BMW M1 Review

When BMW looked back in 2008 on the Paris Motor Show of October 1978, it quoted the press of the time on the scene at its stand, without naming the papers: "Everybody was crowding around BMW's new mid-engined sports car", and that "The list of orders coming in exceeds even the wildest expectations", one American fan having already ordered three. The racing plan had a cooler reception. When Motor Sport reported BMW's press conference of December 1978, it noted that Procar was "going ahead at full steam despite the cynicism from some quarters at the time of the original announcement". Motor Sport's buying guide of 2021 says the car itself drew "rave reviews".⁠source 3​source 4​source 5

The first German test was Götz Leyrer's in auto motor und sport at the end of 1978, known today through BMW Group Classic's own account of it: he was impressed by a practicality rare in the class, by the air conditioning and a usable boot (trunk), and by cornering of almost 1 g, and BMW's English version has him write that "there was probably no other car on the road that could live with it through the twisty stuff".

In 2008 BMW recalled a test by "Germany's leading car magazine" in the autumn of 1979, which recorded the top speed that the specifications give as measured, and it quoted the tester in English, without his name:

BMW's account also gives a time to 100 km/h without making clear whether the magazine timed it or it was BMW's own claim, which the auto katalog 1980 had printed among the maker's figures.

Walton found a car he could use: "It is, above all, a practical everyday machine, not a Stratos-style homologation special." It was, he wrote, "A true driver's car rather than a poser for Monaco". It was stable in crosswinds and kindly on ice, its tail easily caught; the gearchange and the steering pleased him, and so did the fit and finish of the glass-fibre body. His summing up went further:

His one serious complaint came from the weather: "The only severe problem encountered was the incompatibility of the powerful single wiper and the vast quantities of salt and slush we met." He was also writing about a car that was already rare, with no right-hand-drive version and no official British import, and he drew the conclusion: "So the LHD-only M1 has perforce become an instant collector's piece." He had read the other reports too: "We have yet to encounter, or read a report, by anyone who did not think the M1 was a true super car." Owners used to a Porsche Turbo or a Jaguar XJ-S, he warned, would find the engine loud on long runs at about 210 km/h (130 mph), and he argued that each M1 had cost BMW far more than its price, after Procar and the change in how the car was built. He ended on a wish: that BMW would stay with two-seat sports cars, perhaps with "something smaller to wear a 328 badge". In the United States, where the car was never officially sold, Road & Track gave it a special award of its own in its 10 Best of August 1981: "Most Desirable Unobtainable".⁠source 1​source 9​source 10

A.H. had driven a Procar in the wet at Donington during the summer of 1979, and in 1984 he drove a road car in Britain, one of the few there. He found Giugiaro's shape still crisp after 6 years, and wrote:

The breakaway in the wet was progressive and the car was stable at speed; his reservations were the headroom, the view out and a trace of lightness in the steering. He thought the M1 obsolete before the last cars were built, but a classic from the start, and he believed that had BMW kept developing it as a flagship for its range, it might have been counted among the best sports cars in the world.⁠source 2

The warmth of the road testers did not reach the Grands Prix, where the M1 arrived as Procar, a one-make series run alongside them. Denis Jenkinson, writing after the first race, at Zolder in May 1979, counted 19 entries, 17 starters and seven finishers, "not very good publicity for BMW with broken-down M1 coupés all round the circuit", and passed on Ken Tyrrell's view that if BMW wanted Formula 1's publicity, it should build a Formula 1 car and take part. Monaco, a fortnight later, "went off a lot better than it did in Belgium", Jenkinson allowed, with Lauda and Regazzoni wheel to wheel. The magazine's report from Zandvoort in August was dry about it: Lauda hurt his wrist practising his M1 for the Procar race, which gave him "the excuse to stop driving the Brabham-Alfa Romeo V12" in the Grand Prix. In September the same magazine's report of the Austrian Grand Prix gave the Procar race a line: it ran after Saturday's practice, "with the usual mixture of Grand Prix drivers and 'local lads'". Later writers remembered the series more warmly. BMW, in 2008, called the races "just as popular as the ensuing races for the Formula 1 World Championship", and Heseltine, the same year, called the series "a smash in every sense". The Procar Championship follows the races.⁠source 11​source 12​source 13​source 14​source 3​source 15

The tests that can be read today give these figures; the specifications give BMW's own, and the top speed measured in 1979.⁠source 3​source 1​source 16​source 2

The testers praised the build quality (Walton, A.H. and Heseltine, who thought the even shut lines a first for a supercar), the ease of the car in traffic and its stability at speed. They complained of the headroom, the pedals pushed towards the middle by the wheel arch, the view behind and the plain trim, and they disagreed about the clutch. The interior and the buyers guide take each point in turn.⁠source 1​source 2​source 16​source 15

For the car's 30th anniversary, in 2008, Richard Heseltine drove one for Motor Sport and found that "For what is essentially a track weapon, piloting an M1 is near-effortless." The handling pleased him and the cabin did not, but his verdict was plain:

Roger Bell had driven BMW (GB)'s own red car in Wales for the same magazine in 1997, and his verdict is told in the history. Motor Sport's buying guide of 2021 called the M1 "certainly the most influential" of BMW's M cars, though neither the first nor the most successful. In South Africa in 2016 Brenwin Naidu of TimesLIVE found it "The perfect antidote to those who opine that cars are too clinical and too inert in 2016", and in 2020 Shane O'Donoghue drove one of BMW's own early cars for completecar.ie and found that "Given its original supercar billing, it feels remarkably docile and normal, actually." On film, the Number 27 channel's presenter drove a road car on English moorland roads in 2023 and came away with the impression of a German car under Italian clothes; his drive takes in the offset pedals, BMW's switchgear, the gearchange and the steering, and the ride of a car on rebuilt Bilstein dampers.⁠source 15​source 16​source 5​source 17​source 18