The 1M is here… sorta. BMW M will be giving us a strip-tease leading up to the Detroit autoshow. And that tease starts today, August 27th at Road America. Originally this was to be the very first place in the world anyone would have seen the car. However confusion over time-zones saw the release of a video on m-power.com eight hours early.

[nggallery id=33]

So with that unfortunate incidenta few of us floated the idea to BMW that we should have an exclusive shot with the car somewhere other than the banquet at the BMWCCA ‘s Octoberfest. They agreed and give us about 30 seconds with the car in good sunlight. The result is above.

So what else can I say about the car? I saw someone get in it and gently drive it to the spot you see above. Otherwise not much.

The orange looks fabulous in person. Is it Inka Orange that many of us had hoped? No, it ‘s metallic. Is it the best metallic orange I ‘ve ever seen? Possibly. What about the sound? Muted but serious. Akin to the X6M but of course it ‘s hardly possible to tell much at idle or gently throttle.

One other thing. There is one aspect of what you see here that will be subtly changing. I can ‘t say what but if you think hard I ‘m sure a “light will turn on ” in your head.

We ‘ll have more very soon including a full interview with Dr. Kay Segler (head of the M Division).