BMW’s M Division has been around five decades, which is almost two more than I’ve been alive. Many BMW enthusiasts have no idea what it’s like to appreciate that Bavarian brand without the M Division’s existence, as it’s all we know. But, like with all brands, it hasn’t all been good. BMW M’s high points were among the highest of any brand’s in history, and its lows were also pretty low. So let’s take a look at the past five decades of BMW and figure out which one was best.
This was the introductory period for BMW M. At the beginning, BMW didn’t fully know what it wanted the M Division to be and it was left to the now-famous Jochen Neerpasch to figure it out. Neerpasch had been pulled from Ford’s Touring Car racing division to head-up BMW’s Motorsport division and he held the reigns during the introduction of the very first M car, the BMW M1. It was a sensational car but one that nearly bankrupt the brand and sold in shockingly low numbers. It was also the only M car for quite some time.
In the mid-’80s, BMW M decided to go a bit crazy. There were a bunch of leftover 3.5-liter inline-six engines from the BMW M1, so the brilliant madmen at BMW M decided to stuff the engine into a 5 Series, thus creating the first-ever BMW M5. That car shocked the world, with its 282 horsepower and a top speed that would frighten even the fastest cars in the world at the time. But more than that, it handled beautifully and looked fantastic.
Then, in the late ’80s BMW blew everyone away with the first-gen M3. The original M3 was a genuine German Touring Car for the road and set in motion that thrilling sport sedan/coupe segment we have today. The E30 M3 is still one of the top five most important cars in the history of BMW and one that almost every car enthusiast loves.
The ’90s were interesting because there were some big…
