AN M AT HEART

There’s another 7 Series that once had a strong M influence, but in a very different way to the M760LI. And it’s one South Africans can be rightly proud it of.

In the early 1980s, BMW’S then-newly launched E23 745i was offered overseas with the 735i’s 3,4-litre, inline-six engine that had a turbocharger bolted on. Because the latter was sited to the left of the inline-six, the vehicle could not be converted to right-hand drive.

Instead of accepting the problem, BMW SA found a solution and embarked on what was then the most advanced engineering exercise it had ever undertaken: to install a naturally aspirated version of the M1 racecar’s M88/3 24-valve 3,5-litre engine under the hood of the Beemer. More than 50 engineers from Munich took up residency at Rosslyn to work on the project, and even the original designer of the M1 powertrain, head of BMW Motorsport Paul Rosche, lent his input.

Production ran from 1983 to ’87, during which time 209 models were built, 17 of which had a manual gearbox. To prove its racing mettle, BMW SA entered a 745i in Class A of the Modified Saloon Car Championship, which it won in ‘85. If reports are to be believed, this is the only Bmw-sanctioned motorsport application in the history of the 7 Series.

The vehicle in this image was kindly loaned to us for the M760LI shoot by owner Dirk Snyman from Worcester and is one of the 192 that was fitted with an automatic transmission. Despite having more than 200 000 km on the odo, it runs beautifully and that M1 engine picks up revs fluently before gradually building to a strong crescendo, where it sounds wonderful. Much like the M760LI, actually.