BMWM1

BMW M1 Pictures

The M1 in pictures: road cars from the front, the side and behind, in three colours, with their details and cabins, then the Procar, Group 5 and rally cars, and two of BMW's later design studies that drew on it.

An orange BMW M1 road car in a museum hall, seen from behind and to the right, with slats over the engine cover and louvres along its flank.
BMW's own orange road car seen from behind and to the right in the BMW Museum, Munich, in October 2017, with a roundel on each corner of the tail and twin tailpipes under the bumper.Ominae, CC BY-SA 4.0

All but one of these photographs were taken between 2009 and 2022, at museums, a showroom, shows and car meetings in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, France, England and the United States. One is older: a print from Imola in September 1980, at the last round of that year's Procar Championship. Each caption gives what its picture shows, where and when, and the date is the photograph's, never the car's. Each picture opens a larger view.⁠1

Front view

Giorgetto Giugiaro's Ital Design styled the body. From the front, BMW's two kidney grilles are small and sit low in the middle of the nose, between rectangular lamps, and the headlamps fold flat into the bonnet (hood) until they are switched on. Both cars here have them down.⁠2​3

Front view 2

  • An orange BMW M1 road car on a show floor, seen from the front three-quarter with its pop-up headlamps closed and slotted alloy wheels. Opens a larger view

    1 An orange road car from the front three-quarter at the Auto Zürich show, Switzerland, in November 2021: headlamps down, two small kidney grilles low in the nose, and a lamp at each end of the grille.

  • An orange BMW M1 road car parked on cobbles in low sunlight, front three-quarter from the right. Opens a larger view

    2 Low sunlight on the right front of an orange road car parked at Industry City, Brooklyn, New York, in June 2019, for a Cars and Coffee gathering: the vents in the front lid and the black strip along the flank.

Picture credits (2)
  1. 1 Alexander Migl, CC BY-SA 4.0
  2. 2 Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0

Contents

Side view

In profile the cabin sits well forward, with the engine behind it under a deck of black louvres and a slatted vent on each flank behind the door. The M1 has two fuel tanks, and each has its own filler, one on either side; the red car's is the round cap on its left flank.⁠3​4

A red BMW M1 road car seen from the left and slightly behind, with the louvred rear deck, buttress louvres and the fuel filler flap.
The left flank of a red road car, photographed from a little above and behind in September 2016 at Kirchzarten's Volante Oldtimermuseum in Germany, in one wide-angle frame from nose to tail.© Jörgens.mi, CC BY-SA 3.0

Contents

Rear view

The museum car at the head of this page shows the road car's tail: a BMW roundel at each corner and lamps that Jeremy Walton recognised from BMW's saloons (sedans) in 1981. The whole rear lid lifts, opening the engine bay and the luggage space behind it at once. The Procar adds a tall rear wing to the same shape.⁠3​5

Rear view 2

  • An orange BMW M1 with its whole rear deck raised and the driver's door open, and the carpeted luggage box behind the engine. Opens a larger view

    3 BMW's orange road car from the left rear in the BMW Museum, Munich, in June 2017, its driver's door open and the long rear lid propped up over the engine and the lined luggage well behind it.

  • A white BMW M1 Procar in blue, violet and red stripes from the rear three-quarter in a museum, with its rear wing, flared arches and racing wheels. Opens a larger view

    4 A Procar in BMW Motorsport colours from behind and to the right at Autoworld, Brussels, in December 2022: a tall wing over the slatted engine cover, flared rear arches and a single large tailpipe.

Picture credits (2)
  1. 3 Arnaud 25, CC BY-SA 4.0
  2. 4 Clemens Vasters, CC BY 2.0

Contents

Colours

In the BMW M1 Register's table, white is entered for more road cars than any other colour, then orange, red and blue, and a handful in rarer colours; the counts are on the production page. No source read gives BMW's own names for the M1's paints, and the captions give each colour as the photograph shows it.⁠6

Colours 2

  • A red BMW M1 road car in a museum bay, front three-quarter, with Nürburgring photographs behind it. Opens a larger view

    5 A road car in red, its headlamps folded away, seen from above the right front at the Volante Oldtimermuseum in Kirchzarten, Germany, in September 2016, with a racing-circuit photograph on the wall behind.

  • A white BMW M1 road car parked on grass at a car meeting, seen from the front three-quarter, with a barn and tents behind. Opens a larger view

    6 A road car in white, parked on grass at a Swedish car meeting in May 2010 and seen from the left front, with a barn and tents behind.

Picture credits (2)
  1. 5 © Jörgens.mi, CC BY-SA 3.0
  2. 6 nakhon100, CC BY 2.0

Contents

Details

The badge on the tail puts the stripes of BMW's M colours before the letters M1, beside the roundel on the right-hand corner. Under the front lid sit the radiator in its cowl, the battery and the brake servo, in a compartment Walton thought might take some luggage.⁠3

Details 2

  • Close-up of an orange BMW M1's tail: the M1 badge with the M stripes, a corner roundel and a tail lamp. Opens a larger view

    7 The three M stripes and the M1 lettering on the tail of BMW's orange museum car in Munich, May 2013, with the roundel on the right-hand corner beside them.

  • The front compartment of a white BMW M1 with the bonnet open: fluid reservoirs, battery, fuse box and a lined luggage tray. Opens a larger view

    8 Looking down into the nose of a white M1 road car, photographed at Borås in Sweden in September 2009: the brake servo, the reservoirs, the battery and the fuse box with its clear cover, and a lined well to the right.

Picture credits (2)
  1. 7 Tamás András Kálmán, CC BY 2.0
  2. 8 nakhon100, CC BY 2.0

Contents

The cabin

Every M1 was built with left-hand drive. The road car's cabin has a three-spoke wheel, switches from BMW's saloons and cloth seats with leather or simulated-leather sides, as the testers' cars had. In the Procar the dashboard stayed and the trim went, and a racing seat, an extinguisher and a switch panel took the places of carpet and cloth.⁠3​7

The cabin 2

  • The cabin of a BMW M1 seen from the open driver's door: three-spoke steering wheel, instrument binnacle, centre console and black seats with striped cloth centres. Opens a larger view

    9 Left-hand drive, as every M1 was built: the cabin of the BMW Museum's road car in Munich in June 2017, the gear lever on the console between two seats of black leather and grey striped cloth.

  • The cockpit of a BMW M1 Procar: a three-spoke wheel, racing gauges, a white gear knob, a switch panel, a fire extinguisher and a racing seat. Opens a larger view

    10 Inside a Procar at BMW's showroom on the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, June 2013, with the black dashboard of the road car over a bare floor and a racing seat slotted for a harness.

Picture credits (2)
  1. 9 Arnaud 25, CC BY-SA 4.0
  2. 10 Olli1800, CC BY-SA 3.0

Contents

Race cars

As a race car, the M1 ran as the Procar in the Procar Championship of 1979 and 1980, in Group 5 form from 1979 to 1981, and as BMW France's rally car from 1981 to 1984. Away from those, M1s raced at Le Mans from 1979 to 1986 and in America, and one raced in Japan.⁠1​4​8​9​10​11

Race cars 4

  • A white BMW M1 Procar with blue, violet and red stripes and PIQUET on the windscreen strip, on the Goodwood hill course beside straw bales. Opens a larger view

    11 A Procar in the livery of Nelson Piquet's 1979 works car, BMW Motorsport's light blue, dark blue and red on white, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, England, in June 2016, on the hill.

  • Procars on the start and finish straight at Imola in 1980, seen through a catch fence, with the pit building's advertising and spectators. Opens a larger view

    12 Procars on the pit straight at Imola, Italy, in September 1980, at the 1980 championship's final round, two green-and-white cars nearest and spectators along the pit wall.

  • The red and white Motul rally BMW M1 nearly head-on in a tent, with a Tour de Corse rally plate on the bonnet. Opens a larger view

    13 A rally M1 in BMW France's red-and-white Motul livery, head-on in a paddock tent at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, England, in July 2019; the rally plate on its front lid is from the 1983 Tour de Corse.

  • A low, wide Group 5 BMW M1 in white Würth colours with green, red and blue bands and the number 52, in a paddock beside a touring car. Opens a larger view

    14 A Group 5 M1 with No. 52 on its nose, in the Goodwood Festival of Speed paddock, England, in June 2022, dressed in Würth colours as Sauber's entry for Le Mans in 1981, crew names on the flank included.

Picture credits (4)
  1. 11 Matthew Lamb, CC BY-SA 2.0
  2. 12 Carlo Marzetti (Carlom1961), CC BY 4.0
  3. 13 MrWalkr, CC BY-SA 4.0
  4. 14 MrWalkr, CC BY-SA 4.0

Contents

After the M1

BMW went back to the M1 in two later design studies. The M1 Hommage of 2008, made for the M1's thirtieth anniversary, took its two roundels on the tail. Of the Vision M NEXT of 2019, BMW said that the rear window drew on the M1's.⁠12​13

After the M1 2

  • The BMW M1 Hommage from directly behind, with a roundel at each tail corner, the louvred rear window and a name plate. Opens a larger view

    15 BMW's M1 Hommage design study of 2008, straight from behind at the Festival automobile international in Paris in January 2015, with the M1's two corner roundels carried over to its tail.

  • The silver and red BMW Vision M NEXT concept on a black display floor under a canopy, beside a canal and a château terrace. Opens a larger view

    16 BMW's Vision M NEXT design study in silver and bright orange, by the water at Chantilly Arts & Elegance, France, in June 2019.

Picture credits (2)
  1. 15 Thesupermat, CC BY-SA 4.0
  2. 16 Y. Leclercq, CC BY-SA 4.0

Contents

Sources

Sources are given as plain text; their addresses are on the sources page.

  • Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
  • Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
  • Databaseresults and listings, entry by entry
  1. Motor Sport (database), "1979 BMW M1 Procar" and "1980 BMW M1 Procar" (championship races and standings), 1980: the rounds and their dates, Imola the last; the 1979 and 1980 championships. Database
  2. CAR, "Brain and brawn in BMW's best", Mar 1979, the division of work: Ital Design's body. Primary
  3. Jeremy Walton ("J.W."), "Road Impressions: BMW M1", Motor Sport, Apr 1981, p. 83, p. 83, the pop-up lamps and the lamps in the grille; p. 83, the engine behind the cabin; the two tanks and their fillers; p. 83, the tail lamps from BMW's saloons; the baggage space aft of the engine; p. 83, the front baggage area, the radiator, battery and brake servo; p. 83, the left-hand-drive car; the switches from BMW's saloons. Primary
  4. BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub USA), "Icons for Connoisseurs – Thirty Years of the BMW M1" (press release), 27 Mar 2008, the mid-engined layout; the Procar series; Technical Description BMW M1 Group four / Group five. Primary
  5. Alan Henry, "Procar: When current F1 champs went tin-top racing" ("Procar – the ultimate one-make racer"), Motor Sport, Jul 1997, p. 94, p. 94, the nose spoilers and rear wings. Reference
  6. BMW M1 Register, "VIN Table", the colour column of the road cars (our count). Reference
  7. Alan Henry ("A.H."), "M1 Magic", Motor Sport, Dec 1984, p. 76, p. 76, the left-hand-drive car. Primary
  8. eWRC-results, Driver profiles: Bernard Béguin and Bernard Darniche (group), the M1's rally starts, 1981–84. Database
  9. racingsportscars.com, Race, results and car-data pages with BMW M1 entries, 1979–86 (group), Le Mans, 1979–86. Database
  10. International Motor Racing Research Center (racingarchives.org), from Octane Press, IMSA 1969–1989 (excerpt, "BMW"), BMW of North America's IMSA racing. Reference
  11. racingsportscars.com, "BMW M1 – All Results", 4301077 in Japan, 1979–84. Database
  12. BMW Group (BMW of North America, PressClub USA), "Heritage as inspiration: BMW M1 Homage" (press release), 28 Apr 2008, the study and what it took from the M1, the twin roundels among them. Primary
  13. BMW Group (PressClub Middle East), "BMW Vision M NEXT. Boost your moment – the future of driving dynamics at BMW." (press release), 25 Jun 2019, the rear window's cue from the M1; the colours. Primary

Contents