BMW made an e46 330Ci (coupe) sport. It looked just like a M3 except it had multi spoke 18 wheels.
They did the same thing with the e36 328i. It came in LeMans Blau and blue alcantera seats & interior trim.
You could trace BMW doing this all the way back to the e28 535is and old six series L6's.
What I am saying is BMW has been "known" to do this very thing, juice up the model line just before the new platform comes out to replace it!
Having a M1 come out in the least year of two of the e82 life cycle, makes total sense to me. I also believe they will call "it" the M1. I believe this bc BMW "has to use" their trade mark'd names every few years in order to keep ahold on the register'd names/numbers.
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