BMW’s M division are setting out to do more bespoke stuff for the AG giant.

Enter the BMW M3 Edition Coupe, a super-special and very desirable version of the super-special and very desirable M3 Coupe.

Really, how can it fail? Indeed, press reports until now have been blinding. I’m not about to change this. Instead, I focus on some of the details, via my M3 Edition Coupe photostream on Flickr.

Head on over there, take a look-see, and leave any comments you see fit!

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BMW MX5… MX6…

BMW facelifted the 3 Series last year. Odd, how M hasn’t followed with the M3. Why’s that?

Well, it’s because M has such independence from BMW AG.

It’s able, says Head of Product Management Carsten Pries, to make deliberate decisions separately from mainstream BMs

‘We launched the M3 in March 2008,’ says Pries. ‘In September, AG launched the LCI (life cycle impulse) 3 Series. We didn’t follow, keeping instead the same existing front end.

Why? ‘Because we didn’t think it was necessary.’

The M3, says Pries, is suitably differentiated from the 3 Series not to need the additional expense of an (admittedly subtle) LCI so soon into its like. ‘We carried over the revised design tail lights, that’s all.’

This independence, he adds, comes through M being so well integrated into BMW AG. It can make unilateral decisions 12, even 24 months ahead, as it did in this case.

‘It’s exciting to do LCIs – as with the M6 Competition – but if it’s not necessary, we won’t automatically do it.’

Purity and purpose, rather than marketing for marketing’s sake. That’s M. Now, the X6M…

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BMW’s M3 is the core of the M brand, Rolf Sheibner from the division told me.

So who is its closest relative? Step forward the Porsche 997 911. Yes, really. ‘In terms of dynamic skills and character, the M3 and 997 are like relatives,’ Sheibner revealed.

Well, I’ll be.

He was straight up, though. The M division hadn’t benchmarked the M3 against other M cars, but the mighty and ever-better Porsche, the definitive everyday supercar.

‘For 30 years, M3 customers have also been drawn to Porsche. When someone considers one, they’re usually looking at the other, too.’

Which presents quite a high bar for the M division to clear. That’s why they start early. Albeit, from a solid base.

‘We let the road car division develop the standard 3 Series for two years. And, once they reach a certain level, we then start to develop the M version.’

Makes sense. So how much independence do they have here? A wry smile from Sheibner. ‘Look in our papers: we’re a maker! We’re called M GmBH…’ All that was missing here was the cheeky wink.

He knows his customers pretty well, though. I asked about the eight million different settings for the V8 M3’s suspension, engine mapping and whatever else. How on earth will customers get their heads around it?

‘They will play at the beginning,’ he said. ‘But then, after 3 weeks, they’ll probably leave it, happy that they’ve explored enough.’

Hence the importance of getting the standard setup right – and why there will always be a degree of computer reprofiling as per driving conditions here.

Even if customers can’t be bothered prodding buttons, there still needs to be some reward for the money spent…

BMW tells me why its instruments are lit in orange

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