1981 BMW M1 Coupe

The BMW M1 was essentially a road-going Procar and Group 5 racer, built to homologate the cars for the track. The M1 remains the most exotic street car that BMW ever built. They were basically hand-built in limited numbers, and given a tubular frame, Giugiaro-designed bodywork, and state-of-the-art technology. The chassis had unequal-length lateral links, alloy uprights, concentric coil springs, and anti-roll bars in the front and rear. The engine was a double-overhead-cam six-cylinder unit that offered 277 horsepower and helped carry to the car to a top speed in excess of 160 mph.

BMW built just 455 examples of the M1 between 1978 and 1981. 399 of those were road cars and 56 were race cars.

This particular example was completed on October 13th of 1980 and finished in Inka Orange with a Schwarz (Black) leather and cloth interior. It was delivered thereafter through BMW Italia S.p.A. of Palazzolo. It is believed to be the 348th M1 built and believed to have been retained by the Italian BMW distributor until 1948. It was sold new to a private museum collection in Japan. It was road-registered in early 1984 and over the next three decades covered fewer than 8,000 kilometers.

Currently, the odometer shows just 12,838 kilometers.

By Daniel Vaughan | Oct 2016