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The fastest BMW 1-Series will soon have an official duty. It will be the Safety Car for the 2011 season of MotoGP. BMW’s M division has commissioned a special one-off 1-Series M Coupé Safety Car for this race, with only the 254kW twin-turbo straight-six engine and the entire drive train transplanted unchanged from the production model.
The Safety Car will be lighter than the series production M Coupé. Its body panels will be constructed from a mixture of lightweight material, including a carbon fibre-reinforced bonnet featuring additional large air vents. The side and rear windows have also been replaced with polycarbonate units. Further weight savings is achieved through the removal of the rear seat bench. On top of that, the BMW’s M division engineers have developed a bespoke lightweight titanium race exhaust system that not only saves weight but is also an aural delight.
The Bavarian company has also retuned the suspension system. It now boasts an adjustable race track set-up that includes a sports-tuned chassis in which the dampers are independently adjustable for bump and rebound. The standard car’s braking system has also been upgraded with a six-piston fixed-calliper racing brake system.
On the outside, the M Coupé Safety Car will have an additional splitter integrated on the underside of the front apron. Other features to set it apart from the road going M Coupé include an adjustable rear wing that provide additional downforce, white LED flashlights incorporated in the front grille, and blacked out 19-inch alloy wheels shod in 255/35 tires at the front and 285/30 at the rear.
Being a track car, there are also a host of unique safety features such as a safety rollover cage bolted behind the B-pillar that has taken the place of the rear seats, an M steering wheel in alcantara, two Recaro racing bucket seats with 6-point safety belts, and a fire extinguisher.
In addition to the 1-Series M Coupé Safety Car, BMW is also supplying two reserve Safety Cars to the 2011 MotoGP – an X6M and an M3, a 535i Touring serving as the Medical Car, an X5 M for the Safety Officer and an ActiveHybrid X6 for the stewards, as well as two Safety Bikes, the BMW S 1000 RR and a HP2 Sport.
