Performance from within

Automakers gild profit margins and polish reputations with in-house high-performance divisions.

In a U.S. market defined by rising affluence and an interest in displaying it, automakers are increasingly turning to in-house high-performance divisions to produce limited-production specialty models. These high-performance divisions are typically modeled on BMW's Motorsport Division and produce vehicles that are differentiated with unique bodywork, powerful engines, taut suspension, and massive brakes.

Once seen perhaps as an interesting afterthought, or even as an exercise in corporate ego, performance divisions can be big business. The granddaddy of them all is BMW's Motorsport (or M) Division, founded in 1972. The rationale of its creation is a German colloquialism that maintains that “If you want to go racing, you go to the green meadow,” said Friedbert Holz, spokesman for M. That means that a racing program is better conducted outside the restrictive confines of a corporate bureaucracy, he explained. Not coincidentally, the first director of the M division was Bob Lutz, who more recently instituted General Motors' own performance division.