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History

1972 BMW Turbo

The 1972 Turbo prototype was created for the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. Only 2 Turbos were ever built. Today, it is one of the rarest of BMW’s, with its elegant design, gullwing doors and futuristic cockpit.

1972 BMW Turbo Concept

The Turbo was powered by the 4-cylinder 1990cc turbocharged engine with 280 hp at 5200 rpm and a top speed of 165mph. The Turbo was BMW’s first mid-engined car.

1978-1981 BMW M1

The M1 was was the first car produced by BMW Motorsport. Originally released in 1978, the M1 experienced production and homologation problems that kept it from international competition until the car was no longer competitive. First shown at the Paris Motor Show, the M1 was discontinued in 1981.

The 3.0CSL was getting old and a replacement was needed to show the Porshce 935 who was boss. It was thus decided to build the M1 using styling queues from the 1972 Turbo concept car. The M1 was always a heavy car and was sadly never very competitive, its looks go a long way to making up for this as a road car though.

The BMW M1 is a supercar automobile, and was the first and only mid-engined BMW.

The Giugiaro-designed M1 was to be assembled by Lamborghini, but Lamborghini’s poor financial situation and assembly delays caused BMW to move assembly to Baur, the German convertible builders.

BMW M1 Supercar

Only one road going version of the M1 was produced. Several racing versions exist with power outputs of up to 850bhp.All of the 456 M1’s built were left hand drive except two. One RHD model recently turned up at Munich Legends with only 8000 miles.

With a 24-valve cylinder head, the engine had 277 hp at 6500 rpm and develops 239 ft/lb of torque at 5000 rpm. Several racing versions exist with power outputs of up to 850hp.

Only 456 production M1s were built, making it one of BMW’s rarest models. The spirit of the M1 lived on in the first-generation M5, as both models shared the same (though slightly modified) engines

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