Development history The motorsport division of BMW, headed by Jochen Neerpasch, had been wanting to compete in motorsports using a car developed for competition racing, in order to compete with arch rival
Porsche in Group-5 racing. Thus, the development of the M1 was initiated. Neerpasch, who was head of the development program, stressed that the car was to be strictly mid-engine in order to outclass its competitors. As BMW wasn't able to build 400 road-going examples of the car in the required time period as stipulated by the rules, the company partnered with
Lamborghini to work out the details of the car's chassis, assemble prototypes and manufacture the vehicles. The tubular steel space frame chassis was the work of
Gianpaolo Dallara, but soon Lamborghini's financial position deteriorated and the possibility of the car's production by the Italian manufacturer faded, so BMW reassumed control over the project in April 1978, after seven prototypes were built. The delay in production and the changes in Group 5 rules forced the company to compete in Group 4 racing with the car. The M1 coupé was hand-built between 1978 and 1981 under the
motorsport division of BMW, as a
homologation special for
sports car racing. The fibreglass body was designed by
Giorgetto Giugiaro, taking inspiration from the 1972
BMW Turbo concept car. Since the engineering of the car was still incomplete, a group of former Lamborghini engineers had founded a company named Italengineering, which offered to complete the car's design. Less than 10 miles away from the Lamborghini shop, the engineering for the M1 was finished.
Engine and transmission The BMW M1 is the first car to be solely developed by
BMW M and employs a
M88/1 petrol
straight-six engine with
Kugelfischer-
Bosch mechanical fuel injection and Magneti-Marelli ignition system. The engine was developed by
Paul Rosche, who was also responsible for the
S14 inline-four engine and the
S70/2 V12 engine. A version of this engine was later used in the South African version of the
745i, of which 209 examples were built between 1984 and 1986, as well as the
E24 M6/M635CSi and
E28 M5. The engine has six separate
throttle bodies,
twin-cams,
4 valves per cylinder, and generates a power output of at 6,500 rpm and of torque at 5,000 rpm in the road version, giving the car a top speed of . The engine was mated to a 5-speed manual transmission made by
ZF Friedrichshafen equipped with a 40% locking limited slip differential.
Steering, suspension and brakes The M1 has unassisted rack-and-pinion steering, and a double-wishbone suspension system with adjustable coil springs and Bilstein gas filled dampers. The road car had softer suspension bushings for better ride quality and tractability. The hand-built M88/1 engines were supplied by BMW from
Munich to be installed in the cars. The completed cars were shipped to BMW Motorsport in Munich for final inspection and delivery. Only 453 production cars were built, making it one of BMW's rarest models. Out of the 453, 399 were road going units while 53 were made for motorsport.
Accolades The M1 had various successes in motorsports. In 2004,
Sports Car International placed the car at number ten on their list of
top sports cars of the 1970s. == Motorsport ==