[Artemis]

Originally Posted by ozinaldo

produced with the same spirit and enthusiasm M division guys had for the 1M

Pro memoria about how some pretty wild ideas, conceived by creative minds who love their jobs, got shaped/materialized in a record time into some sort of 'love child' while the boss was away on a trip ...rather unexpectedly were given a serious chance of survival. Kudos to the ones who came up with the "Let's break some rules and do something wild !" initiative.

Originally Posted by hlmiii

One - the final concept, "formal" design and engineering of the 1M took place in only two weeks. It was spoken about loosely, informally and very quietly among the staff for a while. At the end of that time the head of "M" was away on a two-week trip and the staff put everything together, like kids doing something while the parents are out; they knew that they could not get approval for spending the time and effort. Upon his return he was shown a completed project. Since the development portion was essentially complete with no cost incurred, the car could be easily built by shoehorning it into the 128/135 production line during off hours, and the staff was so enthusiastic, the 1M was greenlighted. The staff basically pulled off a parlor trick and won.
Second - there was only one prototype built. Due to the advance and virtually complete initial work (with existent and proven M3 parts) and the tight schedule, there was time and money to use only one car for assembly and testing. That's pretty amazing.
Third - the test car was ... blue. But early on the staff realized the color didn't work. Hence the black, white and VO, as noted.
Four - the staff was really under the gun on the entire project, for both money and time reasons.
Five - they really like how their tuner project turned out.

Originally Posted by Artemis

Dr. Segler was emotional and had a few tears the first time he saw the car in completed form. In a broken voice, he said, «we need to build this car».

More development trivia in the 1M history sticky: http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=841751