BMW today seems to make all sorts of cars for all sorts of buyers. They offer sedans and coupes in the 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 Series. For SUV fans, BMW offers X models in sizes 1 through 7. There are a variety of electric models, with plenty more promised, and nearly every model also available in a high-performance M variant. They also have the Z4 roadster. As long as you don’t need a pickup truck, BMW has likely got you covered these days. But that wasn’t always the case.
Given the company’s comprehensive product line of fairly similar-looking vehicles, it’s hard to believe that one of BMW’s most controversial and polarizing products survived, albeit briefly, into the 21st century. Based on the Z3 roadster, the M Coupe was a two-door, two-seat hatchback with a very long hood and very short section behind the driver and passenger, whose seats were up against a bulkhead that was itself immediately in front of the rear wheel arches. It was an unusual design for a company that otherwise made only predictable looking sedans at the time. Take a look at this 2001 BMW M Coupe that is now offered on Hemmings Auctions to get an idea why it has earned the nickname “the clown shoe.”
The M Coupe wasn’t just a design exercise. It was engineered as a performance car from the beginning, though a less powerful Z3 Coupe was later added to the product lineup during development. Assembled at BMW’s Greer, South Carolina plant, as were all production variants of the Z3, the M Coupe was only available from 1999 through 2002. For 1999 and 2000, the S52 240-horsepower, 3.2-liter DOHC inline-six was the only powerplant available. In the roughly 3,150-pound M Coupe, the S52 was powerful enough to deliver mid five-second 0-60 mph sprints and quarter-mile times in the low 14s at just a hair under 100 mph.
Despite the very low-volume production, for 2001 and 2002, the M Coupe got a substantially more powerful engine, finally putting the U.S.-spec car on par with what the rest of the world got. Like the first iteration that cribbed its engine from the contemporary E36 M3, the 2001 M Coupe borrowed from the then all-new E46-generation M3 for its S54 engine.
BMW’s S54 is a surefire, first-ballot entry into the engine hall of fame. With an 87-mm bore and a 91-mm stroke, its dimensions were unique among BMW’s long history of inline-six engines. The high-revving S54 used a cast-iron block and an aluminum-alloy cylinder head. With a dual-VANOS system that brought variable-valve timing to both intake and exhaust, a new Siemens-engineered engine management system with two 32-bit microprocessors capable of 25 million calculations per second, six individual throttle bodies, solid lifters, 11.5:1 compression, two cams and 24 valves, the S54 was rated at 315 hp at 7,400 rpm in the M Coupe, with a 7,600 rpm redline.
Weight was little changed, if at all, and the 2001/2002 M Coupe was able to make the sprint to 60 mph in under five seconds. Given the ability for the newer engine to make more power and torque at higher rpm, quarter-mile times improved, with some magazine testers knocking a full second off the elapsed time, ringing up low 13s at nearly 110 mph.
Docile around town with the very tractable engine, thanks to variable valve timing, the M Coupe offered drivers a frenetic sort of motoring madness as the revs built up, a veritable Jekyll and Hyde of sports cars. Fortunately, BMW attended to the other sporting attributes of the athletic little car to match the engine’s output.
The only transmission offered in the M Coupe was a close-ratio five-speed manual with a direct 1:1 fifth gear. Final drive was via a limited-slip differential with 3.15 gearing. The front suspension and brakes were sourced from the E36 M3, with MacPherson struts, control arms, coil springs, and a fat anti-roll bar. The rear suspension was not quite as sophisticated, utilizing the older-generation E30’s semi-trailing arms with coil springs and an anti-roll bar. Disc brakes at all four corners were at least 12.3 inches in diameter, the fronts from the E36 M3 and the rear from the mid-size 5 Series sedan. The high-performance, summer-only Tires measured 225/45R17 up front and a meaty 245/40R17 in the rear.
With a short wheelbase, relatively light weight and lots of power and no traction control, the M Coupe was a handful for drivers, particularly on imperfect pavement as BMW’s semi-trailing arm rear suspensions were noted for bump steer. Fortunately, with the added power of the S54 came BMW’s Dynamic Stability Control, which used yaw and roll sensors combined with the ABS sensors at the wheels to detect untoward conditions within milliseconds. DSC could provide targeted braking or power reduction to assist a driver as needed. For the bold, not so faint of heart and perhaps foolhardy, the system could easily be defeated with the push of a button on the center console.
The S54-powered M Coupe carried over just about everything else from the earlier cars, including a pair of leather-clad sport seats, fast-ratio steering, a short-throw shifter, and simple round analog gauges (though with gray instead of black faces), including an auxiliary dial for oil temperature. Unlike the companion M Roadster whose small trunk was compromised by its need to accommodate the folded soft top, the M Coupe’s rear hatch area was capable of holding some 410 liters of volume behind the seats. For a couple headed out for the weekend, or perhaps an ambitious driver who needed to pack some tools and supplies for a track-day experience, it was plenty of room. About the only options were the colors, a glass roof that tilts but doesn’t slide open and a CD player in dash in place of the cassette stereo.
In the love it or hate it department, there were only so many buyers who landed in the love it category. In the U.S., BMW sold some 2,180 M coupes with the S52 engine in 1999 and 2000, but a mere 678 of the later more powerful version across two model years, making the S54 M Coupe one of the rarest BMW’s in recent memory. In a victory for the love-it crowd, the M Coupe is now a certified cult-classic status.
This 2001 BMW M Coupe now offered on Hemmings Auctions showed just under 48,000 miles when it was recently submitted for listing. It is the recipient of a few modifications by noted BMW specialists Dinan, including a high-flow intake and mass air meter along with high-flow throttle bodies, each one bored out at the Dinan machine shop. The car also wears a Rogue Engineering strut brace across the top of the front struts in the engine bay for chassis stiffness—though the M Coupe was already noted for its rigidity from the factory.
The Imola Red paint appears to be in excellent condition as does the black leather seating surfaces on the sport seats. The rest of the interior, too, looks to be in great shape, commensurate with the low overall mileage showing.
BMW seems to want to make a sedan or SUV in every size for every customer today, but this oddball from two decades ago still draws the attention of a dedicated group of followers. Take a look at this little GT on Hemmings Auctions and decide for yourself if you think this “shoe” fits.
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