Selecting your favourite engine designed by Paul Rosche is rather like selecting your favourite David Bowie song; the work is all of such high quality and covers such a wide period of time that it's a tough choice.
Also like Bowie, Rosche is sadly no longer with us. He passed away in Munich earlier this week aged 82; having spent 42 years at BMW and worked on some of the finest motorsport engines ever in that time, he will be sorely missed.
Having joined BMW in 1957 - with the nickname 'Nocken-Paule', because he enjoyed working on camshaft calculations for sports engines - Rosche worked in engine R&D. For the 1969 season, he designed the 2.0-litre turbo engine that won BMW the ETCC.
But his greatest successes came after his appointment to BMW Motorsport in 1975. His role? "Head of the design of the BMW M1 production and racing engines". Which turned out rather well, didn't it? That's the car we've chosen to celebrate in this video, with highlights from the 1979 Procar round at Donington Park. And if you need a clearer replication of the sound, see here.
Of course there was much more to Rosche's career than the M1 though. He was head of the engine project for BMW's first foray into F1, the Brabham-BMW BT52 the first turbocharged car to win the F1 World Championship in 1983. Asked about maximum power for the 1.5-litre turbo engine, Rosche said: "It must have been around 1,400 hp; we don't know for sure because the dyno didn't go beyond 1,280 hp." Legend.
Then there was 2.0-litre four-cylinder that one six European F2 engines, the V12 that won Le Mans in both the McLaren F1 and the BMW LMR, plus "a hand" (BMW's words) in the S14 used in the first BMW M3. Not a bad list of achievements!
While the M1 is the focus here, we've also embedded a couple more of his greatest hits. Because you couldn't leave it at just one, could you? Thank you Mr Rosche. May he rest in peace.
here
McLaren F1 onboard (with Andy Wallace)
here
Brabham-BMW BT52 at Adelaide
here