[Jason]

BIMMERPOST NEWS

Wiesmann is Back and Using BMW Engines

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Wiesmann is back! And back using BMW engines. The niche German hand-built sports car company started in 1988 went out of business in 2014, but was then purchased by a pair of Indian investors in 2015. The investors, Roheen and Sahir Berry, were already Wiesmann customers and wanted to see the company continue its tradition, so they continue to work closely with the founders (brothers Friedhelm and Martin Wiesmann) and are keeping production in Wiesmann's original home of Dülmen.

Wiesmann is currently led by Mercedes-Benz veteran Mario Spitzner and on Tuesday the company inked a deal to source V8 engines from BMW M for its all-new sports car, which will be powered by BMW's V8 turbo S63 engine. The same engine provides 600HP in the new F90 M5.

"Signing this contract with our preferred partner BMW is a milestone for Wiesmann Sports Cars. In the pre-development phase, which has now been concluded, we worked together extremely well and we are delighted to be able to collaborate with our reliable top partner BMW Group," said Spitzner.

"Our co-operation with BMW AG is an important foundation for successfully developing and positioning Wiesmann Sports Cars," Spitzner said in a statement. "The exact date when the new Wiesmann model will go on sale will be announced at a later point."

Wiesmanns have been powered by BMW M engines since 1993 so the announcement of the latest engine deal carries on this tradition.

Wiesmann's resurrection will focus on reaching more markets. This means Wiesmann's latest cars will be offered in both left-hand and right-hand drive for the first time. The original company had planned to begin exporting vehicles to the USA by 2010, but poor exchange rates and the high costs of homologating for the US thwarted those efforts. This time around, we hope the cars finally make it to the US!

*Car pictured above is the Wiesmann GT MF5, first produced in 2009

[GuidoK]

Cool.
So they're also back in the same building/factory?
(I can imagine that a building made in that shape is hard to sell to another business )

[deemo319]

This is great news. Fans bought the company and resuscitated it back to life.

Great to see boutique manufacturers and I hope they are very successful.

Since they have a deep passion for the brand I have a new tag line for them:

"Powered by Passion"

[Mdecisive]

Yeah the TT V8's are more powerful blah blah but god bless that S85 V10 what an engine!

[c63er]

Incredible. Let's hope more of this good stuff from the past comes back.

[6ixSpd]

The S62 powered predecessor was a gorgeous machine! I remember the Top Gear (or was it 5th Gear?) videos on it. What a cool car.

[Law]

Originally Posted by 6ixSpd

The S62 powered predecessor was a gorgeous machine! I remember the Top Gear (or was it 5th Gear?) videos on it. What a cool car.

Clarkson tested an S54 powered MF3 Roadster back in the day.

My personal favorites are still the S65 powered GT MF4-S and the S85 GT MF5

Pretty awesome that they've been resurrected.
I remember downloading the PDF brochures from the Wiesmann website to save as pieces of history upon hearing that they were going out of business a whiles back.
Glad they're back and with BMW M engines too


Edit: Engine Porn

[6ixSpd]

^Now that?s what I?m talking about! To hell with the S63, give me any of those old school beasts and I?m a happy camper.

[SpenceRx]

I?ve always thought these were neat. Never seen one and probably won?t in Canada.

[Z4M85]

I always liked this niche brand. I wish they would use all the old BMW NA engines instead of the turbo stuff: S54, S65, S85, maybe an S70/2 . The cars are fairly light and don't need anymore power, IMO, to be fast and fun drivers cars which look unique.

My favorite, by far, is the 20th edition MF3 (would prefer with silver BBS RGR-GT wheels and 6sp) with the S54 CSL engine

skip to 1:23 to hear that intake roar

[0-60Motorsports]

Great news, This is such a stunning car...

[MalibuBimmer]

Throwback look is pretty ugly. The Jag front end (with the bizarre headlights) is tremendously ugly. A design that was interred 30 years ago for a reason.

[GuidoK]

^yes they are a bit of an aquired taste.
z3m coupe was also an aquired taste and now is considered a gem.

Wiesmanns hold their value pretty good. From the earlier ones I always thought the interior was a bit sub par in design but later ones got very much better.
I've spotted 4 or 5 in the wild I think.

What I think is (from a technical pov) interesting about them, is that they not only use the bmw engines, but sometimes another bmw part but in a configuration that was never ment that way.
So sometimes you see 1 bmw suspension arm, but the rest of the arms in the multilink configuration is all custom.
Or an arm that is clearly made in the image of a bmw arm, but completely billet milled because they wanted an adaptation.
I mean in that picture with the s54 csl engine you can see a standard e46 strut top mount, but underneath that is a totally different strut in a dual wishbone config.

But competition is tough. For the (asking)price of a used wiesmann you can also buy a really nice gallardo or f430, or even a 458. Strong money for the wiesmanns on the 2nd hand market.

[xander_g]

Originally Posted by MalibuBimmer

Throwback look is pretty ugly. The Jag front end (with the bizarre headlights) is tremendously ugly. A design that was interred 30 years ago for a reason.

Glad I'm not the only one that feels this way.

[Calvin36]

What a beaut!!

[Vanne]

I LOVE THIS!!!!

i remember seeing their stand at Frankfurt airport just before going bust.. Lovely, just lovely cars.. id have one if they weren't so damn expensive


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