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We all kind of new the M40i's across the line were 'sporty' cars but too soft to be track cars.
The M badge on there is just a BMW trying to do the whole 'S' line that Audi does to make people spend more. This is just a 35i like last gen, there was no reason to expect it to be an M car.
This is also not going to compete with a Boxster S.
BMW sports line up doesn't quite match Porsche.
Carrera ( base ) / M40i
S / M
GTS / M comp
BMW has 5 tiers of M cars because Audi's success with A/S/RS and Porsche's base/S/GTS/RS
Somehow though BMW being one brand now has 30i/M40i/M/Mcompetiton/M Cs/ M CSL
No wonder BMW is annoying people.
The M40i should have just been 40i like the e89 and prior.
A lot of us had hoped BMW would defy the meaning of the nomenclature and sneak a proper M car into the M40i, but it is just a 40i like you'd find in a 3 series of yesterday.
An M car is supposed to have a Motorsport connection and the current 40i doesn't really have one until the M240i race is used in May and the Nring 24h.
But really the Z cars need waivers to get In to WEC and IMSA because it would need mods to make it a coupe instead of roadster and reportedly Ford and Porsche blocked it this time forcing BMW to use the M8.
If history tells us anything BMW wanted to put the V8 in the e89 Z4 M but suddenly the car costs way more to make and thus costs $100k and now it's competing with 911s and Z06 and it doesn't quite make sense.
Who's going to buy a $90-100k Z4? What engine would they put in it?
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