Collective gasps welcomed the BMW Turbo Concept on the stage at the 1972 edition of the Paris Motor Show. The car, stunning from every angle, was the embodiment of what future BMW products would offer: cutting-edge looks, state-of-the-art technology, and performance. This mesmerizing prototype designed by Paul Bracq was the inspiration for BMW’s one and only supercar: the M1. Thirty years later, BMW honored both the Turbo and the M1 by creating the appropriately-named M1 Hommage. Dressed in a similar coat of hypnotic red as the Turbo and with countless design cues that trace their roots in the Giugiaro-penned M1, the Hommage was a way for BMW to look back while also looking towards the future.

First displayed at the Concorso D’Eleganza Villa D’Este in 2008, the M1 Hommage was the German manufacturer’s way of refreshing the wedge-shaped M1 which was celebrating its 30th birthday. BMW brought the much-revered older siblings to complement the launch of this design experiment, but many were left bemused by the company’s announcement that there would be no new supercar to come from Munich.

This wasn’t, however, entirely true as BMW didn’t ignore its waves of fans who fell in love with their 2008 concept and went on to include certain unmistakable design cues in their 2009 Vision EfficentDynamics concept which led to the BMW i8. It’s not a supercar, it was never intended to be, but it’s similar enough to the M1 Hommage to make us happy, and it also channels the Turbo prototype through all of its hybrid technology that it incorporates.

2008 BMW M1 Hommage

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2008 Sportec SP600

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2008 BMW M1 Hommage Exterior

BMW’s Motorsport division was on the verge of coming forth with its first world-bending product, the 3.0 CSL, when the Turbo prototype was unveiled. The car featured some ultra-aggressive lines completed by a narrow front end coupled with gullwing doors. It was this car that was the main inspiration for Giorgetto Giugiaro when he penned the M1 while working at Italdesign. Nestled in the middle of this low-slung beast was the inline-six powerplant, making it the first production BMW to have its engine placed right behind the seats.

Giugiaro’s straight-cut lines have been re-imagined in the Hommage which, while still a mid-engined supercar, boasts a more rounder shape that loses none of the aggressive touch of the original. “In the spirit of Giugiaro and Bracq, the BMW M1 Hommage unites the BMW values of design and technology in a highly emotional and exciting interpretation," said Chris Bangle, then head of Design within the BMW Group, which is quite obvious as this concept car is a clear departure from Bangle’s infamous flame surfacing design paradigm which shocked many BMW fans in the early mid noughties.

When talking about the design of the car, Adrian Van Hooydonk, who replaced Bangle at the helm of the Design department within BMW, expressly pointed out at the impossibility of equipping the Hommage with pop-up headlights akin to the original. Everyone loves pop-up headlights, but, sadly, modern safety regulations means that they will stay in the past. However, the headlights are indeed almost hidden within a narrow slot that goes all the way across the front fascia with the typical BMW kidneys in the middle. Additional air inlets are located on either side below the headlights, the whole frontal area being sculpted in the name of performance.

What would be the hood covering the luggage compartment is dominated by another, generously-scaled, air inlet, which is a dead ringer to that of the 1978 model. While the car was never seen moving, BMW argued that they designed the car with functionality in mind, each body panel carefully carved to channel air. This becomes even more clear when looking at the car from its side. The thin side mirrors, sculpted skirts, and door panels all lead you to what is the key design feature of the car: the cut-through c-pillar. The cut creates a clear distinction from the top wing-shaped part which is a clean continuation of the roof line and the bottom part which ends in the bulging rear corners.

The top part, which also features a see-through grater, swings upwards at the rear, a BMW logo gracing it on both sides. This was, as in the case of the original, a design element that was set in stone before any sketch was ever laid on paper. It’s clear that BMW wanted the Hommage to feel wider and more muscular than the original which is why flat surfaces were all but abandoned.

The result is a car that exudes performance and attitude while not moving an inch, the same speech being voiced by the wheels which are a more aggressive and modern interpretation of the legendary Campagnolos of the original. They sit hugged by sizeable tires, leaving one to wonder what the road-holding of the Hommage would be. Sadly, as this is just a design experiment, we will never know such intrinsic details.

2008 BMW M1 Hommage Interior

Interior of 2018 BMW i8 shown here.


The BMW M1 Hommage’s mirror-like long, swooping, windows let no one have a peek inside. Basically, BMW did not design an interior for this car as it was meant to be a study in exterior design alone and, as Van Hooydonk put it, “A project such as this is a valuable source of inspiration for our day-to-day work." Certainly, it wouldn’t be far from what we have inside the i8, considering the outlook towards the future that this project encourages.

2008 BMW M1 Hommage Drivetrain

The lack of interior is coupled with the lack of an engine. We can only guess, then, what kind of powerplant from BMW’s garden would move this beast along the scenery at dazzling speeds. All we know is – and this is something that BMW has reinforced time and again – that the Germans are in every way capable of building an M1 follow-up as M division boss Frank Van Meel explained in 2017.

“It could be possible, yes, because we do have the engineering power – but if you look at the tradition of M, we came from being the first company to take a series production car and making a high-performance car out of that,” argued Van Meel who added that “We are trying to make cars for customers, and trying to reach as many customers as possible – but to build a car for 200 people would not be our main target.”

So, while Mercedes-Benz basks in the glory of the AMG GT and Audi keeps making the R8 better and better, the M division is happy to keep on delivering “an armada of fast vessels to attack a broader range of possible customer groups,” as Van Meel put it.

2008 BMW M1 Hommage Prices

There is only one M1 Hommage in the world, and you must pay the admission fee at the BMW Museum in Munich to see it – if it’s on display when you get there. Of course, there’s no way BMW would part ways with it, the same way you could never get your hands on one of the two 1972 Turbo cars – even if you’d have the pockets of Ralph Lauren.

This all leaves us with the original M1 of which just 453 were built. Merely 399 of these were road cars, the rest living their lives out on the race tracks of the world. This means that we’re talking about a rare machine which commands prices upwards of $400,000 – if you get lucky at auction. The racing cars go for even more than that if they have a storied past in the Procar series, for example.

Conclusion

The BMW M1 Hommage is one of BMW’s most evocative modern concept cars that really stands out as a bold yet respectful reinterpretation of its illustrious older cousins. Most that have seen it in the flesh have pointed that the images don’t do it justice, since you can’t quite read such a commanding presence from a two-dimensional image – or the depth of that red body color. We are, then, talking about one of those many `what if?` stories that really deserves an answer.

Yes, we’d love if BMW would come forth and deliver a breath-taking supercar as we’re sure that the brand’s many fans would gladly stand to correct the M division’s chief in his estimation over the car’s potential buyer pool. We are, admittedly, thankful that some of the memorable cues on the M1 Hommage – like the split C pillar and dramatic tail lights – made their way into production on the i8, although the electric coupe will never be able to claim such a svelte physique and that’s sad.

Further reading

Read our full review on the 1978 - 1981 BMW M1.

Read more BMW news.