Hassle in a Fancy Wrapper: The BMW M1

By Edgar Ferrymile

In the 1970's BMW decided they would establish themselves in the class with Porsche and Ferrari by creating a supercar. To do this they figured a design would have to be created that would compete with the Group 5 race car series, and then build it.

The regulatory standards told BMW that they would have to make 400 of their BMW supercar to be road worthy. This supercar was named the BMW M1. Unfortunately, the M1 turned into a historical story of how not to build a supercar due to the trouble the company had in trying to make it road worthy.

BMW motorsport department sought the experience of Lamborghini to help them design and construct the car. The end result was a silky, low riding, middle of the engine vehicle. The body work was made by Ital Design. The engine was a 3.5 litre with turbocharger meant to produce horsepower of 850 bhp. These specs were congruent with the Group 5 racing specifications.

Lamborghini was experiencing some financial setbacks during this time. They proved detrimental to the project since there were several delays and then the project was moved to Baur Germany. Still BMW motorsport department plodded on releasing the M1 in 1978, two years later than the project was supposed to be. This provided another problem because the Group 5 racing rules were modified and the M1 didn't fit in with the new standards.

In an effort to save the project from total disaster the head of BMW motorsport devised a one make race series called the Procar BMW M1 Championship. The series was very successful as it ran as a support race for the Formula 1 world championship, and pitted many past and present F1 stars, including Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet and Nikki Lauda, against each other in identical machinery.

The race was a success, but the BMW M1 never reached the hopes of its designers. The trim allowed for 277 horsepower, and 0 to 60 in 5.6 seconds. The top speed was 162 miles per hour. 456 models of the M1 were built, and today collectors of vehicles still seek this machine.

As a road car the BMW M1 was superb, featuring genuine supercar performance wrapped up with BMW's legendary build quality, and considerably lower running costs than other supercars of the era. Externally the M1 was striking with its twin kidney shaped front grill, pop up BMW headlight bulbs and the heavy black slats over the rear windscreen.

Despite the lack of success the BMW series had this did not mean certain aspects of the car were not reused later on. The engine was used in the BMW M5. The design was also brought back for a concept car called the M1 Homage. - 21393

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Whilst production of the BMW M1 has long since ceased, the tradition of building world class, high performance road cars continues with the BMW M3. Meanwhile for drivers on a tighter budget, cars like the Caterham 7 offer the same level of performance as the M3 but at a fraction of the price.