The M1 Story: A Personal Journey
by Gordon Medenica
Photos by Klaus Schnitzer

It's difficult for me to pinpoint exactly when I realized I absolutely had to have an M1 some day. I remember vividly when the car was first discussed and conceived in the mid-'7Os, since I was working as Executive Director of BMW CCA at the time. It was the time of the great BMW vs. Ford European Touring Car Championship wars and BMW under Jochen Neerpasch, wanted to raise the ante and attack Porsche's dominance of World Sportscar racing. It was a gloriously ambitious plan and required a car capable of beating the all-conquering Porsche 935.

Enter the M1 Although designed purely as a racing car, homologation rules of the day required 400 streetgoing examples to be built. A deal was struck with Lamborghini to design and build the required street cars; BMW Motorsport would build the race cars. The name is very fitting; M (for "Motorsport," not "midengine" as has been reported elsewhere) and 1 (the first pure Motorsport design). The design was fairly conventional-pure-racing-car-state-of-the-art: mid-engine, space frame, fully adjustable double wishbone suspension and fiberglass body. This translated into an exotic street car that competed with the likes of Ferrari's Boxer in its day. Most road tests of the time described the Ml as an "everyday exotic" with relatively docile street manners, good driveability and reliability, and full amenities such as power windows and air conditioning.

Performance was spectacular in its day, although it's almost matched today by cars such as the current M3. In fact, only top speed (163 mph) is much different from an M3 (0-60 in 5.6 sec).

The rest of the story is well known. Problems at Lamborghini led to inordinate production delays, and eventually BMW had to bring construction back to Germany. The space frames and bodies were sourced in Italy, and most construction was subcontracted to Baur, with final assembly at Motorsport. The delay cost BMW its chance at the World Championship, since by the time the requisite 400 units were built, the car was no longer competitive, a second oil shock rocked the world, and BMW lost faith in the project. The street cars became instant collectors items and the race cars were used for two years in a preliminary event to European Formula 1 races, in a series called Procar. Interestingly, the two Procar champions were Nelson Piquet and Niki Lauda.

At the same time (the early `80s), there was a loophole in the United States import auto certification process that allowed individuals to import non-US spec cars upon completion of EPA and DOT conversion modifications. This "gray market" allowed anumber of Mls to get into the US. It was also a period of intense financial speculation in exotic sports cars, particularly Ferraris, but many other brands as well. Although the stock market crashed in 1987, the exotic car bubble continued for a couple of years before crashing in 1990.

I began following M1s in the late eighties and for a while felt that I would never be able to own one. I kept track of every Ml offered for sale, calling sellers and trying to get as much information as possible. Asking prices eventually peaked at just under $300,000, although I'm not sure what the highest actual purchase price was. From there, asking prices drifted down with the rest of the market, finally dropping below the $100,000 mark two years ago. Keith Martin's Sports Car Market newsletter currently pegs Mis in the $60-85,000 range, which brings them back to reality for BMW enthusiasts, notjust speculators and dealers.

After I bought my Ml about three years ago, I started the Ml Register and have located about 50 cars in the US (total Ml production was 450 cars; 396 street cars and 54 race cars. Serial numbers go to 460 because 10 numbers were skipped along the way).

I purchased my car from an individual in Massachusetts who had owned it for about five years. It was originally imported, modified and certified in 1981 and lived in California until 1989. As a US-legal and titled car, it posed no difficulties in registration or insurance.

Upon buying the car, my first challenge was finding someone capable of working on it. I approached my BMW dealer to see if they were willing to put one guy on my car, to learn and to become proficient on this unique car. They agreed and have been servicing the car ever since. Nevertheless, finding good technicians with M1 experience is difficult and rare. It is an important consideration for anyone thinking of buying an M1. Luckily, the cars are relatively reliable and not too finicky.

Shortly after buying the Ml, I decided to enter Car and Driver's "One Lap of America," having done the event two years earlier in an M3. We hastily prepared the car, changing fluids, pads, tires, filters and belts, and entered "One Lap" hoping the car was basically sound and capable of doing the event. We were entered in the "Vintage Imported" class against weak competition, so a class win seemed very likely.

It was not to be. At the second track event at Road America, the oil filter loosened up, sending a stream of oil onto my left rear tire. Since it was late in the day, the setting sun in my eyes kept me from noticing that the oil light was on. Into the fast, 3rd gear, 100mph carousel, the car snapped sideways. my first warning that something was wrong. As I gathered it back up and headed into the tree-lined kink, I now saw the oil light, and the oil pressure gauge was falling rapidly. I shut off the motor and coasted a long way before pulling over. Much to the chagrin of my fellow competitors, I had coated the racing line with fresh oil for almost half a lap; the rest of the session had to be canceled. Looking at the entire back half of the car literally covered and drip ping in oil, I was completely devastated. My new toy, my dream, my money... gone.

Back in the paddock, things began looking up. We found the loose filter still attached, tightened it up, put in new oil and started the engine again. It seemed fine, so we packed up and headed out, followed by a loyal track marshal to make sure we were all right.

About two miles outside the track, the dreadful sound of rod knock appeared, and we shut down once again. Luckily, the marshal towed us to a nearby hotel to ponder our fate. That night, my teammate and I suffered through the DNF blues over pizza and beer. The next morning feeling recharged after a decent night's sleep, we started work on getting the car fixed. We flatbedded it to Milwaukee and the very enthusiastic people at Concours BMW. By our calculations, if we could get the car fixed by Friday (it was now Tuesday), we could rejoin "One Lap" in Memphis (missing the loop out to Phoenix) and still have a mathematical chance for the (admittedly weak) class win.

Phone calls to BMW in New Jersey, engine builders in Toronto, parts suppliers in Germany and others gave us hope. Damage appeared limited to two rod bearings, so we were all set to put in new bearings if they arrived on time. Unfortunately, they arrived, but didn't fit. Our hopes were shattered; chalk up "One Lap" 1994 as a DNE We flew home Friday night.

I flew back Fourth of July weekend, rented a U-Haul and trailer, and spent two days driving the car to Toronto to the shop of Markus Glarner, one of the rare breed of expert engine builders with M1 experience, having done the engine for BMW NA's Group 4 Ml race car.

Markus rebuilt the engine (in retrospect, it was a good thing we didn't just change rod bearings other damage became evident during the rebuild) and the gearbox (while you're at it...). When I got it back in October, it was better than before and I began thinking about One Lap again.

The following spring, I joined up with my old teammate from the 1992 One Lap, Scott Hughes, to tackle the event once again. This time the car was much more thoroughly prepared, and we wanted to take the class win.

The first event was back at Road America, which we won against a very quick and well-prepared DeTomaso Pantera from Texas. We got the `94 monkey of our back, but we were also facing stiff opposition in our class, unlike the year before.

At Blackhawk Farms, going into the last corner, I shifted and found a gearbox full of neutrals. I coasted the entire length of the front straight to complete a time, but pulled in to find the linkage had separated. A helpful gang of Windy City members jumped under the car and had it back together in no time, and we rejoined the event, now down many points to the Pantera.

From there began one of the great stories of One Lap. We swapped the class lead with the Pantera six times over the course of the event, winning at Road America, Heartland Park #2, Hallet, Memphis, Suinmit Point and Watkins Glen, The Pantera won at Blackhawk (gearbox), Heartland Park #1 (shifter still out of alignment), Atlanta and Charlotte (Pantera's 100+ horsepower advantage).

In the end, we began the last day dead even on points, with two track events to go, Nelson Ledges and Waterford Hills. Scott had done several 24-hour races at Nelson (in his own words, "I could drive Nelson blindfolded, in reverse in the dark"). Indeed, Scott set our best time of the event, good for 11th overall. The Pantera Spun. Waterford Hills then became anticlimactic, as we just needed a decent competitive time, which Scott calmly completed. We did it: 20th overall and the "Vintage Imported" class win.

I drove home from the finish in Detroit to New York, and brought the car into the dealer. I asked the tech to join me to diagnose a noise we had been hearing for about the last 1,500 miles. After going about two blocks, he confirmed "Yes, definitely, a wheel bearing" and said to turn right back into the shop, don't even drive it home. "It could seize up any moment!" So luck played its part as well.

The car is now fully repaired again, and will probably see the odd drivers school or two in the future. But, it is becoming increasingly difficult to push hard on a race track, as a little voice inside my head keeps whispering "Don't screw up, dummy, it's an M1!"

With an established competition record, the car may now be retired to concours duty, such as it served at last year's Oktoberfest. There it won its class, even if it was only a class of one.

But then again, that's what an M1 is, a class of one.