‘The M1 was a racecar first’
JOCHEN NEERPASCH, BMW M FOUNDER
The BMW M1 was the first true M car and the last to use a bespoke platform. Father of BMW M Jochen Neerpasch recalls its development…
⊲ ‘In the ’70s it was mandatory to produce 1000 cars to homologate Group 2 touring cars, but for Group 4 only 400 cars. Modifying the 3.0 CSL road car for Group 2 racing was very expensive because the difference between the road and racecar was immense. So our goal was to build a racecar in a small production run of 400, and transfer it into a road car, so the difference was much lower. The target for the M1 road car was to spend a high-speed day at the Nordschleife then drive home safely – in the ’70s there weren’t many cars like this!’
⊲ ‘We soon realised this would be more a road car than a competition car. So the project was transferred to BMW Motorsport GmbH, with co-operation from Lamborghini. During testing, we spent many early mornings driving to Sant’Agata from Munich and returning late at night. At that time there was no speed limit at the Brenner Pass and less trac than today, of course. With each visit our time reduced because of technical improvements but also because our driving improved!’
⊲ ‘The development period with Lamborghini was very effective. We achieved our targets quickly, but the biggest challenge was saving the project when Lamborghini got into financial diculties – we hadn’t been able to produce 400 M1s in the first year for FIA homologation, and were faced with the problem of selling the M1 without racing participation. We solved this with the Procar racing series.
‘When BMW organised a Procar revival at the 2008 German F1 GP, I drove the Andy Warhol art car. It was worth more than €30,000,000, but as soon as the flag dropped I forgot the value – luckily we made it to the flag without damaging the masterpiece!’ ⊲