From dackel's recent M studio visit post:
"Then we got on a side topic about the last M project, the 1M Coupe. We learned some interesting things. The VO (valencia orange) color was a future color in the BMW pipeline. Dr Kay Segler liked it so much he insisted they make the 1M is that color. Then they knew they would have to offer a white and black color - bc every car looks good in those colors. He told us how they really wanted to offer different color stitching accents for each color - but they were tight on a budget plus they were really running out of time. So only one interior color was approved. Same went for some of the other "things" M wanted to do to the car. Like functional vents in the front fenders(the crease), they wanted to produce a carbon fiber roof, but they were running out of time. So in the end their hands were tied by time and budget. They told us how well the 1M sold given limited coior choice and being that the car was only offered in a manual transmision. The car sold far better than BMW ever thought it would. This confirms that there will be an M2 in time."
http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=841012