BMW M1 Car of the Week

...in collaboration with Lamborghini, in sufficient numbers for homologation – approval to race.

Early on in the project, Lamborghini pulled out for financial reasons and BMW took full control, by which time only seven prototypes had been made. All up, only 456 production examples were built.

The M1 Design by Giugiaro was inspired by the Paul Bracq-designed BMW Turbo, created as a celebration piece for the Munich Olympics in 1972. As you can see in our gallery of photos, the M1 didn’t veer too far from the Turbo design.

Powered by a twin-cam M88/1 3.5 litre, six cylinder engine, the precursor of BMW’s 3 and 5 series ‘M’ cars produced 204kW in the road-ready versions, and a whopping 634kW in the turbocharged racing cars.

Procar

In motorsport, the BMW M1 had various successes in the short-lived Group B era but is best known for Procar, a one-make championship using modified M1s.

Known as the Procar BMW M1 Championship, it served as an opportunity for drivers from different disciplines to race against each other in exactly the same car. Niki Lauder and Nelson Piquet are notable winners of the event. Australia’s Alan Jones also raced during this time.

In 1981 BMW chose not to continue Procar, deciding instead to pursue its entry into Formula One.

BMW Art cars

The BMW Art Car Project was started in 1975 by race driver and auctioneer Herve Poulain. His idea involved commissioning renowned artists to paint production and race ready beemers.

To date 17 cars have been painted by big name artists like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and our own Ken Done. Robin Rhode painted the last one – a BMW Z4 in 2009.

BMW M1 Homage

For the M1’s 30th anniversary, BMW unveiled the Giorgio Giugiaro-designed BMW M1 Homage Concept at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d'Este in 2008. It was again inspired by the BMW Turbo and, of course, the original M1. BMW insists that the Homage is just a ‘design study’ and will not be produced.