BMW iM2: M Division's 1000kW 50th birthday gift

Keep your eyes open on an industry pool day at the Nurburgring and you’ll see Katharina.

You probably won’t hear her coming as she’s not the shouty type, but an encounter is not an experience you’ll forget in a hurry.

She’s rapid. For Katharina is the project title of BMW’s little 50th birthday present to the M Division and it packs a solid megawatt. That’s a cool 1000kW, or 1321hp. Koenigsegg Agera RS power, if you prefer, or more than a modern F1 car, all wrapped up in the body of an M2 CS.

The iM2 (rendered above), as it’s dubbed within the halls at Garching-Hochbruck, is serious business.

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Powered by four electric motors and boasting radical four-wheel torque vectoring, the iM2 is, for the time being at least, based on the outgoing F87 M2 body, ahead of the introduction of the rear-drive G24 2 Series in 2022.

There’s no official word on whether this vehicle will even make production or whether it will remain one of a long list of M-car one-offs that the company tends to keep to itself. It’s been reported that a British powertrain specialist that is involved in the development of the Katharina project is expecting that a limited production run is a possibility, fitted with ultra-lightweight body panels, wheels and glazing.

The iM2 is said to be able to lap the Nordschleife in less than seven minutes, which puts it in extremely senior territory. It’ll need to be significantly quicker than the heavier and markedly less powerful Porsche Taycan Turbo S if M Division’s aim of demonstrating that tailpipe emissions-free performance and agile handling can be incorporated in a compelling package for demanding drivers.

There’s word of a 0-100km/h time somewhere between 2.0 and 2.5 seconds, but standing start acceleration fatigue has already set in with many EV potential buyers.

There needs to be additional strings to the bow.

That will come as the technical know-how from the iM2 project trickles down into the forthcoming i4M production car, which looks set to pack a 120kWh battery and 447kW, and is pencilled in to debut sometime during 2023.

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The iM2 was foreshadowed in an interview with BMW M’s CEO Markus Flasch last year. When it comes to hybridised and electrified drivetrains, Flasch has a very simple measure of what he wants those vehicles to be.

“Success has to be better than the predecessor’s character. We won’t mess around or compromise the distinct character that our M cars have today,” he says.

“An electrified car, whether it’s plug in the wall, battery electric, has to take it up with the predecessor, and I know that there are physical limits, but within physical limits of working dimensions, we are going to make it happen.”

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In recent years we’ve seen some M cars taper off the amount of power they develop. In the five years between 2010 and 2015, the BMW M5 saw its power increase by over 18 per cent. The next five years saw peak power tick up by 4 per cent. As the iM2 so clearly demonstrates, Flasch doesn’t recognise any workable ceiling or gentleman’s agreement to limit the power of M cars.

“Power is nothing without control, right? And if there isn’t something with too much power it’s just a question of how you tune in and hone into a car, and how you make it accessible,” he explains.

“You look 10, 15 years back and if you imagined 625 horsepower in a saloon car, you’d probably be scared. Now, I can give an M5 this 625 horsepower and only drive to my mum, in winter, and she’d still be okay. It’s all just a question of how you incorporate it into a package that makes it accessible for everyone, and this is what M has always been brilliant in. Don’t expect a power limit.”

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Artist's impression of the BMW iM2

Six iM2 Tech Facts You Need To Know

40 SECONDS
That’s how much quicker the iM2 is reputed to be around the ‘Ring than the monster M8 Competition

DOUBLE IT
A 530kW 5 Series Electric prototype debuted at the NextGen event in Munich in 2019. Two years later, power has escalated crazily

TOTALLY TUBULAR
The iM2 will feature hollow-spoked ultra-lightweight alloy wheels (not pictured here), cutting unsprung weight to deliver the promised agility

SPIN TO WIN
Sources report that the iM2 can spin up its rear tyres at more than 120km/h even on bone-dry bitumen. You can replicate this ability far more cheaply by choosing cheap tyres sorted by wear rating

THERE’S MORE...
The iM2 isn’t the only surprise BMW’s wheeling out for the M Division’s 50th. If Nurburgring spies are correct, there’s also likely to be an M4 CSL, which could arrive in July of 2022

Baby Driver

BMW has some form when it comes to one-off pocket hot rods as little gifts to itself. Back in 1996, it built the E36 M3 Compact, which would have been comfortably the quickest production hot hatch in the world at the time, had it ever entered production.

Instead, BMW teased us with images of the 1300kg 240kW hatch, built to commemorate the 50th birthday of German automotive magazine Auto Motor und Sport. The guts of the E36 M3 Compact would later be resurrected in the form of the Z3 M Coupe, the one-off E36 Compact these days residing at BMW Group Classic.

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