Quote:
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Originally Posted by ksfrogman
BMW USA begs to differ.
http://www.bmwusa.com/vehicles/M/
BMW AG still incorporates (obviously) the //M in the manufacturing and sales of their street vehicles in the form of //M-Sport and //M# (i.e., M3, M5, M6). A more detailed history can be obtained from "The BMW Experience: Passion for Performance--An insider's guide to your BMW" DVD sent to BMW owners.
Also, from Wikipedia: |
You misuderstood my post. I didn't say you can't take "M" as in the word motorsport, and that's exactly what it says on BMW's site "M
stands for motorsport." It doesn't say BMW M is the same entity as BMW Motorsport, and that's my point. The M we know today - BMW M GmbH was founded in 1993. Piror to that, under Motorsport GmbH, the same people who designed and built BMW race cars also engineered and hand assembled M road cars at their own facility. Since then, M cars have been engineered by people who only did road cars and built on regular assembly line. That's the real difference between M and Motorsport, and a fundamental one at that. So yes of course BMW still makes and sells M cars (and products), but the concept is totally different.
Wikipedia is written by the general public. I can go on there and re-write the definition. Here are 2 screen shots for you, from an official BMW M presentation: BMW Motorsport GmbH (race and road car) was founded in 1972, it was then re-launched as BMW M GmbH (road cars only) in 1993, and BMW Motorsport Ltd (race activities only) was launched in 1996. The operation of the two entities was internally seperated in 1995.