IN THE BEGINNING
BMW Motorsport GmbH was founded in 1972 by a small team of 35 employees, headed-up by ex-Porsche works driver Jochen Neerpasch. BMW needed a plan to build on its decades of motor racing experience to become a bigger player on the world stage.
Its first project was a 2002 rally car, with an experimental four-valve cylinder head, but the big news was the 3.0 CSL. It took an existing product – the E9 3.0CS Coupé – and developed it for the track. Key to this transformation was reducing weight – L for ‘lightweight’ – which meant stripping the luxurious coupé of sound insulation, building the structure with thinner steel and fitting aluminium panels.
The injected 3.0-litre straight-six was soon increased to a 3.2, and a radical new aerodynamic package was homologated in 1973 – earning it the ‘Batmobile’ nickname. A total of 1265 were built and, although it doesn’t wear the badge, this car is the very essence of M. It won six European Touring Car Championships and scored overall wins in the Sebring 12 Hours (1975) and Daytona 24 Hours (1976), and three class wins at Le Mans (1973, ’74 and ’77).
Yet the Motorsport division had even bigger plans, to build and race its own bespoke midengined racing car. Developed from the groundup this time, the M1 was intended to take on Porsche in Group 5 racing. Lamborghini was brought in to build the body and chassis, the latter a spaceframe designed by Dallara. Problem was, Lamborghini didn’t have the capacity to complete the job on time, and any chance of Group 5 racing evaporated. Focusing instead on Group 4, Neerpasch settled on a one-make M1 Procar series to run in tandem with the 1979 and 1980 F1 championship. Entertaining, sure, especially with some famous drivers behind the wheel, yet the M1 never really made it in the world of motorsport.
But what a road car! The 277bhp straight-six was a gem, developed for racing yet one of the smoothest and most engaging road car engines of all time – and it would become this car’s lasting legacy to M, as the company would officially become known from 1993.
Meanwhile, in the background, it had been busy improving a number of BMW saloons for customers. Even in 1974, the 530 and subsequent 533i and 535i models proved that there was an emerging market for highperformance saloons – so much so that M built a hot-rodded 5-series fit to wear the M badge. It might not have been a fully motorsportfocused model like its predecessors but, when it was finally launched in 1980, the E12 M535i represented the start of the M5 lineage.
The spec included a limited-slip diff, dogleg transmission and a 3.5-litre M30 straight-six – a direct descendant of the CSL’s race-winning engine. Just 1410 were handbuilt at M’s Garching plant between 1980 and ’81, making it the first saloon-shaped M-car, although diehard enthusiasts will tell you that South Africa’s race-ready 530 MLE got there first in 1976.