135i → 1M
A DIY conversion, one part at a time.
- 6,342
- Built, May 2011 to June 2012
- 2,700
- Originally planned
- 740
- Sold in the US, one model year
- 3
- Colours: white, black and Valencia Orange
This page’s orange is a nod to Valencia Orange.
The original
BMW built the 1M the same way.
The 1M began in October 2009 as an after-hours project inside M GmbH: no budget, no board approval, weekends. The codename was Pyrat, after a rum the team liked, and the launch colour, Valencia Orange, came from the bottle. The story goes that a running prototype was finished while the new head of M was away for two weeks. It was green-lit that December.
The one rule was that it had to go down the existing 135i line in Leipzig without touching the line. So there is no bespoke engine and no new body. The twin-turbo six came from the Z4, the rear axle, differential, brakes and 19-inch wheels came from the E92 M3, and the wider arches followed from the wider axles. The first mules caught at the Nürburgring in spring 2010 were exactly that: a stock 135i on M3 running gear, with flares riveted on to cover the extra track. A greatest-hits assembly — and the purists were furious right up until they drove it.
That constraint is what makes a conversion possible. Underneath, a 1M is a 135i wearing M3 running gear, and every part on the list further down has a BMW part number.
Sources evo ↗ · 1er-M-Register ↗ · Biermann, 2010 ↗
The mules · Nürburgring, 2010
Photos: 1addicts.com
Start with what you can’t see.
Oil cooler and intercooler first, behind a bumper that was about to be replaced anyway.
The part that matters most.
Rear subframe, arms and Öhlins DFV coilovers, laid out on the floor before any of it went near the car.
Raw, primed, painted, fitted.
The 1M bumper arrives as bare plastic. A week of sanding and paint later the car first looks like where it’s going.
Mirrors, grilles, markers.
The small parts that make a conversion read as factory instead of aftermarket.
The point of no return.
No bolt-on way to get a 1M’s width. Quarters cut off, 1M panels welded in — and when BMW stopped making the 1M’s inner wheelhouse mid-build, the E92 M3’s turned out to be a 90% fit. It borrows that much.
Black goes in, gray comes out.
Metal work done, the whole car went to primer — and black stayed behind.
Titanium and 19s.
Akrapovič with carbon tips, and the wheels the whole stance was planned around.
Orange thread.
M steering wheel and carbon / alcantara door cards with orange stitching — the only colour inside the car.
05 — Rear quarters · frame by frame
Bare metal to 1M arches.
07 — Stance
Wider where it counts.
The 1M’s control arms, subframes and quarter panels put the track at 1541 mm (60.7 in) front and rear — 58 mm (2.3 in) wider at the front, 25 mm (1 in) at the rear — and the body 55 mm (2.2 in) wider than the 135i it started as.
The result
The 1M BMW never built.
Every 1M left Leipzig with an N54 and a manual. This one has the later N55 and the M3’s dual-clutch gearbox — the combination spy shooters swore they saw lapping the Nürburgring in 2010, and BMW never sold.
135i vs 1M
BMW widened the track 60 mm (2.4 in) at the front and 40 mm (1.6 in) at the rear, fitted 19s and called the result the anatomy of a racing machine. The factory numbers side by side, and how far the same parts took a 135i.
Weights are left out: BMW quotes the 135i unladen in pounds and the 1M to the EU standard with a driver and luggage aboard, so the two don’t compare.
What changed
The full list from the planning document, keyed to the stops above. 105 of 127 parts made it onto the car; the rest were on the list.
Results