It’s been decades since BMW and McLaren shook hands and built one of the most legendary cars in the world: the McLaren F1. One could argue that the McLaren F1 essentially kickstarted the modern supercar market, and to this day, it’s still the fastest naturally aspirated production car in the world. It’s something that was only made possible by McLaren’s amazing aerodynamic engineering and that glorious naturally aspirated V-12 that was built by none other than BMW. Now, it looks like history could repeat itself as a new report claims that McLaren and BMW are in talks of another joint venture, but this time the stakes are even higher than before.

A New BMW-McLaren Electric Sports Car

BMW is no stranger to partnerships with other automakers. Obviously, BMW played the role of building the amazing V-12 that powered the McLaren F1, but more recently it partnered with Toyota to build the Z4 and Supra twins. Automotive News Europe claims not only that BMW and McLaren are in talks to work together again, but that this time, the two will build an all-new sports car together – just like BMW and Toyota did.> The word is that the two companies are discussing the co-building of an entire architecture for a new electric sports car or, perhaps, maybe even more than one. If it’s a flexible architecture, there could be multiple sets of twins born out of the partnership.

Before you get too excited, though, all that has been said so far is that the brands are discussing such an arrangement, and nothing has been confirmed yet. And, it may never be confirmed because there’s another big elephant in the room that nobody is talking about. McLaren has also been in some pretty interesting talks with Audi, which could lead to the German automaker purchasing a large stake in McLaren. This would, without a doubt, kill off any chance of McLaren and BMW working together again as Audi and BMW are in hardcore competition with one another.

The whole reason Audi is looking to buy into McLaren is because the company is interested in having access to the McLaren F1 team. Such a prospect would be a huge deal for Audi, which is why it’s hard to believe Audi would back off so easily. That said, there’s nothing more pleasing than the thought of BMW and McLaren working together again. The McLaren F1 was a legendary car thanks to the work put in by both automakers, and that was with BMW only being in charge of building its engine. It would be downright amazing to see what the companies could do if they actually built an entire architecture, especially with the plethora of today’s modern technology so readily available.