1980 BMW E26 M1
Discussion
I thought it was time I started a thread about my BMW E26 M1, pictures and information have appeared in various places on PistonHeads and other forums, but I thought a summary of my ownership so far and a little history of both my car and the M1 project in general might be of interest.
Project E26 – Design and Manufacture
Many people probably already know some of the history of the M1, others will know nothing and a very few may know it all. I’ve taken the information below from a number of sources, some I’m 100% sure will be correct, others are not as reliable but I’m reasonably sure they are pretty close to what actually happened. I’ve added a list of references for those that want to check that I’m not just making this story up, I don’t think my imagination would be good enough for that anyway!
The E26 project was first proposed by Jocken Neerpasch to the BMW board on 30th September 1975 (1). The energy crisis of the early 70s was all but forgotten and performance restrictions for Group 4 and Group 5 ‘silhouette’ formulas (2). Unfortunately BMW did not have a model in production that was suitable for challenging the Ford Capri and Porsche 911 that were dominating the series. The initial proposal was to build a new F1 engine and a high end mid-engined sports car that utilised a road going version of that engine. At the time the dominant engines in F1 were the Cosworth V8 which had more torque and the Ferrari V12 which had more top end power, the idea was to build a 3 litre V10 to be designed by Paul Rosche which would combine the best characteristics of both units (3). Some reports say that the V10 idea was quickly changed to a V8 on cost grounds.
Neerpasch approached Lamborghini and on 13 April 1976 they signed a contract specifying the development and production of 2000 units of the mid-engined E26 (1).
The plan was that the E26 would have the designation ‘nine’ which meant that to fit in with the model range the car would need to be a luxury vehicle with top end equipment and comfort. It soon became apparent that combining the F1 engine and these requirements would exceed the budget and time available. The development of the F1 engine was stopped and the contract with Lamborghini renegotiated to specify a production of 800 mid-engined cars using a development of the M49 in line six cylinder engine from the racing CSL Coupes with a new 4 valve per cylinder head to be developed by Paul Rosche, the M88. The E26 project was renamed E26/1 (1).
The E26/1 would be a significantly different specification as it would no longer need to be a luxury vehicle, it would be designed as a race car with a road going version built to satisfy the homologation requirements for the Group 4 GT championship which required production of 400 identical road cars. The design would be loosely based on the BMW Turbo concept car designed by Paul Bracq from 1972, it would use a square section tubular space frame chassis and glass fibre reinforced plastic (GRP) body panels. The car would also be considerably lighter and shorter than the original specification.
The car was styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro with the chassis and suspension designed by Gian Paolo Dallara of Lamborghini (4).
Lamborghini was to manufacture the chassis and assemble the GRP body and interior and install the engine supplied by BMW, by late 1976 4 prototypes had been built (3).
The M88/1 engine in the road car developed 277bhp at 6,500rpm and 470bhp at 9,000rpm in the Group 4 car. This was mated to a 5 speed ZF gearbox and a limited slip differential with 25% locking. The M88/2 turbocharged version designed for Group 5 produced nearly 1,000bhp (2).
Unfortunately by Spring 1977 things started to go seriously wrong. The 4 prototypes failed to come up to BMWs quality standards (2). Then it was discovered that Lamborghini, who had been given the equivalent of over £1 million from the Italian government, had blown the lot on development of the Cheetah off road project (3). Suppliers were refusing to deliver components and Lamborghini went into receivership (2). On 19th April 1977 the contract with Lamborghini was terminated and there are unconfirmed reports of night time raids by BMW on the Lamborghini facilities in Sant’ Agata to recover the various designs, prototypes, material and manufacturing jigs so that they were not lost (1). On 23 May 1977 the Board of Management requested alternatives as to how the E26/1 project could be realised.
The solution was probably the most complex manufacturing processes that you can imagine! Giorgetto Giugiaro stepped into the breach and offered to manufacture the car he designed. However his design consultancy in Turin was far too small to manufacture in any quantity so various components were sub-contracted. The space frame chassis was built by Marchesi in Modena and the GRP body panels by Transformationi Italani Resine of Reggio Emilia. These were shipped to Giugiaros newly formed Ital Design company where the GRP body was bonded to the chassis, the interior was fitted and the majority of the suspension installed. The part complete body was then shipped to Baur Coachworks in Stuttgart where much of the interior was removed again, the engine as supplied by BMW, together with the ZF gearbox installed and the car fully assembled. Finally the car was shipped to BMW in Munich for inspection, final tuning and any required rectification work (1) (3). After final inspection the cars were parked in a special showroom to await their buyers (2).
This tortuous manufacturing process had a number of repercussions. First, after delays to the start of production, the rate that cars could be manufactured was significantly less that first envisioned and second, the cost increased dramatically. The maximum production was estimated at 200 units a year (1), this meant it would be 2 years before the 400 cars required for Group 4 homologation would be complete. Then the FIA changed the Group 4 homologation requirements so that 400 cars had to be produced within a year, BMW had a race car with no series in which to race!
The solution was devised with cooperation from Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley in the form of the ProCar series, 25 identical cars in a support race to the European F1 races. The idea was to have the top 5 qualifying drivers from the Grand Prix to race against 20 privateers in identical machinery, however even this idea was flawed. Due to sponsorship many of the top drivers who used Ferrari or Renault engines were prohibited from racing in a BMW (3). Fortunately the ProCar series proved to be popular if short lived, only being run for two years in 1979 and 1980.
As a road car the M1 was widely praised by the motoring press, the only real complaint was the rather dour, if functional, interior. The car was described as surprisingly practical for a mid-engined supper car with good ride and top class performance. The big problem was cost. The M1 cost much more than most rivals due to its manufacturing process, at 100,000 DM about 3 times that of a Porsche 928. BMW had problems selling the cars, in the end virtually giving some away to main dealer principles, racing drivers etc.
In all, 460 M1 chassis numbers were allocated, of those 2 were not built, 6 were spare bodies, 43 were ProCars, 386 customer cars and the rest press cars, crash test cars etc.
1) “BMW M1 The Story” Jochen Neerpasch and Jürgen Lewandowski, Delius Klasing Verlag, 2008. ISBN 978-3-7688-2523-8.
2) BMW Mobile Tradition live / 25 Years of the BMW M1 Special September 2003.
3) Classic and Sports Car, March 2004.
4) Encyclopedia of Super Cars #33 BMW M1.
My car is one of the standard customer cars, delivered to its original owner in Germany during February 1980. The car started life white with black interior (only a handful of cars were made with the optional brown interior). As some time in the late 90’s or early 2000’s the car was painted Silver and re-trimmed with a red interior.
These are the earliest pictures I have of the car
At the same time the engine was tuned and measured at about 330bhp.
The car was then shipped to the UK in late 2009, the new owner had the car returned to white and had the top of the dash recovered in black to reduce reflections in the windscreen. This is how the car looked when I bought it in 2014.
The paint job that had been done was really quite superb, you can tell that it’s not original because it’s too good! Even though the interior had also been done to a high standard, I wanted to return the car to its original specification.
Finding spare parts, especially cosmetic items, for an M1 is not an easy task! Fortunately, mechanically the car was in excellent condition. However, even simple things are very hard, even impossible, to find. After examining the car thoroughly I decided that I needed the following parts to return the car to the way it was when built:
- Cloth for seats, door cards, rear bulkhead and roof lining – NLA from BMW.
- Black leather for dash, centre console, door cards and other trim.
- Handbrake handle and gaiter – NLA from BMW.
- Gear knob –NLA from BMW.
- Front central cubby hole – NLA from BMW.
- Original Becker Mexico Radio specific to the M1 – NLA from BMW.
- Digital Clock – NLA from BMW.
- Carpets – some parts still available from BMW.
- Floor mats – NLA from BMW.
- ///M1 logo for the rear, missing after the re-paint – available from BMW.
- Wheel caps with old BMW motorsport logo – NLA from BMW.
- Spare wheel cover – available from BMW.
- Spare tyre – size no longer made by any manufacturer.
- Missing screwdrivers from the tool kit – NLA from BMW.
- Front drivers side indicator which had a small crack – NLA from BMW.
- Door window seals, perished – NLA from BMW.
- Various stickers for tyre pressure etc.
- Engine cover gas struts – available from BMW.
- Engine cover catch gaskets – NLA from BMW.
- Gear linkage protective rubber boots – NLA from BMW.
It appears that at some point in the past, BMW has decided that they would no longer stock non-essential parts for the M1, unconfirmed reports indicating that the existing stock was actually disposed of to free up warehouse space. Fortunately, there are a few people that seem to have got their hands on that stock, unfortunately they charge an exorbitant amount for them!
The ///M1 log proved to be quite problematic. I bought one from BMW, it was wrong! I bought one from a specialist in Germany, it was wrong! Finally I found some New Old Stock in the USA that was correct!
Here are the two incorrect decals :
The top one is from BMW, it’s the correct type of sticker with peel off strips either side, however there should be a space between the /// and the M and the ///s are not the same width!
The bottom one is from a supplier in Germany, it’s just a rectangular sticker with clear parts and the ///s are also different widths!
The correct decal finally applied :
I managed to source most of the NLA parts from various sources in Germany, the remaining items were the Clock, Screwdrivers, Indicator lens, spare tyre, engine cover catch gaskets, gear linkage rubber boots and window seals.
I found that someone in the UK had bought up BMWs stock of M1 parts, they had the Clock and engine cover catch gaskets.
The original space saver spare is a 105 R18 tyre, I found that Pirelli make a 115/85 R18 tyre, this just fits inside the replacement spare wheel cover that I got from BMW which is very slightly larger than the original which had a broken zip.
The original screwdrivers were made by Heyco, incredibly they still make the exact same screwdrivers today. However, I could not find a supplier in the UK. I contacted Heyco direct and they sent me a set for free! Amazing service! Here are the new screwdrivers
And the completed tool kit, they don’t make them like they used to!
In the end I had to have the window seals and gear linkage rubber boots made for me. I found a company in China that made 100m of the window seal profile after sending them a sample and a company in the UK that made bespoke Polyurethane boots. I sourced the indicator eventually from Germany too after a very long search. I also replaced the kph speedo for a mph version, I like to know how fast I’m going at a glance and not have to work it out!
So, after about a year and a half of work to do the re-trim and replace the various worn out or missing parts, this is what she looks like now
The car was displayed at the London Classic Car show on the Grand Avenue in February and was specifically picked out by TopGear and The Telegraph as one of the highlights.
Project E26 – Design and Manufacture
Many people probably already know some of the history of the M1, others will know nothing and a very few may know it all. I’ve taken the information below from a number of sources, some I’m 100% sure will be correct, others are not as reliable but I’m reasonably sure they are pretty close to what actually happened. I’ve added a list of references for those that want to check that I’m not just making this story up, I don’t think my imagination would be good enough for that anyway!
The E26 project was first proposed by Jocken Neerpasch to the BMW board on 30th September 1975 (1). The energy crisis of the early 70s was all but forgotten and performance restrictions for Group 4 and Group 5 ‘silhouette’ formulas (2). Unfortunately BMW did not have a model in production that was suitable for challenging the Ford Capri and Porsche 911 that were dominating the series. The initial proposal was to build a new F1 engine and a high end mid-engined sports car that utilised a road going version of that engine. At the time the dominant engines in F1 were the Cosworth V8 which had more torque and the Ferrari V12 which had more top end power, the idea was to build a 3 litre V10 to be designed by Paul Rosche which would combine the best characteristics of both units (3). Some reports say that the V10 idea was quickly changed to a V8 on cost grounds.
Neerpasch approached Lamborghini and on 13 April 1976 they signed a contract specifying the development and production of 2000 units of the mid-engined E26 (1).
The plan was that the E26 would have the designation ‘nine’ which meant that to fit in with the model range the car would need to be a luxury vehicle with top end equipment and comfort. It soon became apparent that combining the F1 engine and these requirements would exceed the budget and time available. The development of the F1 engine was stopped and the contract with Lamborghini renegotiated to specify a production of 800 mid-engined cars using a development of the M49 in line six cylinder engine from the racing CSL Coupes with a new 4 valve per cylinder head to be developed by Paul Rosche, the M88. The E26 project was renamed E26/1 (1).
The E26/1 would be a significantly different specification as it would no longer need to be a luxury vehicle, it would be designed as a race car with a road going version built to satisfy the homologation requirements for the Group 4 GT championship which required production of 400 identical road cars. The design would be loosely based on the BMW Turbo concept car designed by Paul Bracq from 1972, it would use a square section tubular space frame chassis and glass fibre reinforced plastic (GRP) body panels. The car would also be considerably lighter and shorter than the original specification.
The car was styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro with the chassis and suspension designed by Gian Paolo Dallara of Lamborghini (4).
Lamborghini was to manufacture the chassis and assemble the GRP body and interior and install the engine supplied by BMW, by late 1976 4 prototypes had been built (3).
The M88/1 engine in the road car developed 277bhp at 6,500rpm and 470bhp at 9,000rpm in the Group 4 car. This was mated to a 5 speed ZF gearbox and a limited slip differential with 25% locking. The M88/2 turbocharged version designed for Group 5 produced nearly 1,000bhp (2).
Unfortunately by Spring 1977 things started to go seriously wrong. The 4 prototypes failed to come up to BMWs quality standards (2). Then it was discovered that Lamborghini, who had been given the equivalent of over £1 million from the Italian government, had blown the lot on development of the Cheetah off road project (3). Suppliers were refusing to deliver components and Lamborghini went into receivership (2). On 19th April 1977 the contract with Lamborghini was terminated and there are unconfirmed reports of night time raids by BMW on the Lamborghini facilities in Sant’ Agata to recover the various designs, prototypes, material and manufacturing jigs so that they were not lost (1). On 23 May 1977 the Board of Management requested alternatives as to how the E26/1 project could be realised.
The solution was probably the most complex manufacturing processes that you can imagine! Giorgetto Giugiaro stepped into the breach and offered to manufacture the car he designed. However his design consultancy in Turin was far too small to manufacture in any quantity so various components were sub-contracted. The space frame chassis was built by Marchesi in Modena and the GRP body panels by Transformationi Italani Resine of Reggio Emilia. These were shipped to Giugiaros newly formed Ital Design company where the GRP body was bonded to the chassis, the interior was fitted and the majority of the suspension installed. The part complete body was then shipped to Baur Coachworks in Stuttgart where much of the interior was removed again, the engine as supplied by BMW, together with the ZF gearbox installed and the car fully assembled. Finally the car was shipped to BMW in Munich for inspection, final tuning and any required rectification work (1) (3). After final inspection the cars were parked in a special showroom to await their buyers (2).
This tortuous manufacturing process had a number of repercussions. First, after delays to the start of production, the rate that cars could be manufactured was significantly less that first envisioned and second, the cost increased dramatically. The maximum production was estimated at 200 units a year (1), this meant it would be 2 years before the 400 cars required for Group 4 homologation would be complete. Then the FIA changed the Group 4 homologation requirements so that 400 cars had to be produced within a year, BMW had a race car with no series in which to race!
The solution was devised with cooperation from Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley in the form of the ProCar series, 25 identical cars in a support race to the European F1 races. The idea was to have the top 5 qualifying drivers from the Grand Prix to race against 20 privateers in identical machinery, however even this idea was flawed. Due to sponsorship many of the top drivers who used Ferrari or Renault engines were prohibited from racing in a BMW (3). Fortunately the ProCar series proved to be popular if short lived, only being run for two years in 1979 and 1980.
As a road car the M1 was widely praised by the motoring press, the only real complaint was the rather dour, if functional, interior. The car was described as surprisingly practical for a mid-engined supper car with good ride and top class performance. The big problem was cost. The M1 cost much more than most rivals due to its manufacturing process, at 100,000 DM about 3 times that of a Porsche 928. BMW had problems selling the cars, in the end virtually giving some away to main dealer principles, racing drivers etc.
In all, 460 M1 chassis numbers were allocated, of those 2 were not built, 6 were spare bodies, 43 were ProCars, 386 customer cars and the rest press cars, crash test cars etc.
1) “BMW M1 The Story” Jochen Neerpasch and Jürgen Lewandowski, Delius Klasing Verlag, 2008. ISBN 978-3-7688-2523-8.
2) BMW Mobile Tradition live / 25 Years of the BMW M1 Special September 2003.
3) Classic and Sports Car, March 2004.
4) Encyclopedia of Super Cars #33 BMW M1.
My car is one of the standard customer cars, delivered to its original owner in Germany during February 1980. The car started life white with black interior (only a handful of cars were made with the optional brown interior). As some time in the late 90’s or early 2000’s the car was painted Silver and re-trimmed with a red interior.
These are the earliest pictures I have of the car
At the same time the engine was tuned and measured at about 330bhp.
The car was then shipped to the UK in late 2009, the new owner had the car returned to white and had the top of the dash recovered in black to reduce reflections in the windscreen. This is how the car looked when I bought it in 2014.
The paint job that had been done was really quite superb, you can tell that it’s not original because it’s too good! Even though the interior had also been done to a high standard, I wanted to return the car to its original specification.
Finding spare parts, especially cosmetic items, for an M1 is not an easy task! Fortunately, mechanically the car was in excellent condition. However, even simple things are very hard, even impossible, to find. After examining the car thoroughly I decided that I needed the following parts to return the car to the way it was when built:
- Cloth for seats, door cards, rear bulkhead and roof lining – NLA from BMW.
- Black leather for dash, centre console, door cards and other trim.
- Handbrake handle and gaiter – NLA from BMW.
- Gear knob –NLA from BMW.
- Front central cubby hole – NLA from BMW.
- Original Becker Mexico Radio specific to the M1 – NLA from BMW.
- Digital Clock – NLA from BMW.
- Carpets – some parts still available from BMW.
- Floor mats – NLA from BMW.
- ///M1 logo for the rear, missing after the re-paint – available from BMW.
- Wheel caps with old BMW motorsport logo – NLA from BMW.
- Spare wheel cover – available from BMW.
- Spare tyre – size no longer made by any manufacturer.
- Missing screwdrivers from the tool kit – NLA from BMW.
- Front drivers side indicator which had a small crack – NLA from BMW.
- Door window seals, perished – NLA from BMW.
- Various stickers for tyre pressure etc.
- Engine cover gas struts – available from BMW.
- Engine cover catch gaskets – NLA from BMW.
- Gear linkage protective rubber boots – NLA from BMW.
It appears that at some point in the past, BMW has decided that they would no longer stock non-essential parts for the M1, unconfirmed reports indicating that the existing stock was actually disposed of to free up warehouse space. Fortunately, there are a few people that seem to have got their hands on that stock, unfortunately they charge an exorbitant amount for them!
The ///M1 log proved to be quite problematic. I bought one from BMW, it was wrong! I bought one from a specialist in Germany, it was wrong! Finally I found some New Old Stock in the USA that was correct!
Here are the two incorrect decals :
The top one is from BMW, it’s the correct type of sticker with peel off strips either side, however there should be a space between the /// and the M and the ///s are not the same width!
The bottom one is from a supplier in Germany, it’s just a rectangular sticker with clear parts and the ///s are also different widths!
The correct decal finally applied :
I managed to source most of the NLA parts from various sources in Germany, the remaining items were the Clock, Screwdrivers, Indicator lens, spare tyre, engine cover catch gaskets, gear linkage rubber boots and window seals.
I found that someone in the UK had bought up BMWs stock of M1 parts, they had the Clock and engine cover catch gaskets.
The original space saver spare is a 105 R18 tyre, I found that Pirelli make a 115/85 R18 tyre, this just fits inside the replacement spare wheel cover that I got from BMW which is very slightly larger than the original which had a broken zip.
The original screwdrivers were made by Heyco, incredibly they still make the exact same screwdrivers today. However, I could not find a supplier in the UK. I contacted Heyco direct and they sent me a set for free! Amazing service! Here are the new screwdrivers
And the completed tool kit, they don’t make them like they used to!
In the end I had to have the window seals and gear linkage rubber boots made for me. I found a company in China that made 100m of the window seal profile after sending them a sample and a company in the UK that made bespoke Polyurethane boots. I sourced the indicator eventually from Germany too after a very long search. I also replaced the kph speedo for a mph version, I like to know how fast I’m going at a glance and not have to work it out!
So, after about a year and a half of work to do the re-trim and replace the various worn out or missing parts, this is what she looks like now
The car was displayed at the London Classic Car show on the Grand Avenue in February and was specifically picked out by TopGear and The Telegraph as one of the highlights.
JakeT said:
Mega read Richard, good job on the resto! Having a classic of that calibre is better than money in the bank, and you get to drool all over it sitting in the garage. Also, having had a look at your profile you've got a mega collection there. Any pics of them all?
Here are some pictures of all three of my M's together, not the best pictures as I did not realise that the camera was set to +2 exposure compensation, so the white M1 is over exposed. By the time I realised the cars had been put away.
Wow.
Just incredible. I actually like how it looked in silver but it's just superb back in its original white. As a 20 something I stood and drooled over an M1 L&C's were selling. I think it was about £42k at the time? I just loved the dual roundel on the rear. Hopefully they'll put my E30 close by, although not too close as it'll look a right shed by comparison!
Just incredible. I actually like how it looked in silver but it's just superb back in its original white. As a 20 something I stood and drooled over an M1 L&C's were selling. I think it was about £42k at the time? I just loved the dual roundel on the rear. Hopefully they'll put my E30 close by, although not too close as it'll look a right shed by comparison!
Thanks for posting this, what a stunning car and a great write up. As we all dream of the lottery win cars, these are very high up on my list, I love the procars too, possibly the best road to race car transformation ever just perfect form and function, with some iconic liveries and that engine noise !
Anyway please keep the ownership experience coming, what are they like to drive ? The closest I' m likely to get is on my sons xbox game Project cars, but it's the best car on there and one of the my favourite on here.
Anyway please keep the ownership experience coming, what are they like to drive ? The closest I' m likely to get is on my sons xbox game Project cars, but it's the best car on there and one of the my favourite on here.
What a delicious car, and well done for being so particular about returning it to original spec.
It seems appropriate to post this inboard video of a Procar as it sounds sublime - starts from around 45 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVkY8oA3RlE
It seems appropriate to post this inboard video of a Procar as it sounds sublime - starts from around 45 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVkY8oA3RlE
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff