Curbside Classic: 1980 BMW M1 – There Can Be Only 1

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– Posted on September 6, 2024

Having recovered from a litany of dramas, faux-pas and catastrophes (allied bombings, the loss of the Eisenach factory, the V8 debacle, etc.) in the post-war years, BMW spent the ‘60s rebuilding their image and confidence, thanks to the 700 and the Neue Klasse. The takeover of Glas in 1966 brought a huge increase in capacity, enabling the Bavarian company to start looking into prestige projects once again. It took a while for one to gel, but eventually BMW got into the supercar game. But just the (M-)one time.

The M1 project, initiated in 1975, was aimed at the WRC Group 4. The idea was to design a completely new race car from the ground up, build the required amount of street-legal versions and go after the championship title, then firmly in the hands of Lancia’s legendary Stratos.

Like the Lancia, BMW planned to go for a mid-engined layout. The issue was that they had very little experience in making cars of this type, so the Bavarians looked for an outfit with a proven track record. Eventually, a deal was struck with none other than Lamborghini, who started manufacturing a prototype. By the Italian carmaker was undergoing a period of turmoil following the departure of its founder, so work proceeded at a very slow pace. Too slow for BMW, in any case, who constantly tried to get the project back on track. They even considered the outright purchase of Lamborghini in 1976, but thought better of it.

There was no ideal solution, so BMW chose to renege the Lamborghini contract and take the M1 elsewhere to be finalized, tested and eventually partially assembled. The remainder of the development work was undertaken by a group of ex-Lamborghini engineers. For the rest, BMW contracted Italdesign, who worked in collaboration with a couple of second-tier coachbuilders to manufacture the tubular structure of the car and the fiberglass body panels. Both these elements were put together by Italdesign, who also oversaw the M1’s interior and some of the electrics.

The styling was penned by Italdesign supremo Giorgetto Giugiaro – a very busy man in the ‘70s, though it took inspiration from an earlier mid-engined BMW study undertaken by Paul Bracq, the E25 Turbo.

Monsieur Bracq and the 1972 Turbo

The 1972 Turbo was a pure dream car, though it did have a functioning chassis (with a transverse-mounted 2002 engine). It was made to commemorate the Munich Olympics, as well as the construction of BMW’s brand new quadra-cylindrical high-rise HQ in the same city. Although the M1 is a completely different car in many ways, a few visual cues were evidently carried over.

Partially built in Italy, the M1s were then shipped over to Stuttgart, where coachbuilder Baur would mate the M1 shells with the BMW-sourced running gear – i.e. the drivetrain (a 3.5 litre DOHC straight-6 with Kugelfischer fuel injection, producing 266hp (in street tune) and mated to a ZF 5-speed transaxle) and suspension. The cars were then taken to Munich for a final tune-up and inspection by M.

The 3.5 litre six, dubbed M88, was derived from the M49 3-litre found in the E9 coupé, albeit with a completely new head featuring 24 valves and, for the first time in a BMW production engine, twin overhead cams. This was a compromise: BMW engineers had initially hesitated between a V12 and a V8, but the project was probably deemed costly enough as was.

Given this rather protracted birth and convoluted production scheme, the M1 took a lot longer to make it on the track than expected. Priority was given to the track cars, most of which were ready by late 1978. However, they were not allowed to race in the WRC Group 4 as intended, given that the required street car equivalents were not yet made. So a special M1-only category was created, dubbed Procar, for 1979-80. BMW, in collaboration with Osella, built 44 cars for this category, which featured a 470hp engine and a number of aerodynamic and technical ameliorations.

The first street version M1s only reached their owners in February 1979. Distribution was limited to West Germany and a handful of European countries – no M1 was ever sold new in the US, Australia or Japan. The majority of cars (163, to be exact) were painted white. The deep orange hue sported by out feature car was the second-most common colour (98 cars), followed by a more Italian-looking red (71 cars) and blue (59 cars).

The M1 was a partial failure, in that only 399 street cars were made when BMW were hoping to reach 800. As brilliant as it was (and it was an outstanding performer, both on road and track), the M1 arrived a little late to the party, somehow. The fashion for bespoke and wedgy mid-engined racers was on the wane at the WRC, even if the Lancia 037 was to give it one last hurrah before the 4WD Audi rewrote the rulebook.

With the track cars, including a handful of Group 4 and Le Mans prototypes, the total number of M1s made only tallied 453 units. The last car was made in early 1981, but the M1 racers carried on competing until 1986.

There is quite a lot of information about these cars out there. The one facet of the M1 programme that seems to have been kept under wraps was the financial side — not a peep about what the whole deal cost BMW. I guess their pockets were quite a lot deeper by the late ’70s, so a pure prestige / sporting effort like the M1 was probably not going ot be an issue. Still, the fact that none of the following “M” cars were as elaborate as this one hints that it must have been a rather expensive project. There really could be only one M1.

 

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