Little insights on the future of BMW M division

The boss of BMW's M motorsport division, Friedrich Nitschke, was speaking to U.S. magazine Car & Driver, when he revealed little but interesting details pertaining to the future of the M brand.

To start with, the M3 Coupe and Convertible will remain in production for up to the next six months though all units have been accounted for. It is unclear if BMW will resume production after the six months but we feel the possibility of the next generation M3 to debut in the coming months instead.

Nitschke also rejected the possibility of an X-Drive (AWD) variant for M badged cars to counter growing competition from 4Matic and Quattro systems from Mercedes and Audi respectively. Nitschke feels AWD systems would carry too much weight and loose iconic steering precision of BMW's. He also added any enthusiast interested in an all-wheel driven M badged vehicle could always order the X5 M or an X6 M.

Additionally BMW is confident with its new three-cylinder engines and Nitschke is enthusiastic on offering a high-performance variant. He revealed a M Motorsport tuned 1.5-litre three cylinder engine could have as much as 310bhp. He also added future engines from the M division will be closely linked to parent company BMW's though it will be fine-tuned for the signature BMW performance.