When BMW had won the European Touring Car Championship and the Formula 2, Jochen Neerpasch (BMW Motorsport chief) started to think about F1 in 1974. But he wanted BMW to build a V8 engine that could be used in a F1 car and in any sportscar racer.
In November 1975 he presented his plan to the BMW directors’ board. It seemed it would be difficult to build a sportscar, so they secretly approach Lamborghini. Because of the oil crisis and the promise of the Italian government to inject money in the firm if the deal was done, Lamborghini accepted and on the 13th of April 1976, deal. BMW then developped the engine and this would get a centrally position in the Italian race car, target :1978. First goal, the 24hours of Le Mans. But behind the scenes there was no peace. BMW wanted to produce a full-blood top model, but thought the car would not look nice enough with a V8 engine centrally placed. This meant a total change in plans.
The V8 project was cancelled and the available street car versions of their new top model would be limited to 800. And when the first model was ready in 1977, Lamborghini got into financial problems. BMW ended the contract, got all the prototypes out of the factory and went for new partners. The Italian firm Marchesi then produced the tube frames and TIR constructed the by Italdesign created car.
In the beginning of 1978 the first prototype was presented. The name: M1, Munich’s only mid-engine production car. But the street version did not cost 80000 DM anymore, but much much more. And because they could not comply with the homologation requirements of the Group 4, all racing plans ended in the garbage.
But Neerpash looked for a way to get his car on a race circuit. He constructed a one-make championship for M1 cars in a race prior to the European F1 races. Together with Bernie Ecclestone and Ron Dennis, the race would field the five fastest F1 drivers from the qualifications against a mix of endurance and touring car racers. The BMW Procar M1 series was born.
In April 1979 just two weeks before the Belgian GP, BMW -protégé Marc Surer raced with a still not homologated car in the Eifelrennen at the Nürburgring. There he could match the speed of the Group 5 cars and his duel with the Zakspeed Ford Capri of Toine Hezemans was phenomenal.
Apart from the now famous Procar races there was also the 24 hours of Le Mans. Privateer Hervé Poulain entered an Art Car painted by Andy Warhol in the IMSA-class. On the outside, the car #76 resembled the ‘ProCar’ M1 in appearance, with a deep front air dam, wheel arch flares, and a large rear wing. The team did well, qualifying twenty-third overall and third in their class. Poulain-Winkelhock – Mignot finished P 06 overall and second in the IMSA behind the Bick Barbour Porsche 935 ( famous driver: Paul Newman)
The second M1 looked like an M1 on steroids. The March Engineering entry in Group 5 had an extended body length, massively oversized fenders, and enlarged front air dam and rear wing. In addition the body was built on a lightweight spaceframe, and sported a 3.5-liter turbocharged engine. Despite its promising qualities, it was too slow to qualify.
About art-cars in Le Mans: story here.
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24 heures du Mans 1980 – five BMW M1
There were five M1s qualified for the 1980 24 Hours of Le Mans. There was the #83 BMW France entry, which showed a map of France on its bodywork for Didier Pironi, Dieter Quester and Marcel Mignot and the #84 BMW Motorsport entry driven by Hans Stuck, Dominique Lacaud and Hans-Georg Bürger. There were three other M1s including a reappearance by the March Engineering entry for Manfred Winkelhock, Patrick Neve and Mike Korten. This year substantial modifications were made to the March M1 including drastic reductions in body length, front and rear track, repositioning of the fuel tank, and a standard 3.5-liter engine in place of the turbocharged unit. Despite these modifications, the car was no faster than the standard M1s down the Mulsanne Straight.
The #95 was a French entered ZOL M1 for Servanin - Ferrier – Rousselot (DNF with engine problems in hour 20 of the race) and the #96 Garage Bac M1 (DNF after accident).
Weather conditions played a big role in the race. An intense thunderstorm covered the circuit before the start, and this enabled two BMW drivers to achieve extraordinary results because of great fuel economy and their incredible wet-weather driving talent. Stuck took the #84 Marlboro sponsored M1 from twenty-third to second overall by the end of the first hour, and remained in that position at the end of three hours. His performance was nearly matched by the #83 BMW France entry, which had climbed to ninth by the second hour, and held it through the third hour.
Then misfortunes hit the BMW effort. First, Stuck ran into a backmarker, which required an extended pit stop for replacement of the spoiler, windshield, and radiator. Then the BMW France encountered front-end damage due to a spin resulting in a steering rack change. They got more repairs needed later in the race. Additionally, just before the six-hour mark, the March-BMW entry would retire due to an accident on the Mulsanne. This would conclude a frustrating race for the car marked by multiple tire punctures, incurable vibrations front and rear, and steering problems. The Marlboro car worked its way up to eighth place after nine hours of racing, despite crankshaft damper problems. It would climb as high as seventh during the early hours of Sunday, eventually falling out of the top ten by the fourteenth hour. The #83 BMW France and #84 Marlboro entries finished the race P15 and P14 overall and fourth and fifth in the IMSA class, behind two Porsche 935K3s and a Ferrari Boxer.
24 hours Le Mans 1981 – again 6 BMW M1
Again 6 BMW M1 on the grid for the 1981 24h race.
Two of them were the lightweight spaceframe models entered by Peter Sauber. There was the #52 Wurth sponsored car driven by Quester -Surer – Deacon (Gr.5) and the #50 BASF sponsored car for H.Stuck-JP Jarier and Henzler (Gr. IMSA). They were 90 kilograms lighter than the other Group 4 and 5 cars, which were all Procar conversions. Note that this Sauber silhouette full tube chassis, a carbon body and a relatively standard Group 4 spec BMW M88 Straight 6 3.5L was good enough for the car to win the Nürburgring 1000 Kilometres on May 24th,1981 at the hands of Hans Stuck and Nelson Piquet. This difference was seen in qualifying times as they were within 3/100ths of a second of one another, and nearly eight seconds ahead of the other M1.
The two other Gr.5 cars were the #53 from EMKA production(again) with David Hobbs -Eddie Jordan and 'Steve' O'Rourke driving and the #51 Oreca car. Philippe Alliot, Bernard Darniche and Johnny Cecotto brought this car to P16 and 5th in their class( 278 laps) despite an early gearbox change. The #53 entry pulled into the pits early with a severe engine vibration, which warranted replacement of the crankshaft damper. Unfortunately, its bad luck did not end as it retired with engine failure after 20 hours of racing. The #71 Helmut Marko RSM car ( Danner- Oberndorfer -Von Bayern) and #72 ZOL Group 4 M1’s did not see the finish line. The #71 was out on Sunday morning (crankshaft damper failure) and the #72 with too much engine vibrations in hour 20.
The BASF #50 car retired on lap 57 with a broken chassis from an accident. The other Sauber entry car had an engine failure in the 20th hour of the race.
BMW M1 in 1982 - 1986
New regulations for the1982 Le Mans race brought new cars and only 3 M1’s to the start. The quickest M1, the #61 French Total car ( Roland Ennequin -Michel Gabriel -Franco Gasparetti) car qualified P39 overall and second in Group 5. The returning #62 Emka IMSA GTX qualified in a time over 4 minutes. The drivers were: Steve O'Rourke, Richard Down and Nick Mason. It was followed by the unique #85 multi-coloured USA M1 of Tony Garcia, which sported a large rear spoiler in place of the ubiquitous rear wing, also an IMSA entry.
In the race, the two IMSA M1 did make good progress. The #62 M1 gained thirty positions in the first five hours. The #85 gained sixteen positions in the same amount of time, which placed it just one spot adrift of the of the #61 Group 5 entry in P35. All three cars got on throughout the night. The #62 M1’s advanced to eleventh overall mildly hindered by a crankshaft damper replacement, and the #61 M1 climbed from thirty-fifth to eighteenth in eight hours. The #85 had an engine failure around 3:00 am. Then troubles hit ! The #62 M1 required a clutch change before noon on Sunday, and the #61 car needed a gearbox rebuild. This car got going again and finished the race in P18, 260 laps done. The #62 had more problems with the exhaust, an oil leak and that was the end.
There was no BMW M1 at the finish in the 1983 race. The only one, he #90 Brun entered car, driven by Leopold Von Bayern,Angelo Pallavicini and Jens Winther was out with gearbox issues after 160 laps.
In 1984, the two M1s entered in Group 5 did well in qualifications. First place was for the #101 Danish Castrol Team of Jens Winther, David Mercer and Lars Viggo-Jensen (DNK). P03 was for the #109, the Bayonne M1 (Philippe Dagoreau -Jean-François Yvon -Pierre de Thoisy). It proved to be a torrid race for the Group B entrants with no greater than ten positions covering all competitors during the first seven hours. After one of the Porsches retired due to engine failure, the #101 Castrol M1 did so as well with recurrent wheel-bearing problems at the ninth hour. The battle remained heated amongst the remaining three contenders, with the lead swapping between the #109 M1 and the Claude Haldi Porsche 930 turbo several times during the early morning hours. At the eighteen-hour mark, the Bayonne M1 would take the class lead for good, reaching as high as thirteenth, but finishing fourteenth overall with 291 laps completed.
At the start of the 1985 race, three BMW M, all group B entries, could be spotted. The #151 Helmut Gall entered car for Edgar Dören, Martin Birrane and Jean-Paul Libert were able to finish the race in a remarkable fifteenth place of twenty-four total finishers, ahead of many faster Group C cars. It is also credited with completing the most laps of any BMW M1 at Le Mans with 306 laps and as a sole survivor it won its class. The #152 Claude Haldi-Vogelsang M1( Harald Grohs -Altfrid Heger -Kurt Koenig) started the race very well but began falling back after 1 hour racing, eventually retiring with a broken gearbox at the end of three hours. Early Sunday morning, the private entered Swiss bright orange #157 retired with engine failure after rising to twenty-fourth place overall. Drivers were Enzo Calderari, Angelo Pallavicini and Marco Vanoli.
The final year for a possible M1 entry was in 1986.
The #111 Gr.B Waterloo Motors entered BMW for Michael Krankenberg, Pascal Witmeur and Jean-Paul Libert was the only M1 at the start. . Despite a spin on the very first lap, the M1 made remarkable progress, climbing to fortieth by the end of the first hour, and to P27 by the seventh hour running trouble-free. However, just before midnight the first of many pit stops were made to purge the cooling system. This would not hamper the car’s progress much, as early Sunday morning after 13 hours the #111 M1 would attain its highest position of sixteenth overall. The cooling system problems persisted, with a system purge during each hourly fuel stop. Despite this trouble, a good finish seemed inevitable as the car held eighteenth overall at 2:00 pmS. Sadly, around 2:30 the car came into the pits with gearbox problems. It remained in the pits for over an hour, but reentered the race with less than 30 minutes go with the transmission locked in second gear. This was a necessity as only cars running at the end of 24 hours are classified in the results. Although it was able to endure until the end, it was still not classified having raced an insufficient distance, only 264 laps done.
So.... want to see BMW M1 cars race again, one suggestion: the Le Mans classic. In 2025, the race will be held early in july. On the poster : a BMW M1 !
