1980 BMW E26 M1

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Discussion

silentbrown

8,868 posts

117 months

Monday 15th August 2016
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RichardM5 said:
Picked up a class win in the BMW National Festival concourse on Sunday, well please with that!
Congratulations! (On the first photo, not the second...)

E24man

6,733 posts

180 months

Monday 15th August 2016
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Good to see any M1 driven; I don't suppose BMW GB's car gets out much other than occasional magazine shoots.

Chunkychucky

5,974 posts

170 months

Monday 15th August 2016
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RichardM5 said:
It was at the Silverstone Classic in 2013.



It's a poor picture, but is the Orange original? A white car (at least I think it's white, the pictures are black and white!) with the same registration was featured in an article called 'White Lightning'. That car was owned by Mark Wallman and was said to have a walnut dash fitted by Wood and Pickett.
Sorry for the delay in my reply! It was white when he bought it, but after some digging he discovered it was supplied in orange, so he had it repainted - although I haven't seen it for a while I don't recall it having the wood dash anymore..

Congrats on the trophy fella, certainly looks mint your car!

darrenw

346 posts

284 months

Monday 15th August 2016
quotequote all
RichardM5 said:
It was at the Silverstone Classic in 2013.
I saw that there too, it was a real highlight of the day!


Orange BMW M1 PPR725W at the Silverstone Classic 2013 - photo by Retro-Motoring

Mr.Jimbo

2,082 posts

184 months

Monday 15th August 2016
quotequote all
Amazing read, I never knew the history of the E26 or that it should have been designated 9 series, thanks for the info.

Amazing looking car too, very envious.

RichardM5

Original Poster:

1,741 posts

137 months

Monday 15th August 2016
quotequote all
olly22n said:
Mega.

Get some period plates on it!!
I have a set without the 'GB' part, but they are not in the font used before 1 September 2001 (I think), I don;t know where you can get them made using the older font. As the car was built in 1980 it needs to have the white and yellow reflective plates.

LanceRS

2,174 posts

138 months

Monday 15th August 2016
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Thanks for letting us have a look under the engine cover/boot. As I said, I've never seen in there before and will probably never get the chance to again. An absolutely stunning car, a real credit to you.

Mr Roper

13,015 posts

195 months

Monday 15th August 2016
quotequote all
Fantastic OP. thumbup

I saw my first M1 in the flesh a couple of weeks back. Tucked up in a shop window in Adanauer.




Excuse that crappy picture.



Sharknose

621 posts

182 months

Wednesday 17th August 2016
quotequote all
RichardM5 said:
I have a set without the 'GB' part, but they are not in the font used before 1 September 2001 (I think), I don;t know where you can get them made using the older font. As the car was built in 1980 it needs to have the white and yellow reflective plates.
Check out DMB Graphics: they can still make plates with the old, wider font. They can recreate the original dealer logos on the plates and also make matching tax disc holders and rear window decals. If you need help creating the period graphics send me a PM.

jelluzz

35 posts

153 months

Wednesday 17th August 2016
quotequote all
RichardM5 said:
I have a set without the 'GB' part, but they are not in the font used before 1 September 2001 (I think), I don;t know where you can get them made using the older font. As the car was built in 1980 it needs to have the white and yellow reflective plates.
http://www.pukardesigns.com/ can do all plates with supplying dealer tags along the bottom and all sorts of original warning stickers for around the engine bay etc.

RichardM5

Original Poster:

1,741 posts

137 months

Thursday 15th September 2016
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As many of you will know, it’s BMW’s 100th anniversary this year. To celebrate it, last week end they held a festival which included inviting 1000 cars from various clubs, nominally 10 from each club, for display in the Munich Olympic Park which is just the other side of the road from BMW Welt.

I was invited in the M1, so a road trip was on!

To protect the front end paintwork I hastily applied some Xpel Tracwrap the night before leaving. Not a very good job, I nick named it Crapwrap, but it would serve the purpose and was to be removed after the trip anyway.

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The trip began early on the morning of 7th September, odometer reading 1,705 miles, leaving home in Yorkshire.

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Exactly 4 hours and 241 miles later, I collected a friend in Surrey to share the driving, followed by a quick stop at Munich Legends to say hello as we were passing and have a bit of lunch. They had two other M1’s, their own and the BMW UK car. M1 spot count, 3.

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From there on to the tunnel, slightly concerned about the reported problems, but there were no problems at all.

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An evening blast down the almost deserted A26 saw us arrive at Reims to stay the night. Odometer now at 2230, so 525 miles in the day.

Brilliant blue sky on the Thursday morning at 8:45 in Reims, the precursor to a very hot day.

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More empty French AutoRoute on the A4 to Metz

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We weren’t speeding officer, no, really we weren’t!

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Then down to Strasbourg to pick up the A35 briefly before crossing the Rhine on the 500 to enter Germany, still not a cloud in the sky and temperatures nudging into the 30’s.

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Pushing on up the 5 to Karlsruhe and starting to see what a 36 year old car makes of coming home to the derestricted Autobahn

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On to the 8 and past Pforzheim to Stuttgart and Munich

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The Germans get 100 Octane V-Power Racing, not cheap though!

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Pushing on a little more on the final derestricted run into Munich

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Due to the navigator (me!) going entering just ‘Munich’ in the sat nav and not the hotel, we took the circuitous route, right through the middle of the city.

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Realising our (my) mistake, we then drove out towards the hotel just south of the Olympic Park

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Finally getting into the hotel underground car park by about 6:30pm.
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The odometer now reading 2668, 963 miles in two days.

Turned up at the Olympic park on the Friday just before 9:00 to find 2 other M1s had already arrived

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M1 count, 5.

As the day went on, more cars arrived, everyone had been given a slot to reduce queuing. A few Z8’s were quite early

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Including a several Alpinas

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By Saturday there were well over 20.

A definitely used, but beautiful 507

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The co-driver, a big Alpina fan, was beside himself when he spotted this 8 series B12 5.7, number 057, the last one made, complete with carbon fibre bonnet and de-badged

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Including the intriguing manual box without a clutch pedal

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With an E92 Alpina GT3 on one side

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And a rare Glas Coupe arrived and parked on the other side, it sounded great

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And a couple of other Glas cars were doted around

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All sorts of other old and rare BMWs were rolling up

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A lovely 327

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A rare E28 Touring

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And a stunning E34 M5 Touring

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The 8 series were out in force

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So were the Isettas

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Including this one complete with period ski set!

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And a 2 door (one at the front and one side door)

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Motor bikes were included, although there weren’t anything like as many as there were cars

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There was a Dixi too

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There were also rows of Z1’s and Z3’s. By the time we returned to the car, another 3 M1’s had arrived

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M1 count, 8. There was also a Black M1 belonging to the owner of Mint Classics in Munster who specialise in selling M1’s, taking the count to 9.

On Friday afternoon we had a factory tour, interesting but no photos allowed. They make the 3 and 4 series, M4 and M4 GTS. By the time we got to the engine plant work had stopped, they produce the modular 3 and 4 cylinder engines and the older N20 4 cylinder engine.

A tour of the new BMW Classic facility had been laid on for both Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. Friday was for ‘overseas’ and Saturday for ‘locals’. As I’d been put in with the German M1 club we had passes for the Saturday, but we blagged our way into the Friday session!

Visiting the Classic facility in the original factory, which BMW had to buy back, was amazing. There were loads of cars that you’ve maybe heard about or seen articles on but somehow don’t believe actually exist.

The BMW Turbo, one of 2, the other was in the BMW museum

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The 1940 328 Kamm Coupe Mille Miglia

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And the 2006 Homage

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A ‘standard’ 328

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And the 2011 Homage

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A mint yellow 507

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CSL Art Car

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2002 GT4

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M1 ProCar (there was another and 3 road going M1’s) and some original Minis (not really in the right place IMO!)

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M1 count now 14.

Prototype E65/66 7 series extra-long wheel base L7, they only made an E38 L7.

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The bonkers ‘goldfish’ with V16 engine that’s so big the radiators had to be put in the boot, feed with air via two large scoops in the rear wings

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Loads of other nutty concepts too, no M8 or E39 M5 touring though.

Also visible were the Classis work shops where they do work on their collection and restore customer cars (for a considerable fee!). There were several cars at various states of repair, including a 507, another road going M1 and the Piquet ProCar with the map of the Nurburgring on (supposedly done as a joke so Piquet and Stuck would not get lost!)

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M1 count, 16.

Food and a presentation were laid on, but we skipped that as we got talking to ‘Dr Ralph’ outside about various nerdy details!

A few other cars turned up on Saturday, such as this E46 M3 GTR look alike and E93 M3 GTS.

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A quick walk round BMW Welt resulted in another ProCar, again driven by Piquet, this time in Marlborough livery on a ‘grid’ of other racers

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M1 count, 17.

There was also another area for cars near the BMW museum, amongst others an M4 GTS

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And a gaggle of 1Ms

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The BMW museum itself contained lots of interesting stuff, the second Turbo which looked to be in much worse condition than the other

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Yet another 507

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The GINA Visionary concept with flexible fabric body

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And the Vision concept

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Lots of engines, including this intriguing version of the M10 4 cylinder engine

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And the final M1 spot of the week end, taking the total to 18.

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On the Friday evening there was a concert during which cars from various decades were driven on stage, together with photos and video on the big screens. Strangely, the 40’s didn’t get much screen time! For the 60’s they drove Elvis Presley’s white 507 on stage which has been restored to ‘as new’ from a total wreck by BMW Classic. Difficult to take pictures as it was dark, but here is a panorama before the stadium filled up, it’s only the 180 degrees in front, the back seats were not used and it was over half an hour to the start

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And one during the concert

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The screens were massive, the central one having a moving section that went up and down depending on the act performing, there was some truly amazing ‘Break Dancing’, classical music, some German performers and Simply Red. Most of the dialog was in German so was lost on me. We escaped just before the end to avoid the crush.

The return journey was pretty much the reverse of the outward one. Getting onto the autobahn early on a Sunday has its advantages

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Traveling at this speed felt effortless with plenty of power in reserve and absolutely rock solid on the road, but I did not want to push too hard as the wheels are Magnesium which weakens with age.

Another beautiful sky on the quiet French toll roads

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The tunnel was quite quiet, although this was the Flexi Plus lane as I did not know what time we’d be arriving in Calais so forked out the additional cost so we could get any return train.

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Again, no problem with the tunnel, no sign of anything either, but I’d feel a bit apprehensive getting to it in the dark.

Finally the car was left at Munich Legends for some work on the suspension and a few other bits, but that’s a different story.

Everything on the car worked flawlessly, with the one exception of the fan for the air conditioning. The A/C cooling worked fine, but the secondary ventilation fan sounds like it’s got something stuck inside and occasionally stopped blowing. Switching the A/C off for a few minutes and then back on cured the problem for a while before it came back again.

Final odometer reading, 3416, a total of 1711 miles.

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We drove for a little over 30 hours and consumed 286.57 Litres of Supper Unleaded over the 1559 miles between fill ups, that’s an average of 24.73 mpg. Given the age and performance of the car, together with the fact that we were cruising at 80-90 mph in France, giving it some welly on the exit from the toll booths and doing 100+ in Germany on most of the derestricted bits, I think that’s quite incredible.

An amazing car, amazing trip and memories to last a lifetime. Many thanks to my friend for making the trip so enjoyable too!


gregs656

10,923 posts

182 months

Thursday 15th September 2016
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Great post. Thanks for sharing.

Funk

26,303 posts

210 months

Thursday 15th September 2016
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Indeed - the very essence of PH! Some fantastic photos and what an event!

Chunkychucky

5,974 posts

170 months

Thursday 15th September 2016
quotequote all
Awesome journey and respect for using what is now a seriously valuable classic - glad to read it went without incident!

And thanks for the BMW pron, some seriously nice metal there... cool

Liggle

285 posts

102 months

Thursday 15th September 2016
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This thread is incredible

fluoxetine

66 posts

283 months

Thursday 15th September 2016
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Great thread - I was there (Munich) a fortnight ago, and think I stayed in the same hotel





(There was even a Weismann to park next to smile )

RichardM5

Original Poster:

1,741 posts

137 months

Thursday 15th September 2016
quotequote all
fluoxetine said:
Great thread - I was there (Munich) a fortnight ago, and think I stayed in the same hotel





(There was even a Weismann to park next to smile )
The car park looks similar, but I don't think it's the same, yours looks bigger and the style of the numbers is slightly different. The hotel we stayed in was the Hotel Europa on Dachauer Straße, about 2 miles from the Olympic Stadium.

cg360

609 posts

238 months

Thursday 15th September 2016
quotequote all
Great thread and car. I was at the museum in Munich in July and was so chuffed to finally see an M1 in the metal.

Also ridiculously excited to see the racing batmobiles, the GINA and the Turbo.

RichardM5

Original Poster:

1,741 posts

137 months

Thursday 15th September 2016
quotequote all
One of the things 'Dr Ralph' said about the Turbo was that is actually two wide to be classed as a car under German regulations! It would have been quite easy to have made it with three seats instead of 2.

fluoxetine

66 posts

283 months

Thursday 15th September 2016
quotequote all
RichardM5 said:
The car park looks similar, but I don't think it's the same, yours looks bigger and the style of the numbers is slightly different. The hotel we stayed in was the Hotel Europa on Dachauer Straße, about 2 miles from the Olympic Stadium.
Ah, you're correct - We were in the Hilton Munich Park.

I believe it's possible to hire some of the BMW Classic range from the museum (perhaps not an M1!) - Our hired M4 was fun for a long weekend, but I'd love to try a 3.0 CSA, or even a 2002 Tii for a day