Seriously. I've been on the forum for something like 20 years and I can't remember ever having seen a thread about anyone doing anything with a M1... ?
Seriously. I've been on the forum for something like 20 years and I can't remember ever having seen a thread about anyone doing anything with a M1... ?
Mmmm M1 and Z1 are great unicorns. Lucky enough to see a couple in museums.
Good question. Great car. Perhaps it was too grown up to be considered lustworthy? It's kinda like a German NSX. All I know is that I came super close to dropping a hammer on one at The Hardy and Beck garage. That would not have been good.
Well there were only about 450 made so there's not many in the hands of the typical GRM subscriber/budget. Besides, "doing anything with a M1" like a SBC swap would likely get the owner shot at a car show.
Some BMW M1 content over on the Classic Motorsports site:
Welcome to Fritz Wagner’s BMW M1 Procar stockpile
The thrilling history of the short-lived BMW M1 Procar
BMW M1: The radical entrance of the M Division
Your next classic car should probably be a Bimmer, but which one?
In 1981 I was walking down Vegas Blvd towards the grandstands at the Ceaser's Palace Grand Prix and lo and behold a BMW M1 rolled past........I was stunned and thrilled to see it.
In reply to Coniglio Rampante :
typical GRM subscriber/budget
You read a different GRM than i do 
If I had a million dollars I'd be talking more about an M1. They're my favorite exotic.
I was fortunate enough to do some work for a machine shop in Mass that specialized in Pantera and M1 restorations. Hus garage was just on another level of cool.
I was acquainted with a guy that had two M1s; a "regular" one and a "better" one. One of the many weird things is the fold out windows behind the cockpit there for reasons unknown to me. You can get to that panel from the engine bay.
One of my favorite cars, I've had the pleasure of seeing two of them up close actually being driven. Like so many others, way out of the budget I'll ever be able to afford...
Marcus Glarner Motorsports has a PROCAR up here, hearing that thing leave Moss corner at Mosport and wail all the way up the Andretti straight is awesome.
The M1 was insteresting, but I've always been more partial to the 1M:
In reply to mainlandboy :
Man the 1M was way cool. Prices seem to be in the $70,000-$100,000 range depending on mileage–though Hagerty shows values as low as $36,000:
When I was a kid I was at Sebring and I swear I saw an M1 racecar that had a narrowed M1 front end between fenders that looked like they were from a prototype race car. I thought it was amazing but for years haven't been able to find that such a thing ever existed.
Well apparently it was not just a fever dream:
Awesome cars, I remember in the 80's and 90's you might occasionally see a street version in the wild but I guess they are now all in private collections or museums.
M1s are amazing, but are simply unobtainable for most of us. So we don't talk about them in the same way we don't talk about Muiras (Miura? I forget)
Rare, neat looking and very, very expensive. Not for me - they put out 277 bhp and 243 Tq, My Z4M puts out 338 bhp and 269 Tq and weighs just under 3300 lbs. to the M1s 2860 or so lbs. The performance specs are quite similar.
In reply to wspohn :
A Toyota 2000GT has a worse power/weight ratio than a 30 year old Miata, but we still like those :)
The M1 was BMW's only supercar. They're pulling real supercar money at auctions now. I tried to get a client to purchase the last, unsold M1 which came up for auction about 4 years ago, he declined.
If you're 6' tall or better, forget about driving one, you won't fit.
Keith Tanner said:In reply to wspohn :
A Toyota 2000GT has a worse power/weight ratio than a 30 year old Miata, but we still like those :)
So do I. It isn't the performance level that puts me off the M1, it is the price! You'd have to really like them a lot to shell out the sort of money they want for one. If I were told to go out and buy an interesting good looking BMW regardless of price it wouldn't be an M1, it would be one of these:
What's sad is that I remember when these were reasonably attainable cars:
Not to mention all the ratty but driveable E24 generation 6-series coupes you could have bought for a couple grand. I guess what I'm saying is that it doesn't bother me that M1's are unattainable because they never really were for mere mortals.
In reply to SEADave :
Coincidentally, the same guy I mentioned above with a pair of M1s also had a pair of those:
Like most of the cars he had, they were bought at the right time and sold years later for a nice return. Unless average condition MGs appreciate dramatically, I don't think my kids are going to see much profit from my investments.
Apis Mellifera said:In reply to SEADave :
Coincidentally, the same guy I mentioned above with a pair of M1s also had a pair of those:
Like most of the cars he had, they were bought at the right time and sold for a nice return. Unless average condition MGs appreciate dramatically, I don't think my kids are going to see much profit from my investments.
And one of the e9s appears to be a CSL.
In reply to stroker :
When the cheapest recorded sale is at $368k, it's not particularly Grassroots! They are amazing vehicles though.
SEADave said:Not to mention all the ratty but driveable E24 generation 6-series coupes you could have bought for a couple grand. I guess what I'm saying is that it doesn't bother me that M1's are unattainable because they never really were for mere mortals.
I hope that someday cars like my e28 M535i will command silly money. They have appreciated somewhat, but in the meantime I'll just keep driving it.
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