The guys over at Petrolicious just got their hands on a beautiful 1980 BMW M1->ke4680 coated in a wonderful red paint and looking as pristine as the day it rolled from BMW’s->ke178 factory. It’s owner, Mike Ura, bought the car in 2009 from its original owner with only 12,500 miles on the clock. Today, Mike regularly takes the car for spirited drives on the road and hard track time on a local circuit located just outside Austin, Texas.

As the story goes,->ke3223 BMW wanted to re-enter the Group 4 racing series.->ke447 In order to do so, the automaker needed a production car->ke506 with at least 400 units produced in order to race. So the German automaker teamed up with famed Italian steed builder Lamborghini->ke44 to build the car. However, as time went on, Lamborghini found itself in hard financial times. With the slowed pace of an ailing car company and reworked regulations and specifications surrounding the racing series, full production of the M1 was no longer needed. Only 456 were ever built.

The M1 is powered by a 3.5-liter, straight-six engine with a dry sump oil system, six separate throttle bodies, four valves per cylinder, and a Kugelfischer mechanical fuel-injection system. The inline-six produced 273 horsepower and gave the car a top speed of roughly 162 mph. The mill’s beautiful architecture only added to the M1’s uniqueness as the only mid-engine car BMW produced.

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