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.
Thanks for all the comments, I really do love this car and have lusted after one since they were announced in the late 70's and I was doing my A levels.
I do agree that they look stunning in Silver. The fact that only 3 were made in Silver, one of the first prototypes, one for Bernie Ecclestone and one other customer car, I find quite surprising. The one customer car was recently sold in Germany by Mint Classics. I believe one of the reasons the car was repainted white was that the silver paint job was not the best quality, although I never saw it. I also think painting the wing mirrors silver was a mistake, they should have been left black.
Driving the car at slow speeds is a challenge. The steering is very heavy, no power assistance, the turning circle huge at 13 metres and visibility to the rear 3/4s is not great. Judging where the car is is not easy either, you can't see the front or the rear very well. The pedals are close together and offset to the right due to the wheel arch, I can't easily drive in regular shoes as I'd catch the clutch when using the accelerator. If you're over 6 foot then you'd struggle, the seat does not move very far back and your head would be touching the roof, fortunately I'm only a short arse at 5'8".
Once you're moving however, everything starts to flow very well. The clutch is firm but not too heavy and the gear change of the 5 speed dog leg box is very precise. Even by modern standards the car is fast, it's on a par with my E39 M5, The gear ratios well chosen too get the best from the engine. The handling and balance are excellent and the ride is surprisingly supple, even with the relatively skinny tyres by modern standards (205 front, 225 rear) there is no shortage of grip. The noise from the engine, although nothing like the wail from the ProCars, is sublime and just invites you to use all the revs available. Of course you have to have respect for the car, there's no ABS, no traction control and no air bags, so you really don;t want things to go wrong!
Unlike other sports cars from the late 70's and early 80's, the car just seems to work with no drama too. The first time I drove the car any distance was a 300 mile trip after collection back home. This was on 1st July last year from the south of England round the M25 and up the M1. Remember the 1st July last year? It was the hottest day of the year, Heathrow measured 36.7 C at about 2:00pm, just the time I was passing! The car performed flawlessly, the A/C kept things cool even though the rake of the windscreen means the dash gets red hot in the sun. Fancy doing that trip in a Lamborghini Countach, Lotus Esprit S1 or Ferrari 512BB?
What makes the car so interesting are all the little details. One of my favourites are the wing mirrors.
The view from the drivers seat in the left mirror
and the right mirror
Now sit in the passenger seat, left mirror
right mirror
The passenger can't see either mirror because the two mirrors are in different places on the door.
Left
Right
and seen from above
As I said, just little details, but even given the very limited production numbers, someone has thought things through. Look at the washer jets as well, 2 for the drivers side so even the single wiper works reasonably well.
The cabin air vents are another, air enters through the vents at the base of the windscreen, positioned to avoid the heat from the central vent for the radiator, into the cabin and then through a vent in the back of the door cards. From there the air goes forwards through the door and exits in a low pressure area near the door hinge and through the shut line between door and front wing.
I do agree that they look stunning in Silver. The fact that only 3 were made in Silver, one of the first prototypes, one for Bernie Ecclestone and one other customer car, I find quite surprising. The one customer car was recently sold in Germany by Mint Classics. I believe one of the reasons the car was repainted white was that the silver paint job was not the best quality, although I never saw it. I also think painting the wing mirrors silver was a mistake, they should have been left black.
Driving the car at slow speeds is a challenge. The steering is very heavy, no power assistance, the turning circle huge at 13 metres and visibility to the rear 3/4s is not great. Judging where the car is is not easy either, you can't see the front or the rear very well. The pedals are close together and offset to the right due to the wheel arch, I can't easily drive in regular shoes as I'd catch the clutch when using the accelerator. If you're over 6 foot then you'd struggle, the seat does not move very far back and your head would be touching the roof, fortunately I'm only a short arse at 5'8".
Once you're moving however, everything starts to flow very well. The clutch is firm but not too heavy and the gear change of the 5 speed dog leg box is very precise. Even by modern standards the car is fast, it's on a par with my E39 M5, The gear ratios well chosen too get the best from the engine. The handling and balance are excellent and the ride is surprisingly supple, even with the relatively skinny tyres by modern standards (205 front, 225 rear) there is no shortage of grip. The noise from the engine, although nothing like the wail from the ProCars, is sublime and just invites you to use all the revs available. Of course you have to have respect for the car, there's no ABS, no traction control and no air bags, so you really don;t want things to go wrong!
Unlike other sports cars from the late 70's and early 80's, the car just seems to work with no drama too. The first time I drove the car any distance was a 300 mile trip after collection back home. This was on 1st July last year from the south of England round the M25 and up the M1. Remember the 1st July last year? It was the hottest day of the year, Heathrow measured 36.7 C at about 2:00pm, just the time I was passing! The car performed flawlessly, the A/C kept things cool even though the rake of the windscreen means the dash gets red hot in the sun. Fancy doing that trip in a Lamborghini Countach, Lotus Esprit S1 or Ferrari 512BB?
What makes the car so interesting are all the little details. One of my favourites are the wing mirrors.
The view from the drivers seat in the left mirror
and the right mirror
Now sit in the passenger seat, left mirror
right mirror
The passenger can't see either mirror because the two mirrors are in different places on the door.
Left
Right
and seen from above
As I said, just little details, but even given the very limited production numbers, someone has thought things through. Look at the washer jets as well, 2 for the drivers side so even the single wiper works reasonably well.
The cabin air vents are another, air enters through the vents at the base of the windscreen, positioned to avoid the heat from the central vent for the radiator, into the cabin and then through a vent in the back of the door cards. From there the air goes forwards through the door and exits in a low pressure area near the door hinge and through the shut line between door and front wing.
Spent a few hours grovelling around under the car making sure everything is in order, even up on Rhino ramps it's quite hard to get underneath, no room for a creeper, good job the plastic tiles are quite slippery!
Re-coated all the chassis under seal everywhere it's possible to reach without dismantling everything and removing the engine
Had the air conditioning re gassed with RS24 as the original R12 is illegal, replaced the drying container as it look original and probably wasn't doing much.
Spring oil and filter change done, I prefer to change it every spring and autumn regardless of how many miles its done or hours the engine has been run. MOT passed without any advisories which is always good.
Took the car to Sports Cars In The Park at Newby Hall a couple of weeks ago, excellent day out, seemed to generate quite a bit of interest.
Re-coated all the chassis under seal everywhere it's possible to reach without dismantling everything and removing the engine
Had the air conditioning re gassed with RS24 as the original R12 is illegal, replaced the drying container as it look original and probably wasn't doing much.
Spring oil and filter change done, I prefer to change it every spring and autumn regardless of how many miles its done or hours the engine has been run. MOT passed without any advisories which is always good.
Took the car to Sports Cars In The Park at Newby Hall a couple of weeks ago, excellent day out, seemed to generate quite a bit of interest.
e21Mark said:
Definitely 1st on the list to buy when my lottery win finally arrives. (even if I find getting in a bit of a struggle) Am hoping my old E30 might end up parked next to it for a photo op' on the PH stand.
Have you had any details about the show? I've not heard a peep. Hopefully the BMWs will be parked together as there should be 3 of them.e21Mark said:
Is the exhaust system OE? I just wondered what it's like for consumables?
Yes, the car is as stock as it's possible to be given it's history. It did have a stainless steel back box, which I still have, but it's now a stock system.Standard consumables are not too bad, things like oil filters etc. although they take a week or so from Germany. The oil filter was £37 which is not much more than the one for the M6. I just use Castrol GTX Magnatec 10W-40 which is what was recommended, as it's changed regularly (apparently the injection pump tends to dilute the oil with fuel) a semi synthetic is preferred and kinder to internal seals. Things like the brake disks are available, but quite expensive at £300 each, pads about £150 a set. The air filter is large and about £300, the clutch is very expensive, about £6k for the parts. Many of the less frequently changed part are NLA, particularly suspension components.
E30M3SE said:
Silverstone Classic 2015, 3 Legends.
Indeed.The Saturday was 'slightly' better weather than the Friday and Saturday, this was caught on my way there
Getting there was a bit of a rush, I'd collected the car after the interior re-trim on 1st July, 300 miles and 36°C round the M25, then was away on holiday for 2 weeks followed by a week away on business. The details of the interior were still incomplete, the centre console and radio were not fitted and the window seals were perished and falling apart.
E24man said:
Is there any knowledge of how many M1's are in the UK and how many of those are on the road?
According to How Many Left there are only 4 licensed cars and 9 SORNed in the UK. The 4 licensed cars I agree with, there is mine (OKH 422V), a Red one owned by BMW UK (255 BMW), an AHG car that was in Edinburgh last year which is Black/Silver (FCC 161X) and an Orange car that was at the Silverstone Classic in 2013 (PPR 725W) and that's your 4.
I think there are probably more than 9 that are not licensed though. For a start there is the Red car at Munich Legends (PMP 452X) which has expired tax and no record of an MOT, I guess it's being run as a trade car. There's also a good change that there are other cars squirrelled away that have been imported and never registered. I know of 6 others that have been in the UK in the last 12 months or so, some of them I know are SORNed, for example the car at Bowker in Preston, others I don't know, 1 has been imported from the USA relatively recently and has probably not been registered.
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.silentbrown said:
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 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 s
t) and I think you'll find that most people that know what they are talking about think it's a pretty good car.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? 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.
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!
e21Mark said:
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.
Could have been this one, sorry about the crappy photograph of a magazine page, owned by BMW UK at least until 1986 but probably not now as the registration is on another car. The number plate 161 BMW was allegedly chosen as 161mph was the officially recorded top speed of the customer cars. ) At the time it could be had for £42k if I recall correctly? It was certainly 40 something anyway. 
cteagles said:
I spent some time with Richard Last week and photographed his M1, seeing it in the flesh - its perfect.
View some more on my website
Thanks for the photos Chris, we got lucky with the weather, shortly after you left it was chucking it down. However, a little rain may have softened the sheep sView some more on my website
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