re two in one: an executive car with supercar performance. They are the essence of BMW M-Cars.

The new M5 is undoubtedly a supercar from the driver’s seat. It can accelerate with a Lamborghini if not faster in some cases, it will brake with almost anything out there, and again, we like to build two cars in one: this is what M does. Nobody offers that perfect combination of a driver’s car and an executive car that you can use everyday. So technically, we already build supercars.

When questioned about M building an Audi R8, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG or Lexus LFA competitor, Russell said:

I look at those cars in two different ways: cosmetically and at a performance stand point. Sure Lexus, Audi, Mercedes and Porsche all created supercars with a great deal of sex appeal. But I see our M cars as sexy too. Performance wise, they’re not doing anything that we haven’t already done in a two-door sports coupe or four-door sports sedan, thus there’s no huge performance breakthrough on those cars that we can’t create or sell at a lower price point. All of that said, we don’t think the BMW M buyer needs a super exclusive and super expensive car because of what they get from our current M-Cars. Most buyers already have second cars that have more of an emphasis on performance and BMW M shows the world how versatile and livable a supercar can be. BMW M cars are for those buyers who don’t want to make that sacrifice in performance for practicality.

Source: www.egmcartech.com

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