The BMW M1 is among the most iconic in BMW’s stable, produced in limited numbers and with a clear motorsports lineage. As far as recipes go, you don’t need much else to attain legendary status in the sports car world. As such, these are valuable machines that rarely come up for grabs, especially in colors other than red. This Dark Blue example found here on duPontRegistry.com doesn’t have a price listed, but as the saying goes: if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it.
After seeing the familiar BMW Car Club of America sticker in the USA for years, it’s interesting to see other parts of the world still use the same basic design, albeit with their respective country filled in. As a former journalist myself, I’d love to know if this M1 belonged to a member of the press, and how in the hell they were able to afford an M1 on a reporter’s salary. Perhaps they were a media magnate and the press sticker was just extra candy for being a somebody.
The M1’s interior is as driver-focused as it gets. Developed in concert with some former Lamborghini engineers, it should come as no surprise that the M1 had racing pedigree baked into its DNA. Featuring the twin-cam M88 straight-six cylinder motor, the M1 produced 273 b.h.p. in street form. That number may not seem huge today, but the prodigious amounts of power it could produce in turbocharged racing versions competing in the Procar Championship was nothing short of impressive; 850 b.h.p. was not uncommon.
Of course, what would an exotic performance car be without its own factory luggage? Ask any collector of BMW memorabilia and they’ll likely tell you a piece of genuine M1 luggage is high on their list of wants. Although it screams “fanboy” to park your M1 and then strut across the parking lot holding your matching luggage, it only becomes obscene if the owner had the matching aviator sunglasses and BMW-branded track suit on at the same time. This M1 will remain in the hands of the select few; hopefully it still gets driven from time to time.
I’d love to see the Barn this came out of.
Beautiful car. Don’t particularly like the wheels though.
A BMW M1 without the original wheels is not worth having. They are what makes the car look as though it’s already on the move!
Tell you what, Ken–I’ll take any you have without original wheels off your hands, no questions asked ;-)
Erm…. Hardly a BARN FIND
Wish folk would come back to reality again
The “press” sticker could mean that this car was a part of BMW’s press fleet.
Correct!! Every Auto manufacturer has a small fleet of vehicles that they give to the Press to test. I worked for a very long time at a company that Audi AG subcontracted and I worked on some “Presse” vehicles.
I must say that in a 25-year stint of driving various “press” vehicles in the U.S., U.K., Europe and — briefly — Japan, specific events such as shows and races were the only time I saw any special “press” identification. Didn’t see any applied to cars handed out to journos or, for that matter, on their private cars. My guess is that the “P” in a square denoted press parking for, perhaps, a BMW club event.
Of course manufacturers’ press and fleet cars were and are often easy to pick out from the crowd, thanks to their unique license plates. In my experience, most of the special “manufacturer” plates were issued in Michigan, New Jersey and California.
BMW never loaned me an M1, alas….
I have this car!
Ahhhh…wait.
It’s actually just the brochure, the one in one of the photos.
I just got a bit confused there…….
I have wanted this car ever since seeing a 1-marque warmup race with M1s driven by the F1 drivers who would be racing against each other in their F1 cars later on the same day at Monaco.
These had the 3.8 liter straight-6 from the M6, with less than 280 HP. That’s going on memory, but despite the modest power the M1 put BMW on the map as a manufacturer capable of designing and building a supercar.
After the M1, the development of the M division led to one of the best lines of high performance coupes and sedans ever made, and fortunately is still going strong.
Interesting that the current M3 has gone from a V8 back to a straight-6, and yet can get around the Nurburgring in about the same time as the V8 version. That’s what the magic of turbocharging can do for you.
Got to be worth half a million plus?
Yes….the SCM Guide says the median auction price paid for the M1 has been $553K.
As to the comment about the BMW Care Club sticker. It looks familiar to the USA logo because several many years ago BMW required all clubs to use a standard logo approved by BMW. Our local BMW Motorcycle club had to change our logo in order to maintain our official BMW Club status.
3 years ago I saw an old lady drive by Stans in Goodlands FLA in a red one of these. It’s Most juxtaposed picture in my head….
Looks like a Kiwi to me on the BMW club sticker. You can always find a treasure / barn find in New Zealand. Land of the car nut!!
You can have a BMW that is limited production and affordable, check out a Beemer 850i, one of the neatest looking BMWs in my opinion, well after a M1, and a quick search showed a 1994 for as low as $7900, tempting.
Driver focused? Yeah, try and tune that radio and equalizer at 140 mph.
more information on the history can be found on the Hemmings post: https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/cars-for-sale/bmw/m1/1938162.html