The BMW M1 is a car that needs no introduction and is one of the rarest considering only 460 units were ever made. Out of the total production run, just 399 were road-legal examples as the rest were built for racing. Featured in the video at the bottom is an early example of the mid-engined supercar, wearing the desirable Ink Orange paint and with only 22,087 kilometers (13,724 miles) on the clock.
It’s up for grabs at Dutch high-end dealer Gallery Aaldering and they say it’s the third-ever M1 built by BMW. It was initially used as a training car at service centers and was the very first example delivered to a dealer in Germany. The first person to own the car was none other than racing driver Alf Gebhardt, who ordered a whopping 10 vehicles but ultimately ended up getting “only” eight. He kept two as personal cars – one for him and the other for his wife.
Getting back to the car at hand, it’s an all-original example Gebhardt kept for approximately six years, driving it about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) annually. The second owner had the car for three decades and sold it to a Dutchman. Fast forward to 2023, the BMW M1 is looking for a new home. Throughout the years, the iconic sports car has been maintained by an M1 specialist and even comes bundled with the original first aid kit and the tool roll.
We’ll remind you the first dedicated M model had a 3.5-liter naturally aspirated engine dialed to 277 horsepower and 330 Newton-meters (243 pound-feet) of torque transferred to the rear axle via a five-speed manual gearbox. The inline-six was powerful enough to allow the M1 hit a top speed of 265 km/h (165 mph), thus making it one of the fastest cars at the time.
Built by hand, the homologation special had a dry weight of only 1,300 kilograms (2,866 pounds) and measured just 1,14 meters tall at its highest point. That M88 engine went on to power the M635i as well as the original M5 in the 1980s. After four decades, BMW has a new bespoke M car, but it couldn’t be more different since the XM is a plug-in hybrid SUV that weighs over 2,700 kg (more than 6,000 lbs).
Should you want to own a slice of BMW M history, this 1980 M1 is up for grabs at a steep €695,000.
Source: Gallery Aaldering
