M is cognac from the BMW vineyards. Every BMW is quality. Memorable, pleasurable, distinct. Held up to the light, its color is just right, clear and rich. The smell reminds you of a palate exact. You look forward to each taste. It is fermented from the finest juices.
But M...M is distilled from the pomace of BMW's grapes. It is sweeter and more powerful. It surprises you, sits you back down in your chair. Some find its intoxication pointless, while others are inclined to take another drink. Then another...and another. They are the ones who understand the demon and walk with it.
BMW's M1 is the oldest vintage. Understanding its greatness can be tricky. The road car lacked the sheer performance to be a true supercar, and the racing versions never achieved the international competition success they had been designed for. Despite this, and also because of it, the M1 was raced in one of the most magnificent, entertaining and fun series that has ever been.
Due to unfortunate circumstances surrounding the M1's development, it came into the world too late to meet the objectives originally set. Jochen Neerpasch, managing director of BMW Motorsport GmbH, invented ProCar. The races, with fields of two dozen M1s, ran between practice and the race at F1 events in 1979 and 1980. The top five F1 qualifiers were given works rides, and private entries filled out the rest of the field. Heavy incentives were offered the private drivers who beat the F1 shoes. To the private entries, it was a chance to compare their performance to the best drivers in the world. To the F1 pilots, it was a chance to compete with less on the line than a world championship. It was a late-evening visit to the indoor kart track on the grandest scale.
Of course, F1 drivers won the championships, Brabham teammates Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet. The point, though, was that ProCar was real racing on the best circuits in the world with real drivers in BMWs much like the ones a wealthy customer could buy for road use.
That image blurs the line between street car and race car, which was precisely the point. To most BMW enthusiasts, the significance of the two M1 versions is intermingled, but the line is not itself indefinite. Any street car bearing the BMW badge would have to meet the standards of finish and refinement applied to any other BMW. No allowances would be made for the fact that this was a ""race car for the street." BMW is not led by such fools. The M1 was to be a BMW, plain and simple.
Nevertheless, the road-going M1 was serious, and its specifications were indeed chosen with racing in mind. A steel tube frame, wrapped with fiberglass body panels styled and built by Giugiaro, was equal parts race car and economical low-volume production car. Dual A-arms at each corner were arranged by Ing. Dallara to extract the most from Pirelli's P7 tires. The M1 used BMW's most powerful engine, the same 3453cc, dohc four-valve six developed for the racing CSLs. As in the last CSLs, the engine was mounted vertically for better cooling and to give more room for an effective exhaust system on the race cars. The cam drive was changed from gears to chains, and one text calls the street version a "small-valve" head. Designated M49/5 in development, it was relabeled M88 in production for the M1. The road car used individual throttle butterflies for each cylinder and Kugelfischer mechanical sequential fuel injection, reducing emissions from this terrific-for-1978 6900-rpm beast. In order to mount the big six low in the chassis, a dry-sump system was employed, with a small-diameter flywheel and twin-plate clutch sending power to the ZF five-speed transaxle. If the M1 was not the fastest car in the world, performance was nonetheless superb for a road car of the time and astounding for a machine of such civilized manners.
The racing car was entirely different. Cylinder bore increased slightly, bringing displacement to 3500cc, while the rest of the engine was completely reworked to increase output by 70 percent with substantially greater rpm capability. Oil coolers were added to the gearbox and differential. A fast-ratio steering rack was fitted, while the suspension gained rapidly interchangeable anti-roll bars, magnesium uprights and aluminum hubs. Dual brake master cylinders with a balance bar were used. Wheel width was increased by 4 in. in front and 4.5 in. at the rear. To cover the wider rubber, fender flares were integrated into the bodywork, as was a racetrack-only front spoiler. The enormous rear wing was initially absent from Group 4 specification but was retained after experiments in early 1979.