BMW has just released some new information about the long awaited 1-Series M Coupe, including engine information, release dates, and the toys it will carry.

Under the hood will be the twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six with 340 horsepower. That motor will be connected to six-speed manual transmission. There will no automatic option with this vehicle. That motor should be more than enough to haul around the car’s 3,307-pound weight.

The M1 will feature a chassis, braking system, and rear differential similar to the M3. In total, that power and these tweaks have made the M1 faster than the E46 M3 around the Nordschleife.

UPDATE 03/10/2011: BMW has placed an online configurator for the 1-Series M Coupe, the perfect opportunity to play a bit with the options offered for this amazing car. From this configurator, we were also able to get the pricing on all of the options offered. Hit the jump to check them out in our price section.

UPDATE 04/26/2011: When BMW unveiled the 1-Series M Coupe, there were some people that suggested a small car like this could never deliver the same performance numbers as the BMW M3. German sports car magazine, Sport Auto, took that as a challenge and took the coupe to Hockenheim where it clocked a lap time of 1:14.1. This final number is slightly better than the 1:14.2 time obtained by the BMW M3, but not as good as Porsche Cayman R’s PDK time of 1:12.4 or the BMW E46 M3 CSL’s 1:13.5. Still, not bad for a small car, eh?