Our own Andrew Irish potato is present at the annual Daytona 24 Hours race and brings us some more photos of the BMW 1 Series M Coupe that served as a footstep car. A report on the race and more photos volition follow, but for now, we would like to share these sectional 1M photos.

For those of you that have asked before, now we can reveal that the 1M used as the pace car is a prototype vehicle that was sent to the U.S. for evaluation purposes and also to be used as the pace motorcar in Daytona. The 1M seen here doesn't characteristic the standard Xenon lights nosotros will encounter on the product vehicles and inside some of the manual controls will be replaced by the usual i Series interior.

A quick epitomize: the 1M makes its U.S. debut on May 16th and it volition accept a base price of $47,010.

The new 1M builds atop the 135i Coupe and it said to accept the perfect balance. Information technology is 71 inches (1803mm) broad – 4.8 inches (122mm) wider than its 1988 M3 antecedent – yet only 1.three inches (33mm) longer at 172.4 inches (4379mm) long.

BMW 1M pace car Daytona 8 655x434

The new 1 Series Thou Coupe weighs in at 1,495kg DIN (iii,296 lbs, preliminary), and features a 104.7-inch (2659mm) wheelbase, three inches longer than the 1988 M3. Front and rear rails widths are exactly the same on the 1 Series M Coupe at threescore.7 inches (1542mm) each. Compared to the 2011 BMW 135i Coupe, the 1 Series G Coupe is 0.two inches (5mm) longer, 2.1 inches (53mm) wider, 0.5 inches (13mm) taller, and rides on the same 104.7 inch (2659mm) wheelbase.

With 340 horsepower and 332 lb-ft of torque, the 1M at its current weight could exist just as fast as the M3 Coupe, a statement confirmed past some that had a risk to drive it at Nurburgring.