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New Delhi: Much before BMW’s M badge became a nameplate for high-performing saloon cars and SUVs, there was the car that started it for the German brand, the BMW M1. It was quite radical, rare and outrageous of anything BMW had ever made, and this is what we will be talking about in our Supercar Sunday today. The M1 was one of their first and only mid-engined supercar made by the brand.
At the time, BMW was known for making just refined executive carsand the M1 was quite a surprise for many. Made in the late 1970s, the M1 was developed as a homologation special for motorsport. However, delays and changing racing regulations made it instead a road-legal car and even in this iteration, it was raw speed and power.
In terms of power, the BMW M1 came with a 3.5-litre naturally aspirated inline-six engine, known internally as the M88. Unlike the other engine made by BMW at the time, this engine block was for racing, and it made 277 hp and 330 Nm of torque in road-going form, which was impressive in that day and age.
The engine was mounted longitudinally behind the driver, and had a rear wheel drive that could be operated with a five-speed manual gearbox. This was a car without any heavy electronics or driving modes, but just something for a linear, rev-hungry manner, rewarding drivers. This was the start of BMW tuning cars to the best of their knowledge without having modes decide configurations of the car.
The M1 was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, and the styling was clean and purposeful. There was no flamboyancy of the Italian supercars, but rather, it had a restrained wedge-shaped design with crisp lines and perfect proportions. You got the pop-up headlamps, low nose and wide stance that made it stand out in public as something from Bavaria.
For M1’s body, BMW used fibreglass panels mounted on a tubular steel spaceframe, keeping weight in check while managing to retain rigidity. From the wide rear track to the integrated spoiler, all were purposefully designed.
On the inside, the M1 was, of course, a BMW, even though it was a special car. The car was a much more driver-focused, coming with a simple, functional layout and clear analogue dials. The seating position was, of course, low and sporty, along with coming with leather upholstery and thoughtful ergonomics as well. The switchgear was borrowed from the other BMW models, and all of this gave the M1 a sense of familiarity.
BMW M1 was limited to just 453 units, but that doesn’t even speak of the impact the car left in the automotive world. It was what established BMW Motorsport as a performance power unit. The M88 engine went on to power the likes of the M5 and M6, and it was the shape of the BMW M nameplate.
