Pedro_The_Swift
21st October 2008, 04:49 PM
eBay Find of the Day: 1979 BMW M1... wow
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2008/10/329.jpg (http://www.autoblog.com/photos/bmw-m1-procar-on-ebay/1107680/)
Click above for gallery of the 1979 BMW M1
One of the rarest of (relatively) modern BMWs is the M1. Back in the mid-1970s, the gang in Munich were tired of Porsche getting all the glory in sports car racing with its 911-based 934 and 935. BMW decided to design a car specifically to compete in Group 4 and 5 racing against those Porsches, and because Group 4 required that a minimum of 400 road going cars be built for homologation, BMW designed the race car and then changed only what was necessary to make the car acceptable for the street. Unfortunately, by the time they got the 400 cars built, competition was already moving on and few M1s were ever raced.
BMW did build a small run of cars based on the Group 4 spec car for an all-steer all-star series called ProCar that was ran in conjunction with some F1 races, and the 3.5L twin-cam 24-valve inline-six eventually found a home in the first generation M5 and M6. Some of the 456 road cars were later converted to replicas of the ProCar machines, including one that has popped up on eBay this week. As of this writing, the bidding is at $140,000 and the Buy it Now price is a mere $189,000.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2008/10/329.jpg (http://www.autoblog.com/photos/bmw-m1-procar-on-ebay/1107680/)
Click above for gallery of the 1979 BMW M1
One of the rarest of (relatively) modern BMWs is the M1. Back in the mid-1970s, the gang in Munich were tired of Porsche getting all the glory in sports car racing with its 911-based 934 and 935. BMW decided to design a car specifically to compete in Group 4 and 5 racing against those Porsches, and because Group 4 required that a minimum of 400 road going cars be built for homologation, BMW designed the race car and then changed only what was necessary to make the car acceptable for the street. Unfortunately, by the time they got the 400 cars built, competition was already moving on and few M1s were ever raced.
BMW did build a small run of cars based on the Group 4 spec car for an all-steer all-star series called ProCar that was ran in conjunction with some F1 races, and the 3.5L twin-cam 24-valve inline-six eventually found a home in the first generation M5 and M6. Some of the 456 road cars were later converted to replicas of the ProCar machines, including one that has popped up on eBay this week. As of this writing, the bidding is at $140,000 and the Buy it Now price is a mere $189,000.