Produced between 1978 and 1981, the BMW M1 is both legendary and mythical. Perhaps due to its scarcity, but also due to its wedge-styled ’80s perfection, the M1 created a lot of noise for such a low volume car, and is, in effect, the manufacturer’s only true supercar.

Now it’s been revealed that during the recent Le Mans 24-Hour event, executives within the M division have been thinking about building a modern take on the M1 icon. BMW M CEO, Frank van Meel, and BMW M Head of Design Oliver Hailer, both told BMW Blog that they’ve been dreaming about building a modern version of the M1.

As reported by BMW Blog via Road and Track, most of the conversation revolved around the M Concept Neue Klasse, which is expected to be the first fully-electric M model in BMW’s storied history… which in itself is big news. At the end of the interview, however, a question was put to the team from the BMW community.

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“If you both had to develop a dream car outside of current vehicle offerings, money no object, you can get it approved tomorrow, what would it be?” It’s an open-ended question, that could have seen the answer head in a number of wildly divergent directions.

Heilmer answered first and said without hesitation that the M1 would be his pick. Almost immediately, van Meel jumped on the same bandwagon and also said he’d pick the M1. He continued, saying that while he loved the original version, he would still love the opportunity to do an all-new version of it.

His comment that a new M1 would be unlikely to feature an internal combustion inline-six or pop-up headlights like the original is telling, too. Modern safety regulations have put paid to retractable headlights, but it’s more likely a modern M1 would either have a very different petrol engine to the
old inline-six, or an electric drivetrain.

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BMW has of course, hinted at the rebirth of the M1 before, as far back as 2008, when the company showed an M1 tribute at Vila d’Este to mark 30 years since the original. That tribute did have an effect on production cars, with some of its styling breaking cover on the BMW i8.