If you haven’t gotten tired of BMW supercar rumors, you will soon. Just a few days ago the interwebs exploded when CAR magazine said BMW is working with McLaren to develop a new supercar for the Bavarians. The report said BMW CEO Harald Krüger and new M Division Boss, Frank Van Meel have brought new life to the idea of a BMW supercar. The plan was to make a supercar with a carbon fiber tub that would house a mid-engine V8.
But, it turns out those rumors were fake. For Motoring Australia, the M boss Frank van Meel said the concept was pure fantasy and that there had been no contact with McLaren from anybody at either BMW or M.
“I haven’t had a phone call, Harald Krüger [BMW’s CEO] hasn’t had a phone call and Klaus Fröhlich [BMW’s Research and Development director] hasn’t had a phone call,” he said. The three executives were mentioned in the CAR magazine story.
“We haven’t made one, either, and we don’t have plans to,” van Meel stated.
The report suggested a prototype would be shown at the Frankfurt motor show in 2017, running on a development of McLaren’s ubiquitous carbon-fiber T16 tub and using a 4.0-litre biturbo V8, before being built in late 2018.
“We admire McLaren and we have obviously worked with them in the past, but there is nothing on the agenda,” van Meel insisted.
“The halo car of the entire BMW brand is the i8 and a lot of money and engineering has been invested in it. It will remain the only halo for its lifecycle.
“It would make no sense for us to put a car above the i8, or even priced near it, that would have the same sort of layout but more power.”
We interviewed van Meel last week and the topic of a BMW supercar came to life again, but the M chief denied once again any plans to build the highly-desired supercar.
