For those of us who feel that 250kW and 500Nm in a BMW 1 Series chassis is still a bit wussy, top German tuning haus AC Schnitzer has given Bavaria's pocket rocket a serious kick up the tailpipe.
It starts with a revised ECU that amps up the twin-turbo, three-litre straight six to an awe-inspiring 294kW and 560Nm, knocks two-tenths off the coupé's 0-100km/h sprint time (down from 4.9 to 4.7 sec) and pushes the 1 M to a claimed 300km/h.
And to prevent awe from becoming shock/horror, the suspension has been “race-tuned” with shorter, stiffer springs and special, fully-adjustable dampers, and the brakes uprated with more powerful callipers, six-pot in front and four-pot at the rear.
The Schnitzer 1 M also looks the part with a carbon-fibre front spoiler, extractor vents in the bonnet, a carbon-fibre diffuser and a roof-mounted spoiler.
The cabin is also jazzed up, with signature orange trim, aluminium accents, alloy pedals and velour floor mats.
The metallic orange show car you see here will be seen in public for the first time this week at the Frankfurt motor show, along with an equally muscular BMW 650i convertible for which Schnitzer quotes 398kW (standard is 300) and 0-100 in 4.4 sec, with very special Schnitzer eight-piston callipers on the front discs to bring it back down to earth.