But BMW did things differently. First, they created a Group 4 racing car. Based on this, they prepared a road car, and it was from this that the Group 5 vehicle originated. They offered participation in the project of creating the supercar to the best and most talented people. As a result, there is something of Lamborghini in every M1, you can feel Giorgetto Giugiaro’s flair and Paul Rosche’s precision. They instructed Giugiaro to draw handfuls from the styling of the prototype BMW E25 Turbo. The assumption was that the car would have the same type of engine. Its power was to vary depending on the vehicle’s intended use. They assumed that a modest 277 hp would suffice in the road-going version, 470 hp in the Group 4 racer and as much as 850 hp in the Group 5! Superb collaborators, excellent engineering and the most state-of-the-art technological advances ensured success. The first prototypes produced in Italy had already started to arrive at BMW for testing. Could anything have gone wrong?

As it turned out – it could. In early 1978, it became clear that Lamborghini was not playing fair. It used the money invested by BMW and by the state to build… a military off-roader! The vehicle turned out to be a fiasco because, funding issues aside, it was based on one of the American prototypes. The Americans sued Lamborghini, which consequently lost them money and they were bankrupted. The Germans had no choice but to break their cooperation with the Italians. They exported seven prototype M1s, parts and components from the Italian factory to Germany. As the Italians did not want to give them up, they had to take the assets by force.

Work was due to continue in Germany, but BMW Motorsport had nowhere to squeeze in another project. It was fortunate that the engineers who knew the M1 inside out and who became redundant due to the bankruptcy situation set up Ital Engineering. BMW signed a contract with them to complete the work. The entire facilities were moved again to Italy. Each subcontractor was assigned specific tasks: Ital Engineering – assembling the cars, coordinating the work. Ital Design – designing and glazing the bodies, developing the interior and electrical system, and machining the fiberglass and plastic bodies. Baur – preparing the fuel and brake system, lighting, assembling the suspension and steering, and pairing the BMW engine with a ZF manual transmission. Finally, the finished cars were sent to Stuttgart for testing.

Coordinating the activities of the various parties, road tests, inspections all took time. Meanwhile, time was not working in favour of BMW and the supercar project. The FIA guidelines were clear: there are 24 months to build four hundred road cars. Until then, no M1 could appear on the track. So how do you promote and sell a car prepared on the basis of a race car if racing is not an option? How could they promote such a vehicle? Sporting under the FIA banner was out of the question, but the world of motorsport does not end with the FIA. And even if it did, you could always set up your own races. This is how the BMW M1 Procar Championship came about.

Created by BMW, the competition was open to private M1 owners and the elite of motorsport, including the Formula drivers. They all raced for cash prizes. This mix proved to be a hit. The spectacle lasted two seasons. Nikki Lauda won in 1979 and Nelson Piquet the following year. The incredible success emboldened BMW to try its luck in other competitions. An M1 painted by Andy Warhol competed at Le Mans. Another example, converted into a Group B rally car, won the Rally La Baule and the Rally Lorraine.

The road-going BMW M1 produced with great care had an ideal weight distribution, an excellent engine, and drove fabulously. Sounds like a recipe for a dream car and the M1 was, indeed, a dream car. The trouble was that there seemed to be few drivers with a burning ambition to make their dreams come true. Demand was poor, which certainly stemmed from the outrageous price. This was originally supposed to be DM 100000 but the confusion surrounding the project effectively raised the cost of production and pushed the price up to DM 113000. Sports enthusiasts preferred to buy a Ferrari, which firstly had a much stronger association with sport and secondly was half the price. BMW, looking at the sales columns, lowered the price of the wagon to DM 90000, but even this did not bring about the desired effect. According to official figures, there were only 399 takers for the extravagant BMW. According to unofficial ones – even fewer. In the meantime, the FIA changed its regulations. At the end of the day, the M1 never took part in the races BMW designed it for.

The inclusion of the M1 in the Bonaventura Classic Collection concluded a four-year search to get an M1. They found and bought a noteworthy piece in 2018. At this point, one cannot help asking the question: where to look for such cars? You will not find them on popular classifieds websites. Car dealerships – even the best ones – do not offer such cars. The current owner of the car lets us in on the secret, saying:
– Looking for such a car involves patiently perusing a dozen different websites with classic for sale every day, preferably in the morning hours. In the end, it worked out. Someone in the US was putting a good-looking specimen up for sale.

The investment was too serious to make a blind purchase. The option was to seek help from BMW Classic, which sent an expert to the States. It turned out that Bruce Canepa was selling the car. Bruce Canepa is an American race car driver and car dealer. He has competed in IMSA GT, sprint car racing and the Trans Am Series. He finished third in the 1979, 24 Hours Daytona. Canepa, apart his racing successes, is a producer of the most known M1 modifications – known as M1 PR Car Canepa.

We will not be giving away any secrets when we say that the drivers exercised their right to a special discount, which enabled them to buy the M1 at a less crazy price. The expert assessment conducted in California gave a rating of 1.2 (where 1.0 is factory condition or better) and 960 out of a possible 1,000 points. Since the car’s condition was flawless, where did the missing points go? They deducted the points because of, amongst other things, the headlights – Bruce had fitted symmetrical headlights after taking the car to the USA. These, although original, were originally not from this car, so this counts as a defect. Getting European headlights was a challenge, but the buyer managed to overcome it.

It took four years to refresh the car. It needed a special wax to preserve the frame, which peeled off after years. Since they had to disassemble the car, it was natural to dismantle the engine, take it apart and replace the gaskets. The same happened with the rubber parts of the suspension and gearbox. It was possible to rectify all the faults. The car’s condition today, with 13800 km of mileage, is ‘factory condition’. It is one of those cars that you both want to drive and dread to drive. The powerful urge to step on the gas competes with the thought that simple bad luck will suffice, and so, prudency prevails. A small stone hitting the windscreen or plastic bodywork will do damage that no owner of a unique car wants to think about. For this reason, since the M1 came to the Bonaventura Classic Collection, it has covered only about 100 km.