1980 BMW E26 M1

[sutts]

RichardM5 said:

The Classic Heroes car is ULB 262W, STH 899 I believe belongs to Tim Hignett who has been involved with M1s for a long time.

Is the Piquet pro car in the UK? The ProcCar scene is another level altogether!

That pic was from 2013 when a round of the DTM came to Brands Hatch - there were a couple of ProCars doing demo runs around the track; amazing sight/sound.

[RichardM5]

Stuart Thompson said:

Tim of L&C used to have 2 the white one pictured, and 1 with pro car type spoilers in red. This was going back to the late 80s early 90s

I wonder if the red car with pro car type spoilers was the one that's now at Bowker in Preston?

[e21Mark]

I need to start doing the lottery again.

[militantmandy]

Much, much nicer interior than the red. Car looks amazing!

[bungz]

Splendid!

Got to say the previous red interior was gopping for me, has much more class now back to original.

[Galsia]

I had no idea that this car was actually available in any number. How much are these worth?

[silentbrown]

Galsia said:

I had no idea that this car was actually available in any number. How much are these worth?

Just under 400 road cars. Around €5-600,000, maybe ?

http://www.coys.co.uk/showroom-cars/1978-bmw-m1-bm...

[Stuart Thompson]

RichardM5 said:

I wonder if the red car with pro car type spoilers was the one that's now at Bowker in Preston?

Certainly looks like it.

[RichardM5]

silentbrown said:

Galsia said:

I had no idea that this car was actually available in any number. How much are these worth?

Just under 400 road cars.

The exact number that are quoted seems to vary, there were definitely 458 chassis made. There were 43 ProCar chassis and 386 customer cars. The remaining 29 were used for crash tests, initial tests, demonstrators, show cars, press cars etc. and there were 6 spare chassis. Some of the show cars, press cars and demonstrators are in effect the same as the customer cars, which in total gives 393 road cars. I know some of the spare chassis have also been made up to create cars, at least one is a road car as opposed to a race car. However, some of the customer cars were converted to race cars, how many road cars remain I don't know for sure, I'd guess at 300 or so.

silentbrown said:

Around €5-600,000, maybe ?

http://www.coys.co.uk/showroom-cars/1978-bmw-m1-bm...

That car was one of the press cars, interestingly it's had the front spoiler painted black (as it should be) quite recently, the pictures in the Coys listing have been changed. The interior is also pretty worn. It has the prototype Becker Mexico Olympia radio that I don't think was fitted to any customer cars.

[julian64]

silentbrown said:

Just under 400 road cars. Around €5-600,000, maybe ?

http://www.coys.co.uk/showroom-cars/1978-bmw-m1-bm...

No point quoting that cos it only tells you people like to pay for rare, but doesn't tell you anything about how good the car was or wasn't

[silentbrown]

julian64 said:

No point quoting that cos it only tells you people like to pay for rare, but doesn't tell you anything about how good the car was or wasn't

Well, all M1's are rare. That's a huge part of the price and appeal. Here's some more evidence indicating that's a typical price.

http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/cars-for-sale/...

[RichardM5]

julian64 said:

No point quoting that cos it only tells you people like to pay for rare, but doesn't tell you anything about how good the car was or wasn't

The car was not popular when it was built because it was too expensive after all the messing about with Lamborghini making it. The Porsche 928 was a much more sensible proposition given the price.

Performance wise, it was up there with the best of the cars available at the time. Here's a comparison table done by Popular Mechanics in the USA in 1981, there was some problem with the brakes apparently which was why it did not do particularly well in that category



Add to that the fact that it has a reasonable, if not large, boot space and is generally very reliable and usable (except for parking for which it is st) and I think you'll find that most people that know what they are talking about think it's a pretty good car.

[silentbrown]

julian64 said:

No point quoting that cos it only tells you people like to pay for rare, but doesn't tell you anything about how good the car was or wasn't

RichardM5 said:

I think you'll find that most people that know what they are talking about think it's a pretty good car.

I assumed he meant that the condition of the Coy's cars was unknown?

[RichardM5]

silentbrown said:

julian64 said:

No point quoting that cos it only tells you people like to pay for rare, but doesn't tell you anything about how good the car was or wasn't

RichardM5 said:

I think you'll find that most people that know what they are talking about think it's a pretty good car.

I assumed he meant that the condition of the Coy's cars was unknown?

Ah, yes I can see that!

Well, I don't think it's that great. The listing does not give the mileage, but as a Press car it's probably been thrashed. The interior and engine bay don't look in great condition. The exterior looks good, except the wheels, they don;t have the correct logo on the centre caps or the Campagnolo logo on the rim and they have hammered on weights which will have damaged them. The details around the rear window side vents looks a bit grotty. On the plus side, it's not been Fedralised for the US emissions and pedestrian impact legislation, which quite a few cars have had done.

[Galsia]

silentbrown said:

Just under 400 road cars. Around €5-600,000, maybe ?

http://www.coys.co.uk/showroom-cars/1978-bmw-m1-bm...

Wow, probably 10x what I thought!

[julian64]

RichardM5 said:

silentbrown said:

julian64 said:

No point quoting that cos it only tells you people like to pay for rare, but doesn't tell you anything about how good the car was or wasn't

RichardM5 said:

I think you'll find that most people that know what they are talking about think it's a pretty good car.

I assumed he meant that the condition of the Coy's cars was unknown?

Ah, yes I can see that!

Well, I don't think it's that great. The listing does not give the mileage, but as a Press car it's probably been thrashed. The interior and engine bay don't look in great condition. The exterior looks good, except the wheels, they don;t have the correct logo on the centre caps or the Campagnolo logo on the rim and they have hammered on weights which will have damaged them. The details around the rear window side vents looks a bit grotty. On the plus side, it's not been Fedralised for the US emissions and pedestrian impact legislation, which quite a few cars have had done.

Nope actually I meant the car. I remember being an 323i owning yuppy in the late eighties when these were still quite rare but not that well thought of. I have a really soft spot for them and they are part of the reason I ended up with a string of BMWs. I can remember when the 8 series came out that the boss of the company I was working for sold an M1 and bought an 850i. He described it as a massive step forward into the future.
I always lusted after the 8 series and eventually bought one which I had for quite some time. At the time my circle of friends would have walked straight past the M1 to get into an 8 series.
Now people would walk past an eight series to get into the M1, and I can understand why, but the M1 doesn't justify in car terms why its worth 300K+ and few 8 series are worth 10K. It defines itself in rarity, not ability. As was said earlier the M1 wasn't very well thought of in its day compared to the status it gets now for being hens teeth rare

[RichardM5]

julian64 said:

As was said earlier the M1 wasn't very well thought of in its day compared to the status it gets now for being hens teeth rare

Apart from the price, one reason it was not popular was because it's basically a race car that was turned into a road car, it's not a traditional GT car although actually in practice it would make a reasonable one, just a little too noisy IMO. The interior is functional and well made, not aesthetically interesting but bloody hard to actually use! Another was that it 'only' has a 6 cylinder engine, not the 12 cylinders of the Lamborghini's and Ferrari's.

In that table above, the M1 is over 3 seconds a lap quicker than a Ferrari 512 Boxer, that's not exactly a bad performance!

[silentbrown]

julian64 said:

Nope actually I meant the car.

OK. But IMO no 'collectable' car really has a value based on it's ability. M1's have a huge amount going for them: a true 'homologation special', mid-engined, with the gorgeous M88 24v straight-six. And, of course, the first of the proper 'M' Cars.

The 850 is also a stunning car, but I don't see how you can really compare a two-seater mid-engine supercar with a four-seater grand tourer weighing half a tonne more, and made in almost 100 times the number.

[julian64]

RichardM5 said:

julian64 said:

As was said earlier the M1 wasn't very well thought of in its day compared to the status it gets now for being hens teeth rare

Apart from the price, one reason it was not popular was because it's basically a race car that was turned into a road car, it's not a traditional GT car although actually in practice it would make a reasonable one, just a little too noisy IMO. The interior is functional and well made, not aesthetically interesting but bloody hard to actually use! Another was that it 'only' has a 6 cylinder engine, not the 12 cylinders of the Lamborghini's and Ferrari's.

In that table above, the M1 is over 3 seconds a lap quicker than a Ferrari 512 Boxer, that's not exactly a bad performance!

I think that's pretty much my feeling. I don't want it to seem like I have a downer on the car, I really like the car and dearly wish I could've owned one now. I owned a lancia montecarlo for no other reason than it looked like the M1 and was reachable.

I just suppose I was really enjoying this thread until someone suggested the car was worth in the current market. It just takes the car out of its historical context. I suppose looking back I should've just glossed over that post and I'd been still enjoying it.

[e21Mark]

I remember sitting in one in L&C's showroom back in the late 80's. It was white with a thick set of M stripes coming up over the centre of the front panel. (As I say, it was the 80's! ) At the time it could be had for £42k if I recall correctly? It was certainly 40 something anyway.

The only thing I would have liked is twin 323i type silencers. (one each side) The styling has aged incredibly well and I've always loved how usable owners say they are. The Pro-car are an awesome thing too.