Andreas Bovensiepen put it plainly: their ethos is “no compromise,” and he didn’t believe that was compatible with the electric age. BMW disagreed, bought the brand, and now has Maximilian Missoni — formerly design chief at Polestar, now BMW’s Head of Design for Upper Mid-Size, Luxury Class, and ALPINA — figuring out what an electrified ALPINA actually looks like.

We sat down with Missoni at a roundtable at the 2026 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este (full interview coming soon), where BMW had just pulled the covers off the Vision BMW ALPINA — a one-of-one V8-powered grand tourer. The electrification question came up directly. His answer: “I would say the same rule applies as we have for BMW as a brand, so technology openness, so even ALPINA will offer both powertrain options.”

When pressed further: “The customers will have a choice out of the portfolio of powertrains of the respective BMW vehicles, and then they will get the ALPINA treatment and be maxed out in terms of power and performance and comfort and luxury, but it’s the same offer — that’s the beauty of being within the group.”

First Production Series BMW ALPINA Arrives Next Year

The first production BMW ALPINA model arrives in 2027, based on the 7 Series. Internally coded as the G72 rather than the G70, according to our sources, it’s expected in more than one variant — a departure from the single B7 that ALPINA has historically offered. Whether the B7 name comes back at all is unclear. Suffixes like 80 and 100 have been floated for other planned ALPINA models, though nothing is confirmed for the sedan specifically.

For the launch car, there’s no ambiguity on powertrain: ALPINA boss Oliver Viellechner told Top Gear the V8 is a core pillar of the offering — “a pure V8 without a plug.” An EV follows later. Viellechner was direct about why: “We believe we will need non-combustion variants going forward. It will not be so relevant at the beginning, but we will also find it difficult to launch a combustion-only brand these days. If you look to markets like China, for example, I could not see that as the right strategy.”

The Bovensiepens reached the same conclusion. The difference is they reached it with no way out. BMW ALPINA gets to actually build the cars.

First published by https://www.bmwblog.com

Beyond the facelifts, Hampf confirmed work has started on the next full generation of MINIs, due in the early 2030s. He also flagged an off-road-focused variant of an existing model. “We’ve witnessed the trend of the outdoor lifestyle and driving out of the city to spend some days in nature,” he said. The Countryman is the only MINI currently offered with four-wheel drive, and its ride height makes it the obvious candidate.

On JCW, Hampf said there is “air to the top” of the performance range and drew a comparison with the gap between BMW’s M and M Competition cars, suggesting a more extreme variant is in development. This is not expected to be a revival of the track-focused GP.

Hampf pointed to the Deus Ex Machina collaboration — The Skeg and The Machina concepts, with bigger tyres and larger spoilers — as “one experiment” in that direction, and suggested toned-down production versions are possible given the “positive response” the concepts received.

JCW sales reached 25,630 units last year, a 59.5% increase over 2024, driven by strong results in the UK, Japan, and Australia. [Source: Autocar]

First published by https://www.bmwblog.com

Revealed 15 Years Ago

The concept first appeared at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show. It was tiny — just over 3.4 meters, close to the dimensions of the original 1959 Issigonis Mini — and genuinely good looking. Enthusiasts loved it but MINI didn’t build it. According to several insiders, the business case wasn’t there and the brand was heading in the opposite direction: the Countryman arrived in 2010, the Paceman in 2012, the Clubman grew.

Now the brand is raising the idea again, and the problem Hampf describes is the same one every small car faces in 2026. You can’t just draw a tiny hatch and call it done. Pedestrian safety regulations require physical crumple zones and sensor arrays that eat into overhangs. ADAS features — lane assist, radar-based adaptive cruise, emergency braking — need somewhere to live. The current MINI Cooper isn’t small either; the J01 electric Cooper is nearly four meters long. Packaging a competitive feature set into something 40 centimeters shorter than that is a challenge from all angles, design and engineering included.

Hampf was honest about that. “Everything else around the MINI has grown,” he said. “There is so much technology in these cars compared to the classic Mini, or the Rocketman [concept]. So, certainly we’re studying these volumes and we’re trying to see what [MINI] can get into such a small 3.6-metre car. It’s not easy.” He didn’t share a timeline, a platform, or a powertrain. He said it’s not easy and moved on.

If a production Rocketman does happen, it would be interesting to see whether MINI will pick the EV or ICE front-wheel drive platform. There is also a better option in my opinion: build the Rocketman on BMW’s Neue Klasse architecture and give it a rear-wheel drive bias. That might bother some MINI purists, but it will certainly deliver better driving dynamics.

It’s Still A Long Shot Because…

The automotive market is currently searching for bigger and more practical cars. The Countryman proves that as well being one of MINI’s most popular models across the globe. A Rocketman would require a new platform or a heavily modified version of an existing one, plus the kind of safety engineering work Hampf described. That takes time so no launch before 2029 is a reasonable expectation, and 2030 or later would not be surprising.

For now, it still remains a dream but it’s an open secret by now that the BMW Group brands are all exploring this new trend of rugged, off-road type of vehicles.

[Source: AutoExpress]

First published by https://www.bmwblog.com

At the 2026 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este last week, BMW pulled the wraps off its ALPINA Vision Car — a long, low grand tourer built on a G16 8 Series Gran Coupe platform, showing a design language that isn’t on any current BMW, and raises more questions than it answers about where this brand is actually headed. We sat with van Hooydonk in a small group session on the shores of Lake Como after the car’s debut and asked most of them.

The Most Significant Concept Of His Career

When someone asked whether this was the most important concept van Hooydonk had presented at Villa d’Este, he didn’t hedge.

“I would say that yes, because we have not many brands — we have Mini, Rolls-Royce, BMW Motorrad, and BMW. I’ve been with the company for quite a while. I wasn’t there when BMW was founded, to be honest, but I was there when we acquired Mini and Rolls-Royce, so I know how BMW goes about bringing a new brand into the fold.”

The process, as he describes it, is the same every time: study the history hard, identify what matters, keep it, and build from there. What makes this moment different from prior Villa d’Este concepts is that BMW can no longer claim these are just design exercises. They’ve been showing concept cars here for over a decade, and some of them — Skytop, Speedtop — became production cars.

Where The Design Actually Came From

The sharknose front is the first thing that hits you. One journalist compared it to a “David Cameron-esque” sharpness — the kind of acute, almost aggressive point that disappeared from German grand tourers sometime around the mid-2000s. Van Hooydonk said the direct reference is the ALPINA B7 Turbo Coupe, the E24 6 Series with the extreme nose and deep plan view.

“This one takes it even further,” he said. “It’s even more acute, even more extreme, more sculptural, more three-dimensional.”

The rear was harder. BMW’s recent cars have gone either vertical or rearward-leaning at the top. Neither felt right for ALPINA. The solution came from the same source car: the E24 6 Series also has a slanted rear at this angle. That historical precedent gave the team permission to go there, and then they mirrored the plan shape front-to-back to give the car visual coherence.

The Quiet Luxury Position

When asked how much the new ALPINA production cars would visually differ from the BMW donor car underneath them, van Hooydonk was honest about the answer: not much, and on purpose.

“An ALPINA is for connoisseurs, meaning people that love driving, they like driving fast, but they don’t want to communicate to the outside world that they bought a race car. That would be an M customer. And therefore we thought that is the position, that is the opportunity for ALPINA.”

He contrasted this directly with where M has gone — louder, brighter colors, more visible aero. ALPINA is going the other way. If a customer wants zero exterior distinction and just a tasteful color, that’s fully available.

But for those who do want the signals, they’re defined and on display in the concept: the “ALPINA” wordmark in the lower air dam, amber daytime running lights that are always present and not optional, 20-spoke wheels with spokes extended all the way to the rim edge rather than set inward as the old ALPINA wheels were, oval exhaust tips, and body-side striping that is now painted rather than applied as a sticker.

The wheel design change drew a direct question — would there still be a traditional ALPINA wheel with the deeper barrel? The answer was no. “We prefer to actually make the wheel look even bigger by extending the spoke all the way to the outside of the rim. I know ALPINA had them always set in, but that doesn’t look as big, and now with different production methods we can extend the length of the spoke. And 22 inches, 23 inches — also not so bad.”

What The Bovensiepen Relationship Actually Looked Like

One of the more interesting threads in the conversation was about what ALPINA’s relationship with BMW looked like before the 2022 acquisition — and why the merger was, in van Hooydonk’s telling, natural for both sides.

“Every time we designed a new BMW, Mr. Bovensiepen Senior, when he was still alive, would come in, look at the car, and then he would go back and think about what he could do to it. But there was always this strive for good coexistence, because he was very smart in the sense that he always looked at BMW’s product portfolio including M and decided always to make an offer that M or BMW didn’t already have.”

The Z8 example is the one he chose: BMW offered the Z8 as a manual only. Bovensiepen offered it as an automatic, which was almost the philosophical opposite of what BMW was doing at the time. The old ALPINA was built on finding what fell through the cracks.

The reason the family eventually sold is, per van Hooydonk, straightforward: modern cars have become too electronically complex to tune the way ALPINA was built to tune them. Changing a camshaft and carburetor is one thing. Software-controlled suspension and drivetrain systems require OEM resources. “Their business was founded on tuning engines in the times that you could do a different camshaft and different carburetors,” he said. “So it was for them, I think, also a natural way of things to have this merge.”

Based On The 8 Series Gran Coupe

The vision car sits on a G16 8 Series Gran Coupe platform. That’s why it has the wheelbase it does and why it seats four properly. Someone asked whether it was 7 Series — it’s not — and then the obvious follow-up landed: the 8 Series has been discontinued, so what does the production version sit on? “We don’t know,” van Hooydonk said. “The 8 Series has run out. If we were to do it, we have to start from scratch and think hard.”

The first production ALPINAs will be 7 Series-based and arrive next year. But the longer play — which van Hooydonk acknowledged and didn’t close the door on — is whether ALPINA ever gets a platform of its own, not derived from a current BMW product. The vision car was deliberately built on something that doesn’t exist in showrooms precisely to make that point. “We want to set the brand on its own course within the BMW Group,” he said, “like M, of course, is closely affiliated to BMW — but you know how much freedom they get inside our company.”

No Internal Resistance

One journalist pressed on whether there was resistance inside BMW to letting ALPINA stray too far from the BMW DNA. The answer was a flat no. “BMW thought long and hard about acquiring ALPINA. We don’t buy brands every day. ALPINA was always based on BMWs, first just as tuning kits, then as a company with manufacturer status and their own chassis numbers. Everybody is convinced that’s how you have to treat it. You have to give it a certain autonomy to prosper.”

The comparison to M isn’t incidental — it’s the operating model. M has a dedicated design team, its own suspension and drivetrain philosophy, and genuine internal independence. Van Hooydonk said ALPINA now has the same: its own dedicated design team working in parallel, not as a sub-department of BMW design.

V8, 300 km/h

When someone pointed out that one thing the static concept couldn’t convey was the exhaust note — ALPINAs have always sounded different from BMWs — van Hooydonk confirmed the car at the event is running a V8, and that V8s will be part of the ALPINA lineup. “The cars will be fast. ALPINAs have always been faster than BMWs. We’re thinking 300 kilometers an hour, something like that. But you won’t see it so much.”

The suspension is tuned for both speed and long-distance comfort. The profile being described is a genuine grand tourer — travel fast, travel far, arrive not exhausted. The engineers are still working on the exhaust character specifically. Van Hooydonk joked, mildly, that if he were better with numbers he’d have taken a different career path. The horsepower figures aren’t being released yet, but it’s not hard to figure out what the S68 4.4 liter TwinTurbo can do.

Starting At The Top, Expanding Carefully

Existing ALPINA loyalists who want a B3 or B5 equivalent will wait. BMW is starting the new chapter at the top of the range and moving down slowly, deliberately — and Van Hooydonk was direct about why. “When you try to do a new chapter on an existing brand, you can’t turn 10 pages at once. You have to take one by one. We’re not going to flood the market with ALPINA offerings in all sizes and all segments.”

The stated goal is natural demand: produce slightly fewer cars than the market wants, let scarcity do the positioning work, and build the customer base from the top down. The first priority was making sure existing customers weren’t alienated — BMW has been running private dinners where they showed individual elements (a wheel, a color swatch, the new logo) without a car present, specifically to gauge and manage the reaction before anything went public.

That concierge relationship is staying. BMW is also redesigning the retail environments — dedicated spaces inside dealerships where ALPINA customers can sit with materials, feel the upholstery options, and configure their car in person. Whether there will be a named bespoke program analogous to Mulliner at Bentley or BMW’s own Individual designation is still undecided. The Comfort Plus drive mode, one of the old ALPINA exclusives, will remain ALPINA-exclusive.

Traditional ALPINA green and blue are staying in development. If someone wants a period-correct color, they can have it exactly. New curated combinations will also be available for customers who want something that reads as Alpina but not necessarily vintage ALPINA. BMW is likely to release more information about the future of the ALPINA brand in the near future, especially as we get close to the first units rolling down the street.

First published by https://www.bmwblog.com

In the meantime, Instagram is a useful platform for BMW to generate enthusiasm around a performance car that will undoubtedly make history. After all, the first full-fat M model without a combustion engine is a big deal. It is inching closer, and in the meantime, a key design detail has been revealed in a short social media clip.

A still-disguised prototype led an M3 pack over the weekend ahead of the Nürburgring 24 Hours. For the first time, BMW brought together all six generations of the M3, plus the upcoming electric sports sedan. Although the “ZA0” remained cloaked in camouflage, it did shed some of its disguise to reveal yellow daytime running lights.

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The Electric M3 ZA0’s Lights Are Hiding In Plain Sight

The teaser video published by BMW M boss Frank van Meel aligns with a shadowy image he shared a few days earlier, one we admittedly missed. The message is clear: the electric M3’s front light signature will draw inspiration from the 2026 M Hybrid V8. The similarities between the future road-going sedan and the endurance racer are easy to spot. Both feature double yellow lines and a pair of square white dots.

Of course, this is not the first time BMW has used yellow daytime running lights on road cars. Limited-run special editions with CS and CSL badging have featured them for some time. In fact, just yesterday, the M3 CS Handschalter debuted in the United States and Canada with the same double-yellow-light motif.

Why yellow? It stems from racing, where yellow headlights reduce glare and eye fatigue at night. Additionally, yellow light is more visible in adverse weather conditions such as rain or fog. Bringing it to road cars is another way for BMW to demonstrate the transfer of technology from motorsport to production vehicles.

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The Six-Cylinder M3 G84 Is Likely To Use The Same Headlights

Expect the M3 G84, due in 2028 with an inline-six engine, to adopt a similar, if not identical, headlight setup. We’ve already seen prototypes of the gasoline-powered sports sedan running around the Nürburgring while looking almost identical to the electric Neue Klasse variant. The main differentiator will be the combustion model’s longer front end, needed to accommodate the twin-turbo 3.0-liter “S58.”

At the rear, the combustion-engine model will feature the signature quad-pipe setup, which BMW also plans to use for an M Performance version, the M350. Beyond these two key elements, the cars should look strikingly similar, despite riding on different platforms underneath.

The electric M3 will use the dedicated Neue Klasse architecture, while the six-cylinder model will continue on updated CLAR underpinnings.

First published by https://www.bmwblog.com

I don’t know whether to be grateful or suspicious. Grateful because BMW actually did it. The last-ever G80 is the most driver-focused M3 money can buy right now, and it has three pedals. Suspicious because the obvious next move — a G87 M2 CS Manual — seems like it should write itself at this point. There is no doubt they should build it because the case is not complicated.

What The M3 CS Handschalter Actually Is

Strip away the marketing and the M3 CS Handschalter is a surgical operation on a car BMW already knew how to make. The twin-turbo S58 stays at 473 horsepower and 406 lb-ft. What changes is everything around it. Carbon fiber-reinforced plastic exterior elements, forged wheels, titanium rear silencer, bucket seats, CFRP center console and interior trim.

The 75-pound weight reduction only hits if you tick the carbon-ceramic brake option. Those brakes alone account for 31.5 pounds of it. The other 42 come from everything else BMW shaved away. Skip the ceramics and it’s still a meaningfully lighter car. So there is still a lot you can do to make an exciting CS model.

The G87 M2 Is An Easier Version Of This Problem

The G87 M2 already has a six-speed manual. It already has rear-wheel drive only — there’s no xDrive variant to delete as a point of principle, so that’s even better. Everything BMW had to reconfigure around a lighter, simpler drivetrain in the M3 CS Handschalter, the M2 has been doing from the start.

The G87 is also running out of time, which changes the equation a bit. We’re already hearing that the next M3 generation, the G84, arrives in 2028 with xDrive only and no manual option. BMW has also confirmed the M3 ZA0 electric model is coming in 2027, which tells you where the whole lineup is going.

If the M2’s next generation follows the same trajectory — and the direction of travel is not subtle — then the G87 is the last M2 that will ever have three pedals. A CS edition built explicitly on that fact, offered worldwide rather than as a regional exclusive, is the kind of car collectors start bidding against each other for before the paint is even dry on the last one.

The F87 M2 CS already proved this. It was rare, focused, and recognized almost immediately as the car the generation should have been all along. Clean examples have only gone one direction in value since deliveries ended.

The Parts Bin Is Already Open

BMW doesn’t need to engineer anything new here. The M3 CS Handschalter hands them the full recipe. Carbon fiber body elements, forged lightweight wheels, titanium exhaust, bucket seats, CFRP interior trim, M4 CSL-sourced dampers, auxiliary springs, a lowered ride height, carbon-ceramic brakes as a paid option. Put that on the G87 and call it the M2 CS Handschalter.

The weight reduction would matter more on the M2 than it does on the M3 — the G87 is not a light car for its size, a fact that anyone who drove the F87 back-to-back with the G87 noticed immediately and has been mentioning at cars and coffee ever since. Getting 42 or more pounds out through the same measures BMW applied to the M3 CS, lighter wheels, trimmed interior, revised suspension geometry, would change how the car moves, not just what the spec sheet says.

Price it below $90,000 if possible. The M2 has always been the more accessible M car, and a CS version that wanders into M3 CS territory starts losing the plot. Keep it sharp, keep it priced for the people who actually track these things on weekends, and limit production enough that it doesn’t become a fleet special.

Make It Global, Not A North American Exclusive

The M3 CS Handschalter is North America only. That’s fine for a car positioned as the swansong of a generation in a market where three-pedal sedans still move. But an M2 CS Manual should go everywhere the G87 currently sells, which includes Europe, Australia, and markets in Asia where driver-focused, small-displacement sports cars have real purchase.

Limiting the last manual M2 to one region is exactly the kind of decision that makes complete sense internally and looks baffling from the outside five years later. BMW has the car. The formula is right in front of them. The M3 CS Handschalter already did the hard work of proving this kind of product can exist in 2026 without anyone losing their mind about it.

Build the M2 CS Manual. Build it for the world. Then let the G87 go out the right way.

First published by https://www.bmwblog.com

BMW is building the manual M3 CS “in very limited numbers.” While the exact production figure remains unknown, we do know Canada is getting only 40 cars. Pricing starts at $132,500 CAD before any options are added. Featured here, the Imola Red II paint costs extra, as does another Individual finish: Techno Violet Metallic. Isle of Man Green Metallic and Black Sapphire Metallic are the only no-cost options.

Much like the U.S.-spec M3 CS Handschalter, the Canadian version can be optionally equipped with carbon-ceramic brakes. Only with the upgraded setup does the car shed the full 34 kilograms (75 pounds) compared to the base M3. Every car will ride on these forged Style 927M wheels, finished in either black or gold bronze.

M3 G84 Coming In 2028

The final member of the G80 lineage enters production in July for both the U.S. and Canada. Early adopters will take delivery this fall. In the meantime, the public debut is expected to take place on Saturday, May 23, at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

It remains unclear whether BMW intends to give the M3 G80 a sendoff in Europe and other markets outside North America. With rumors suggesting the G84 will arrive in 2028 exclusively with an automatic transmission, we can all agree the three-pedal formula deserves a proper swan song worldwide.

Looking ahead, there will likely be a gap of more than a year between the G80 and G84. However, BMW won’t be without an M3 in its lineup for long, considering the electric ZA0 is scheduled to debut in 2027. It’s said to share the same name as the inline-six model, contrary to reports claiming it would be called the iM3 or something similar.

BMW M’s Future Looks Bright: Inline-Six, V8, And Electric

The ZA0 will open the floodgates for high-performance electric M models, but ICE loyalists shouldn’t worry. In addition to another inline-six M3, we’ve previously reported on a next-generation X5 with a V8 engine. Meanwhile, an M Performance 7 Series with eight cylinders is due next year, possibly as the M760.

Both the inline-six and V8 have been updated to comply with Euro 7 regulations, meaning M Performance and full-fat M models powered by combustion engines still have a future at BMW M.

First published by https://www.bmwblog.com

Bernd Körber, BMW’s head of product management, has been consistent on why the 1 Series can’t go away. Nearly 200,000 units sold globally last year. Big numbers in Italy, France, and southern Europe generally. “If you want to be a global player,” he told Autocar, “you have to take care of markets where the share of 1 Series is extremely high.” He also made the generational argument: younger buyers enter the brand here, or they don’t enter at all.

Two Platforms, Two Characters

The split platform story is the most important news here. The electric i1 gets the Gen6 architecture, which is rear-biased by design. The combustion-engined car stays on UKL2, which is natively front-wheel drive. So the F40’s front-drive criticism doesn’t go away for the ICE model — it just becomes irrelevant to the EV, which could offer rear-wheel drive as standard and all-wheel drive on higher-spec variants. The original 1 Series hatchback was rear-wheel drive, and that configuration is rumored to come back — just only on the battery-powered version.

For the electric i1, we expect a single rear-mounted motor as standard. A more powerful dual-motor all-wheel drive variant is also likely in the books.

Design and Interior

The 1 Series won’t be mistaken for an i3 sedan, according to reports. Instead, the quirky design of a 1 Series could return, even in the EV form. Expect to see a design language inspired by the Neue Klasse styling. Inside, the next-generation 1 Series gets the full Neue Klasse treatment regardless of powertrain — the 17.9-inch slanted central screen and 43.3-inch Panoramic iDrive unit in place of a conventional instrument cluster.

Production is rumored to start in late 2028. The BMW i2, expected as a Gran Coupe, follows shortly after. The current F40 runs through 2027 or early 2028. [Top Rendering: instagram.com/theottle]

First published by https://www.bmwblog.com

We were there with Scott Stirling of BMW of North America’s M product team, who walked us through every detail of the car — and then pro driver Samantha Tan, who campaigns a BMW M4 GT3 in IMSA, took us out for hot laps in a pre-production example on the Big Willow circuit. Our full video, including the walk-around and the in-car footage, is up now on the BMWBLOG YouTube channel. Our own photos and video from the day are below.

What Makes This One Different From The M3 CS xDrive

The short answer: almost everything that matters to how it drives. Because it’s rear-wheel drive, the engineers had to rethink the suspension tuning from scratch. The M3 CS Handschalter sits 6mm lower than the standard M3 thanks to new springs and a revised rear axle link. The dampers are carried over from the M4 CSL — so not from the regular M3 CS — and the auxiliary springs are specific to this car. Wheel camber, differential controller settings, engine mapping, and steering calibration are all bespoke to the Handschalter. The xDrive M3 CS and this car share a name and a body. Beyond that, the engineers treated them as separate vehicles.

Power comes from the same S58 3.0-liter inline-six making 473 hp and 406 lb-ft of torque, mated to a 6-speed manual. BMW quotes 0-60 in 4.1 seconds. That’s not the point. The point is that all 473 horsepower goes through the rear wheels via a clutch pedal and a stick, and the car has been tuned to make the most of that specific setup rather than being a detuned version of something else.

Weight Savings That Actually Add Up

The carbon fiber reinforced plastic work is extensive: roof, hood, front splitter, front air intakes, mirror caps, rear diffuser, rear spoiler, center console, and interior trim. Add M Carbon bucket seats and a titanium rear silencer that saves over eight pounds on its own, and you’re looking at roughly 42 pounds saved versus a standard 6-speed M3. Spec the optional M Carbon Ceramic brakes and that number grows to nearly 75 pounds total.

The M Carbon Ceramic brakes are worth dwelling on for a second. They’re not standard. Neither is the gold bronze finish on the forged 927M wheels, which is just the default — you can also get them in black. Caliper options go four ways: M Compound brakes in red or black, Carbon Ceramics in red or gold.

Three tire options are available: high performance, track, and ultra-track (a Cup 2R equivalent at $600). Samantha ran us around Willow on what we believe were the track tires, and the front end bit with a confidence that surprised me from the passenger seat.

Four Colors, Two Of Them Worth The Premium

Isle of Man Green metallic and Black Sapphire metallic are no-cost options. Imola Red and Techno Violet metallic are $4,500 BMW Individual paints pulled from 40 years of M3 history. The car we saw at Willow was in Imola Red. It looked exactly as right as you’d expect. Techno Violet is the one I’d lose sleep over.

Inside, there are no options. You get bi-color Anthracite Full Merino leather with Mugello Red stitching, a CFRP center console, and the M Carbon bucket seats. That’s it. Scott was pretty clear about this when we asked.

What Samantha Tan Thought Of It

Tan has driven the M4 CS — she filmed a commercial for it in Croatia — so she’s not someone who needs to be told what a CS car is supposed to feel like. Her read on the Handschalter after hot laps at Willow was direct: nimble, well-balanced front-to-rear, and genuinely fun to shift. “It’s a pure car enthusiast car,” she said. “You might not get the quickest lap time versus the xDrive, but you’re living.”

The 10-stage M Traction Control was doing real work in the corners. Even without MDM active, the rear stepped out in a way that was manageable and, frankly, enjoyable from where I was sitting. The carbon ceramics held up without drama through multiple laps.

Price And Timing

The base price is $107,100 plus $1,350 destination. Production starts in July; deliveries are expected in the fall. Orders are open now through BMW dealers. North America only. The M3 CS Handschalter makes its public debut at the All-BMW Petersen Cruise-In on May 23 at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, with a reveal scheduled for 10:00 AM.

This is the last manual M3 of the sixth generation. BMW hasn’t said what comes next for the G80 platform, but they’ve been explicit that this is a send-off. If that framing is meant to move metal, it’s also just accurate.

First published by https://www.bmwblog.com

The last hurrah of the sixth-generation M3 fills a gap by giving purists what they have wanted for so long. Rewind to 2018, and even the old F80-generation M3 CS was strictly an automatic affair, as BMW only sold the car with a seven-speed dual-clutch ‘box. With three pedals, rear-wheel drive, and a strict diet, the final G80 is the closest thing to a CSL.

The newcomer sheds nearly 75 pounds compared to the base M3 it’s based on, but with a caveat. The full weight loss is achieved only if the car is equipped with carbon-ceramic brakes, which aren’t standard equipment. The upgraded brakes alone account for 31.5 pounds of the reduction, with a further 42 pounds shaved through other measures.

The 2027 BMW M3 CS Has All The Competition Sport Upgrades

The return of the M3 CS brings the usual Competition Sport ingredients, combining carbon fiber–reinforced plastic for many exterior elements with forged wheels, a titanium rear silencer, and bucket seats. Inside, the center console and interior trim also make use of CFRP. Since it’s not a CSL, it remains a practical sedan with rear doors and rear seats intact. Beyond the weight loss, there are other changes compared to the standard six-speed M3. BMW has lowered the ride height by 6 mm with different springs and a revised rear axle link. M engineers also carried over the M4 CSL’s shock absorbers and developed new auxiliary springs.

The twin-turbo 3.0-liter inline-six continues to produce 473 hp and 406 lb-ft, launching the sports sedan to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds. With the M Driver’s Package included from the outset, the M3 CS Handschalter reaches a top speed of 180 mph. But this isn’t about headline numbers; it’s about rowing gears in the lightest new M sedan money can buy in 2026. Like the Z4 M40i Handschalter, the CS uses the same German suffix, which means “hand shift.”

Price: $108,450 Before Options

Hardly a surprise, but the M3 G80’s swan song doesn’t come cheap. Pricing starts at $108,450 (destination and handling included), provided you stick with Black Sapphire or Isle of Man Green. Spending an extra $4,500 unlocks two Individual colors: Techno Violet and Imola Red. The options list also includes an M Front Strut Brace for $1,100, ultra-track tires for $600, and those carbon-ceramic brakes mentioned earlier.

Predictably, the Handschalter is the most expensive M3 available for 2027, the car’s final model year. However, it still undercuts the M3 Competition xDrive-based CS by a little over $11,000.

As with other recent CS models, BMW doesn’t say how many cars it plans to build, only that it will be “built in very limited numbers.” The Handschalter will be available to order in July, with deliveries starting in the fall.

End Of An Era?

With reports suggesting the M3 G84 arriving in 2028 exclusively with xDrive and an automatic transmission, we may be witnessing history here. As one era is ending, another is about to begin. Coming in 2027, the M3 (ZA0) will be the first electric BMW M model.

First published by https://www.bmwblog.com

The “Bügelfalte” — a nickname that translates roughly to “trouser crease,” a reference to the metal edging running along the tops of its front wings — is a one-off. It’s the only special roadster built at BMW’s Munich plant, which makes the win feel appropriate for an event whose motto this year was “Future needs Heritage.”

The trophy came with a custom A. Lange & Sohne 1815 Chronograph in 18-carat white gold with a solid pink-gold dial, hand-engraved with the Concorso crest on the cuvette. Helmut Kas, Head of BMW Group Classic and President of the Concorso, presented the award alongside Wilhelm Schmid, CEO of A. Lange and Sohne, and jury president Lorenzo Ramaciotti.

The public had its own say. The Trofeo Coppa d’Oro Villa d’Este, voted on by attendees, went to a 1963 Mercedes-Benz SL 300 Roadster owned by Eric Blumencranz of the USA — one of the last examples off the production line that year.

In total, 54 cars from 13 countries competed across eight classes: some organized by era, others by theme, including a class dedicated to spectacular Ferraris from the 1950s and 60s, and another for cars of particular significance in their original, unrestored condition.

The BMW 328 at 90

Both grand parades — Saturday’s outside Villa d’Este, Sunday’s through the grounds of Villa Erba — were led by a BMW 328. The 328 was built from 1936 to 1940 and is widely considered the most successful sports car of the 1930s. Its 2.0-liter inline-six was a technical statement for the era. Ninety years later it still looks right.

First published by https://www.bmwblog.com