Ever wondered what goes on in the mind of an M engineer? Whatever it may be, it's going to be some time before you find out. Right now, in an engineering office in the industrial area of Garching outside Munich, there are a bunch of top minds dreaming up the engine concepts that we won't be allowed to see for another six years. These men and women are the cream of BMW engineers, and they have the enviable but challenging task of defining the ultimate of ultimate driving machines. Those that, through the 30 years of M, have come to embody the essence of the BMW marque.
And at the head of that elite team of some 250 engineers is vice president of M Cars, Gerhard Richter (German for judge!). He took some time out of technik-crystal-ball-gazing recently to talk to european car.
"When you consider that a model has to be technically fresh in the market for some seven years, then you'll understand that, as a developer, you are working with a time horizon of 13 years," he said.
Okay, so do other engineers, working for other car companies. But, for BMW, M represents the concentrated essence of the brand. That 13-year horizon isn't just about defining product and developing hardware, it's about passing on the heart and soul of an entire marque.
Relaxed and humorous, Richter looks far younger than his 49 years and is considerably more jovial than the stereotypical German engineer. But then, if you had one of the top jobs in German auto engineering, you'd be pretty chipper, too.
Richter started his BMW career as an engineer working on mainstream products. He moved to M GmbH 20 years ago, just in time to work on the M6 coupe, sister to the first M5. By that time BMW Motorsports GmbH, as it was then called, had already cut its teeth in racing with the M1 and was turning its attention to the creation of true sporting sedans.
"The M1 was pure sports car," he recalled. "For the first M5 we took a lot of the M1 technology and married it to an everyday sedan to create a whole new concept-a race car with everyday practicality."
And it wasn't much more complicated than that. Without wishing to oversimplify, M engineers basically took the engine from the M1 and put it under the bonnet of an early '80s E28 5 Series sedan, and a new era was born. This raw, almost unrefined approach was typical of an era when motorsport was playing an increasingly important role in vehicle engineering. A surprisingly small number of gifted motorsport engineers with a feel for their art were breathing magic into road cars all over Europe. One of them was Paul Rosche, BMW's legendary engine king and Richter's boss at the time.
"Back then it was 100 percent about people and know-how," said Richter. "Rosche was the great engine Pope. He knew everything. He came to work in the morning with an idea and said, 'Okay, this is how we're going to do it,' and we did it, and it worked. I learned a lot from him. But it's not as straightforward as that anymore."
The reason being that the rules have changed. In fact, they've not only changed, they've multiplied many times over. A victim of its own success, M is no longer hand-building a few hundred vehicles per year in its own workshops. It faces the sheer logistics of producing 23,000 vehicles in six formats on three separate production lines, as well as a barrage of homologation and emissions legislations to enable its exports worldwide, while at the same time maintaining top performance and sporting character that is not only uniquely BMW but specifically M.
This is no easy task, but it's apparent from Richter's zeal that he's far from being opposed to such developments. "Creating a powerful engine that uses a lot of fuel is nothing special," he pointed out. "But creating one that has the high-revving excitement of a sports car with high efficiency and low emissions, that's a work of art."