What's the news?
The annual Monterey Car Week will see BMW unveil two new concepts in an event that will also celebrate the 40th anniversary of BMW of North America.
Exactly what cars BMW is unveiling remains a secret but the line-up of speakers includes Dirk Haeker, Vice President of Research and Development at BMW M GmbH.
It is believed that a near-production ready version of the much-anticipated BMW M2 Coupé will be revealed; much like BMW did in 2013 with its M4 Concept. The M2 has been in development for some time and although rumoured to be ready to go into production executives have held back from giving it the green light due to strong sales of the M235i. The production version is planned to be launched towards the end of this year, so a near-production ready concept being shown next month would make sense.
The second car believed to be under wraps is a forerunner to the BMW M4 GTS. This more hardcore version could be stripped out and lightened, much like the M3 GTS was, and it is expected to receive a boost in power too. This additional horsepower is expected to come from the introduction of a water injection system just like that used in the M4 MotoGP Safety Car that we drove earlier this year.
Anything else?
Water injection is a relatively simple and cost-effective way of improving performance and is expected to be rolled out in other more mainstream models, as indicated by the 1 Series prototype, which we recently drove at BMW's proving ground in Miramas.