Egyptian Refuses to Pay $150,000 for BMW 1M Coupe, Shoe-horns M3 V8 into a 120d Coupe

If you live in the States and can justify spending a little under $50,000 on a car, the $47,010 BMW 1M Coupe (335hp) is a sound choice for those looking for a fast and fun to drive bimmer as it only costs $7,710 more the $39,300 135i Coupe (300hp) and $13,090 less than the $60,100 M3 Coupe (414hp).
However, in other parts of the world where governments apply ridiculously high taxes on cars, not even the 1M Coupe is a reasonable choice. Take Egypt for example.
According to 1addicts forum member “hatembmw”, the 1M Coupe costs some US$150,000 in Egypt because of the insane taxes! Who can blame him for not wanting to pay that much money for BMW's entry-level M model?
“Hatembmw” settled on a different solution: he took a 120d Coupe, stripped it down and swapped the four-cylinder diesel engine with a 414hp 4.0-liter V8 from the latest M3!
The tune, which was completed in less than a month and cost him around US$45,000, also included the 1M's wider fenders and bumpers, side skirts, mirrors, and wheels, plus uprated suspension and brake bits.
You can check out the car in the photos and the videos that follow below.

[From Hatembmw's posting]
"Complete mods cost around $45,000. In Egypt we pay 300% custom charges on imported vehicles above 2000 cc, which makes a 1m cost a fortune to buy here. (more than $150,000 custom charges+ original car price) so we had the idea of having a standard e82 and fitting it with a bigger engine."
"The V8 dream came to mind since the whole car is gonna be stripped. I thoght the V8 has more roar sound than the turbo six 1m engine, more hp , and of course more challenge. The idea was thoroughly studied and thank god, it went perfect."

PHOTO GALLERY

Bmw m1 2011m1,New BMW 5 Series

 Bmw m1 2011

 Bmw m1 2011

The M1 coupe was hand-built between 1978 and 1981 under the Motorsport division of BMW as a homologation special for sports car racing. The body was designed by Giugiaro, taking inspiration from the 1972 BMW Turbo show car. Originally, BMW commissioned Lamborghini to work out the details of the car's chassis, assemble prototypes and manufacture the vehicles, but Lamborghini's financial position meant that BMW reassumed control over the project in April 1978, after seven prototypes were built. Only 456 production M1s were built, making it one of BMW's rarest models. The spirit of the M1 lived on in the M635Csi and the first-generation M5, which shared the same (though slightly modified) engine. The M1 had various successes in motorsports. In 2004, Sports Car International named the car number ten on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1970s.

 

New BMW 5 Series

The luxury carmaker BMW said the prices in Brazil's new generation of BMW Series 5 and Series 5 GT will arrive in Brazil next month. The super luxury sedan 535i has a price starting from R $ 288 thousand. Since the coupe that uses the same platform as the 5 Series with the rear lines inspired by the X6, the GT (Gran Turismo), will be sold starting at a starting price of $ 305,000 and reaches R $ 339,400 on top model. The 550i will also come to Brazilian land totally renovated for $ 395,000.The new versions had changes in the lines of the body, a new grille and redesigned the rear lights. The 535i has undergone change in its size and is larger than the previous version. The new sedan has won 44 mm long, 80 mm more wheelbase and 13 mm of legroom. The model also has improved his resign and that the seats were high and are equipped with new electric steering system. Yet received a new LCD screen with 7 inch, new instrumentation, intelligent, iDrive system, among others.
The sixth generation Series 5 also has another new feature which is the new GPS navigation system with the German automaker's three-dimensional maps that have been adapted to Brazil. The two models, the 535i and Gran Turismo, comes equipped with automatic parking system, where sensors measure the space wave and steer the wheel, and a device to kill a safe distance from the vehicle ahead. And now with the introduction of EfficientDynamics philosophy, devices to boost the economy and reduce emissions of CO2 in the atmosphere such as air intake with adjustable active suspension with adaptive damping, regenerative brakes, indicator to shift strategy and others.Both models feature a driver under the hood biturbo 3.0 V6 that generates 306 horsepower and maximum 40.7 lb.-ft. of torque which, coupled to the automatic exchange of eight speeds, takes the luxury sedan from 0 to 100 km / h in just six seconds. The model 550i features a 4.4 V8 engine capable of generating 407 horsepower and 61 lb.-ft. of torque 1.

 

BMW M Car Sales Increas (car gallery)

Sales of BMW's M car series continue to sprout as the Bavarian company's performance division concluded the 2010 business year with a 14.2 percent increase to 16,967 units, despite the phase out of the V10-powered M5 and M6 models.
The M brand's most popular model remained the M3 with 5,729 units of the coupe, 2,544 units of the Convertible and 1,843 Saloons. Worldwide sales of the newly introduced all-wheel drive X5 M and X6 M totaled 2,778 and 3,082 respectively.

The USA was once again the most important single market in 2010 for the performance brand with overall BMW M car sales up by more than 6 percent to 6,821 units. As before, the number two sales region was the German domestic market with sales of 1,716 cars, followed by Britain and Northern Ireland with 1,264 units.
BMW M's division saw its most dynamic growth in China where sales rose by 355 percent to 1,088 units, making the country the fourth-strongest market for the brand. Significant gains were also registered in Brazil (+ 237 percent) and Russia (+ 104 percent).
The German company said that it also recorded a 1 percent increase in sales of the M Sport packages, with 138,800 units in 2010. The main market for M Sport packages was Britain and Northern Ireland, followed by Germany and the USA. The was also a significant jump in the demand for the firm's Individual program, with 24,155 options being ordered in 2010, an increase of 47 percent over 2009.