Vehicle Description
Chassis No. 94301057
By the late 1970s, BMW's "M" division had firmly established itself
as a world-class force in motorsport, following a legacy of success
that began with the lightweight 328s in the 1940 Mille Miglia and
continued with the 700RS and the BMW 2002 in the 1960s and early
1970s. This momentum culminated in the creation of the BMW M1, the
division's first fully independent engineering project. Designed to
compete with Porsche in Group 5 racing, the M1 featured a
mid-engine layout, a tubular space frame chassis by Gianpaolo
Dallara, and a striking wedge design by Giorgetto Giugiaro, which
made it as aggressive looking as anything on the road. Production
delays stemming from a failed partnership with Lamborghini led to a
collaborative effort among TIR, ItalDesign, Karosserie Karl Baur,
and BMW Motorsport, resulting in the production of 453 cars between
1978 and 1981, including road and racing versions.
The M1's existence however is synonymous with motorsport fans with
the Procar series of 1979 and 1980. Procar was effectively a
one-make championship series showcasing the very best talent from
Formula One, the World Sportscar Championship, and European Touring
Car Championship. First proposed by Jochen Neerpasch, head of BMW's
Motorsport division, the Procar series was largely born of a rule
change by the FIA that required 400 Group 4 cars to be built before
the M1 could be further homologated for Group 5. As a result of
Neerpasch's genius, many of the races kicked off pre-existing F1
Grand Prix weekends, with the first five places on the grid
reserved for the fastest F1 drivers of that weekend, behind the
wheel of BMW Works cars no less. The non-factory customer cars were
prepared by the likes of Osella in Turin and Ron Dennis's outfit in
the UK with management by such privateer teams as Group 5 Racing,
Heidegger, TWR, Cassani, and others. After eight rounds of hotly
contested racing for 1979, Niki Lauda came out on top as the series
champion.
The cars were iteratively improved over the course of the season,
from the exhaust and rpm red-lines to the aesthetics and air-jacks,
but otherwise largely unchanged and for 1980 the competition
continued unabated - names like Jones, Stuck, and Piquet took to
the grid, racing wheel to wheel at the world's most famous
racetracks, with Piquet ultimately coming in victorious for the
season.
Of the 453 M1s built, only 54 were built to Procar specification,
including the remarkable example presented here. Finished by BMW on
9 May 1979, this particular M1 was race prepared by Osella in Italy
and acquired by one of the most notable luminaries in American
racing - that of Vasek Polak. Perhaps most famous for his work with
Porsche and his eponymous dealership, Polak's efforts in race car
preparation were legendary, as his California-based operation
prepped cars for Ken Miles, Roger Penske, Wolfgang von Trips and
many others before he first got into 911s in the 1960s and thus
began his long association with the other Stuttgart-based marque
that included everything from the 935 to the 917.
As Polak's intention was apparently to race the M1 in the Procar
series the following year, it was taken to Riverside Raceway for
break-in laps and testing before returning to the team's shop. With
FIA rule changes, however, the car became ineligible to race and as
such, was placed into storage until it was acquired by its second
owner in 1989. The car was never raced and maintained in its
original unliveried cosmetic condition. The engine is the proper
3.5-liter inline six-cylinder engine, tuned in period to produce
some 470 bhp, capable of speeds up to 190 mph. From the powerplant
to the lightweight tubular steel space frame and fiberglass body,
the car remains in remarkably original condition. Acquired by the
current owner in 2021, the car was treated to a recent service at
The Werkshop in 2022 and has only been treated to limited mileage
since that time, primarily at private track days.
As presented today, this is believed to be the only M1 that is
effectively in "new" condition - certainly of the 54 M1s built,
it's hard to fathom another example that has maintained such
originality of presentation from the paint to the interior to the
mechanical components. The opportunity for the collector is
therefore limitless from concours presentation to further track
usage. The Procar series is undoubtedly the single greatest
one-make championship ever devised, of which this particular M1 is
surely one of the finest examples in existence.
