BMW's original M

The M1 holds a special significance for BMW, being not only the firm’s first bona fide supercar, but also the first model to be solely developed by the M Division. The driving force behind the project was Jochen Neerpasch, then head of BMW Motorsport, who wanted to create a track-focused machine that could fly the flag for the company in top-flight competition.

In order to challenge the all-conquering Porsche 911, Neerpasch called for the new car to be mid-engined. Lacking the capacity to produce the 400 examples required to meet homologation rules, BMW approached arguably the experts in mid-engine design: Lamborghini. A tubular steel space-frame chassis was duly created by mastermind of the Miura, Gian Paolo Dallara, but with economic headwinds proving a challenge for the ailing firm, the M1 project was taken in-house in April 1978.

Despite parting company with Lamborghini, the M1 remained an international affair, with the sleek, wedge-shaped fiberglass body being designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and built by Trasformazioni Italiana Resine, and the chassis assembled by another Modena firm, Marchesi. Both were made whole at Ital Engineering, a company founded by former Sant’Agata engineers and based just 10 miles from the Lamborghini factory. The partially finished cars were then sent to Germany, where Baur installed the engine designed by Paul Rosche.

Some 56 BMW M1s built between 1978 and 1981 would go on to fulfil Munich’s motorsport ambitions, among them a one-model race series dubbed the BMW M1 Procar Championship. The remaining 399 examples were in road-going trim, built to homologate the model for competition.

This immaculate 1980 BMW M1 is available as part of RM Sotheby’s Amelia Island auction on the 4th March 2023. Photos © Zach Brehl / RM Sotheby’s