BMW Is Bringing Back Its Original Motorsport Logo

On 22 May 2022, it’ll be 50 years since the founding of BMW M GmbH. BMW has various celebrations up its sleeve, and one involves badges.

If you’re ordering either an M car or a BMW with an M Sport package from January 2022 with a production date from March 2022, you can have the original BMW Motorsport logo on the bonnet, boot lid and all the wheels. This is the lesser-seen badge featuring “shifted semicircles” of blue, violet and red around the usual BMW roundal. It predates the famed three-stripe badge first used on the M1 by five years, as BMW first slapped it on the 3.0 CSL racer in 1973.

It’s a cool badge, but not enough on its own to celebrate half a century of BMW M-ness. And so, also on the anniversary agenda is the return of some of BMW M’s most famous paint options. On the menu will be Dakar Yellow, Fire Orange, Daytona Violet, Macao Blue, Imola Red and Frozen Marina Bay Blue.

M will use various events to should about its birthday, including the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Italy, Concours d’Elegance in Pebble Beach in California, the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the 24 Hours of Nurburgring.

The fourth and final part of the festivities involves cars. Yep, cars plural. For starters, BMW has confirmed that a new M2 and the first-ever production M3 Touring are arriving in 2022. The third debut is referred to as a “spectacular special model of the BMW M4 Coupé,” which we’re pretty sure is an M4 CSL, if not a ‘CS’.

“With the classic ‘BMW Motorsport’ emblem, we would like to share our joy about the anniversary of BMW M GmbH with the fans of the brand,” M boss Frank van Meel said of the logo-side of the celebrations, adding, “We have a great year ahead of us, which will be celebrated with unique product highlights and exciting performances.”