BMW M1 Rally

The M1's Group 4 recognition, from 1 December 1980, opened rallying to it as it opened circuit racing. Bernard Darniche knew what a mid-engined Group 4 car could do on a rally: in 1981 he won the Tour de Corse in a Group 4 Lancia Stratos and finished second in it on the Tour de France Automobile, the event before his first rally in an M1. BMW France entered the car. On the circuits that year ORECA ran M1s for BMW Italia and BMW France, at Mugello and Monza and, as BMW Italie-France, at Le Mans. Which firm prepared the rally car, no source read names. Darniche's first M1 rally was the Rallye du Var at the end of 1981, with No. 2 and the registration 9579 WWC 94, and it ended with broken suspension.⁠source 3​source 2​source 6​source 7

Darniche and his co-driver Alain Mahé started seven rallies in the M1, all as a Group 4 car, and finished one:

The Tour de Corse was the car's World Championship debut, and Motor Sport's reporter saw it go:

eWRC's results give the cause as an oil pipe, on stage 10 of the rally, which ran from Ajaccio on 6 to 8 May as the fifth round of the World Championship. Through 1982 the car carried a new registration, 4888 PM 78, and on most events No. 1. The pair's one finish came in Germany, ninth overall and sixth in their class on the ADAC-Rallye Vorderpfalz, and at Ypres in June, a European round with a coefficient of 4, the injection failed. Darniche's last M1 rally was the Rallye d'Antibes of 1982. In the same Tour de Corse Béguin drove a Porsche 911 to third place, and for 1983 he moved to the BMW, though he also rallied a BMW 323i that year, at the Rallye des Garrigues and at Bayonne.⁠source 2​source 8​source 9​source 6

The M1 had its own Group B recognition from 1 March 1983, on form B-240, and from that season eWRC classes the rally car in Group B. Béguin and Lenne started five rallies in 1983:

Second place at Lyon-Charbonnières, the first of them, was also second in its class and in the French championship's classification for the event. In Corsica in May they were sixth after two stages, behind five Lancias, until "Beguin's car split a water pipe causing the head gasket to blow, and this let Mikkola up to fifth place", in Motor Sport's words; eWRC records the retirement on stage 5. The 1982 registration was still on the car at Lyon-Charbonnières, the first rally of the season, and from the Critérium Alpin it ran as 4102 QC 78, in class B3 on most events. The car was entered as BMW France's for most of the year and as "BMW Motul" in Corsica, and as "BMW Motul" on most of its rallies of 1984.⁠source 4​source 2​source 10​source 11

The last season was the best. It began with third place at Lyon-Charbonnières, third also in the French championship's classification. Béguin and Lenne started 10 rallies, finished four and were on the podium at every finish:

Lorraine was round 8 of the French second-division championship. There No. 61, entered by BMW France, they took 2 hours 8 minutes 57 seconds and beat Pierre Mény and Theveny's Renault 5 Turbo into second place, with 69 cars at the finish. Three weeks later, at La Baule, No. 2 won in 2 hours 22 minutes 44.4 seconds, 1 minute 7.5 seconds ahead of Jean-Claude Andruet's Lancia 037, in round 10 of the same championship. At the Ypres 24 Hours at the end of June, a European round where the car was entered as BMW Motul with No. 3, they crashed out. At Antibes in October, which counted with a coefficient of 3 in the European championship and as round 9 of the French, 45 cars finished, and Béguin and Lenne were 33 seconds behind Carlo Capone's Lancia 037 and 4 seconds ahead of Guy Fréquelin's Opel Manta 400, second overall, second in their class and first in the French championship's classification of the event. Their total was 5 hours 4 minutes. Their last rally of the season, the Rallye du Var, ended in retirement.⁠source 2​source 1​source 5​source 12​source 13

The rally M1 was BMW France's, run as a Group 4 car in 1981 and 1982 and as a Group B car in 1983 and 1984. Its only power figure in any period source read is Motor Sport's of 1982, and no source read gives its weight, gearbox (transmission), suspension or tyres. Nor does any say which M1 it was built from, or whether one car or more did the work: eWRC records three French registrations, 9579 WWC 94 in 1981, 4888 PM 78 from 1982 into early 1983 and 4102 QC 78 in 1983 and 1984. The Group B form lists seven extensions, dated from March 1983 to October 1984, for the wheel fixings, brakes, bodywork and dimensions, engine and interior; no source read ties them to the rally car. In its photographs of 2019 and 2025 the car wears Motul's red and white, with the plate of the 1983 Tour de Corse on its bonnet.⁠source 2​source 6​source 4

Neither driver's record shows an M1 rally after the Rallye du Var of 1984. By our count of eWRC's records, the M1's rallying came to this:

A Motul rally M1, the car on this page's cover, was on show in the Monaco Top Cars Collection in July 2025.⁠source 2