BMW M is preparing a conspicuously old-school birthday present for the Nürburgring. To mark the German circuit’s centenary in 2027, it is launching six M cars and three M motorcycles in a ‘100 Jahre Nürburgring’ edition, all finished in historical Nürburgring Green and dressed with Nordschleife references.
The timing is almost more interesting than the cars themselves. The Nürburgring opened in 1927, but its 100th anniversary will also coincide with BMW M entering a very different era: from 2027, the first fully electric, four-motor M models based on Neue Klasse technology are due to arrive.
The anniversary line-up consists of the M2, M3 Sedan, M3 Touring, M4 Coupé, M5 Sedan and M5 Touring, plus the M 1000 RR, M 1000 R and M 1000 XR motorcycles. The latter are genuinely limited to 100 examples each; BMW has not announced a similar numerical cap for the cars.
More than green paint
There is some substance beneath the anniversary graphics. The six-cylinder M2, M3 and M4 use BMW’s new M Ignite pre-chamber ignition technology, designed to improve efficiency under sustained high loads and help the engines meet Euro 7 without sacrificing performance.
But electric rivals show how quickly the definition of ‘high performance’ is changing. BMW’s own i4 M60 xDrive already produces 601 hp, considerably more than the 530 hp M3 and M4 Competition xDrive.
Yet its 3.7-second sprint to 100 km/h is two-tenths slower than the combustion M cars’ 3.5 seconds. The electric car brings instant torque and huge power, but also significantly more weight.
A similar picture appears further up the range. The all-electric i5 M60 Touring produces 601 hp and reaches 100 km/h in 3.9 seconds, while the 727 hp plug-in hybrid M5 Touring needs 3.6 seconds.
The interesting point is that the M5 itself has become a heavyweight: its V8, electric motor and battery have pushed it into roughly the same mass territory traditionally associated with large performance EVs.
EVs have reached the Green Hell
Outside BMW, the numbers become more uncomfortable for the traditional formula. Audi’s RS e-tron GT performance produces up to 925 hp and accelerates to 100 km/h in 2.5 seconds. Raw acceleration, once a defining supercar metric, is becoming almost routine for powerful EVs.
More relevant to a Nürburgring celebration is what Porsche has achieved. In May, a Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach Package and a road-orderable Manthey Kit completed the 20.832-km Nordschleife in 6:55.533.
For context, the M4 CSL remains BMW’s fastest series-production car around the full Nordschleife, with an official 7:18.137.
The cars belong to different categories and the Porsche carries a dedicated track package, so the times are not a direct model-for-model comparison. But they leave little room for the old argument that battery cars can deliver only straight-line speed and quickly wilt on a circuit.
BMW clearly sees that shift coming. Its first genuine electric M generation will use four motors, one for each wheel, managed by M Dynamic Performance Control.
The front axle can be disconnected to retain rear-wheel-drive behaviour, while BMW is also developing simulated gear changes and a dedicated soundscape.
A revealing sign that the engineering challenge is no longer simply extracting more performance from an EV, but preserving the involvement and character customers expect from an M car.
Born on the racetrack, differently
The three anniversary motorcycles highlight how uneven that transition still is. While electric cars are already challenging combustion machinery at the top end of performance, there is still no convincing battery-powered equivalent of an M 1000 RR.
BMW Motorrad’s electric range remains focused on urban models such as the CE 04, while manufacturers such as Zero and LiveWire offer fast road bikes rather than 200-plus-hp superbike rivals.
Battery weight, packaging and rapidly rising energy consumption at sustained high speed remain particularly difficult problems on two wheels.
In other words, electrification is already redefining the performance-car hierarchy, while the combustion engine still has remarkably little electric competition at the extreme end of the motorcycle market.
That is what makes the Nürburgring editions more interesting than another run of special paint and badges. They celebrate the mechanical formula on which BMW M built its reputation just as electric technology is proving it can compete on the very racetrack that shaped that reputation.
BMW’s slogan for the anniversary models is ‘Born on the Racetrack. Made for the Streets.’ In 2027, it intends to apply essentially the same philosophy to a four-motor electric M. The Green Hell will stay the same. The rules of what constitutes high performance are changing — just much faster on four wheels than on two.
