Car Of The Day: February 25, 2011

Today's car of the day is Maisto's 1978 BMW M1.

The BMW M1 was a sports car that was produced by German automaker BMW from 1978 to 1981.

In the late 1970s, Italian manufacturer Lamborghini entered into an agreement with BMW to build a production racing car in sufficient quantity for homologation. The result was sold to the public, from 1978 to 1981, as the BMW M1. It was the only mid-engined BMW to be mass produced. It employed a twin-cam M88/1 3.5 L 6-cylinder petrol engine with Kugelfischer mechanical fuel injection. A version of this motor was later used in the South African version of the BMW 735i, of which 209 examples were built between 1984 and 1986, as well as the E24 BMW M6/M635CSi and E28 BMW M5. The engine had six separate throttle butterflies, four valves per cylinder and produced 277 PS (204 kW; 273 hp) in the street version, giving a top speed of 260 km/h (160 mph). Turbocharged racing versions were capable of producing around 850 hp (634 kW).

The M1 coupe was hand-built between 1978 and 1981 under the Motorsport division of BMW as a homologation special for sports car racing. The body was designed by Giugiaro, taking inspiration from the 1972 BMW Turbo show car. Originally, BMW commissioned Lamborghini to work out the details of the car's chassis, assemble prototypes and manufacture the vehicles, but Lamborghini's financial position meant that BMW reassumed control over the project in April 1978, after seven prototypes were built. 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.

The M1 had various successes in motorsports. In 2004, Sports Car International named the car number ten on the list of Top Sports Cars of the 1970s.

The M1 is not related to BMW's current 1-series compact executive car.

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: BMW M1

Here's a nice Maisto courtesy juantoo3.  Thanks Wes!  This is a copy of the Matchbox casting, like many early Maistos, but the end result is fairly nice.  It's screaming for better wheels though.

In 1979 the head BMW Motorsport, Jochen Neerpasch, devised a one-make championship using racing modified M1s. The series was created to aid BMW in building enough M1s to enter the Group 4 classification in the World Championship for Makes. The new series, known as the Procar BMW M1 Championship, served as a support series for Formula One, and included many current Formula One drivers in identical cars.

The series ran for two years, with Niki Lauda winning the 1979 season, and Nelson Piquet the 1980 season. After BMW met the standards for Group 4, the Procars were used by various teams in the World Championship as well as other national series.