M is one of the most powerful letter in the world. At least that’s BMW says. Now, it’s time to celebrate the anniversary of the M division.
2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the foundation of BMW M GmbH. Almost a quarter of a year earlier, the BMW Group subsidiary is already demonstrating a sense of tradition and anniversary spirit on its products.
BMW UK will build a wide selection of BMW M High Performance and BMW M Performance models from March 2022 in the most popular BMW Individual paint finishes. They will feature style-defining colours such as Dakar Yellow, Fire Orange, Daytona Violet, Macao Blue, Imola Red and Frozen Marina Bay Blue, which refer to various eras from BMW M’s 50 year history. These exclusive vehicles will feature the emblem inspired by the classic “BMW Motorsport” logo, which will replace the standard BMW emblem on the front, rear and wheel hubs to mark the 50 year anniversary.
The BMW logo with the shifted semicircles in blue, violet and red was first used in 1973 on the racing car of BMW Motorsport GmbH, which had been established a year before. In 1978 and with the debut of the BMW M1 the three colour stripes slanted to the right and leaning on the letter M followed. Even beyond the motorsport scene it became a trademark with particularly high recognition value and identification power. The legendary BMW M1 was the only BMW M high-performance production vehicle to bear the historic motorsport emblem in addition to the logo with the three colour stripes. In both logos, the blue stands for BMW, while the red symbolizes racing and the violet expresses the connection between the two.
Since then, the violet has given way to a dark blue, and BMW Motorsport GmbH has been operating under the name BMW M GmbH since 1993. Nothing has changed the high symbolic power of the brand and logo. In its 50th year of existence, the company is more successful than ever as the world market leader in the performance and high-performance automotive segment.
