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In 1979, BMW achieved what seems impossible today: bringing together all the best Formula 1 drivers in identical cars and letting them compete against each other, giving fans at the time the chance to see their idols race side by side.
When BMW first conceived of a mid-engine “supercar” in 1976, it was the specter of Porsche 935 dominance that haunted the boardroom. The 935, born out of the new Group 5 “silhouette” rules, had already relegated the legendary BMW CSL from the international stage, forcing the Bavarians to ask themselves a bold question: could they build a race car first and then turn it into a road-legal beast?
Jochen Neerpasch, the director of BMW Motorsport, responded with a bold but difficult plan. Rather than developing the car in-house, which the company deemed too costly and premature, he traveled throughout Italy in search of partners. The result was a tangle of contracts with Lamborghini and Italdesign, a design team led by Luigi Capellini under the watchful eye of Giorgetto Giugiaro, and a chassis co-designed by Martin Braungart of BMW and Gianpaolo Dallara of Lamborghini. Even the visual inspiration came from Paul Braque's BMW Turbo Coupé concept, unveiled in 1972 at the Munich Olympics. The technical plan was impressive: a wedge-shaped fiberglass body on a square tubular chassis, independent double-wishbone suspension with Bilstein shock absorbers, ATE ventilated discs, a five-speed ZF manual transmission with limited-slip differential, and 16-inch Campagnolo wheels shod with Pirelli P7 tires. But the choice of engine revealed the project's first compromise. Paul Roche's ambitious V10 was rejected as too expensive and impractical for other BMW models. Instead, the team refined the proven inline six-cylinder from the 3.0 CSL, adding a Bosch/Kugelfischer mechanical fuel injection system, individual throttle valves, and Marelli electronic ignition. Even this familiar engine required a redesign of the dry sump lubrication system and a more robust single-row chain, elements that would later cause reliability issues. Financial turmoil quickly overshadowed the engineering. Lamborghini's bankruptcy in April 1978 meant the promised production line disappeared, leaving BMW with only four hand-built prototypes and a stack of technical drawings. Neerpasch scrambled again, transferring chassis construction to Marchesi & Co near Modena, the bodywork to Trasformazioni Italiani in Resine (the same workshop that had supplied the plastic kits for BMW racing cars), and final assembly to the Italdesign workshop in Turin, while the engine and gearbox returned to Baur in Stuttgart.
As everything began to fall into place, FISA rewrote the rules: the racing version could not appear on the circuits until 400 production M1s had been sold. The new “built-to-order” model pushed the price up to DM 113,000, the same price as a Ferrari 512 BB and DM 34,000 more than a Porsche 911 Turbo. This cost, combined with the delay in homologation, threatened to make the M1 obsolete in the highly dynamic Group 5 arena.Undeterred, Neerpasch turned this obstacle into an opportunity. He proposed a tailor-made racing series that would be based around Formula 1 weekends, leveraging his friendship with Max Mosley and the support of Bernie Ecclestone. Ecclestone made the deal more attractive by adding performance bonuses for drivers: $9,000 for a win, $6,000 for second place, and so on, provided the cars came out of the races unscathed.
In the end, the birth of the BMW M1 was less a triumph of engineering than a saga of corporate maneuvering, regulatory twists and turns, and financial risks. It survived not because it was the fastest machine on the grid, but because a handful of visionaries refused to let paperwork and bankruptcy dictate the fate of a dream.
Procar qualifying took place on Friday, and the short sprint (usually 15 to 20 laps) was scheduled for Saturday, right after the F1 qualifying session. The five fastest drivers in Friday's free practice were allowed to start the Procar race, each driving a factory-prepared BMW Motorsport car, painted in the team's colors and adorned with the driver's personal sponsor stickers.
The starting grid was made up of a mix of regular touring car drivers—from teams such as Schnitzer, Project 4, Eggenberger, Sauber, Heidegger, TWR, Osella, and Cassani—and the elite of Formula 1. Among them were promising young talents, seasoned touring car veterans, and a few wealthy gentlemen who could afford to buy a race-ready car. At the first edition in Zolder, the drivers were initially hesitant. Mario Andretti was the most vocal, arguing that the weekend already offered enough work. When the organizers pointed out that a good result would be rewarded, Andretti was the first to climb into an M1, and his example quickly convinced Jacques Laffite, Nelson Piquet, and Clay Regazzoni to follow suit. Niki Lauda went even further: in partnership with Ron Dennis' Project 4 team, he secured a Marlboro-liveried car for the entire season. The first race was won by the young Italian Elio de Angelis, who was driving for the Osella team. The racing version of the BMW M1 was different from the production car. It was equipped with an aerodynamic front splitter, wheel arch moldings that concealed the Goodyear slick tires, and a rear wing. Adjustable anti-roll bars and a system for distributing braking force between the axles were added to the suspension, while the interior was stripped of all non-essential elements, the windows were replaced with lightweight plastic, and a roll cage was installed. Under the hood, an optimized M88/1 engine, equipped with racing camshafts, reinforced connecting rods, and special Mahle aluminum pistons, developed a displacement of 3,453 cc and produced approximately 470 hp at 9,000 rpm.
The first race was far from perfect. Less than half of the drivers crossed the finish line, even though the engine speed was limited to around 8,500 rpm, and the settings chosen by BMW factory driver Mark Surer proved unsuitable after Goodyear supplied a different tire compound for Zolder. Nevertheless, the series left a positive impression. The organizers of the Belgian Grand Prix were delighted that spectators stayed after qualifying, BMW Motorsport benefited from valuable visibility, and the drivers enjoyed being able to have fun behind the wheel while earning some extra money.
The next round, which took place alongside the Monaco Grand Prix, was won by Lauda, with Regazzoni finishing second and Emerson Fittipaldi third. The narrow streets of Monte Carlo made overtaking difficult, especially given the M1's width of nearly two meters, but the F1 drivers fared better on a circuit they knew well. However, not everyone was satisfied. Ferrari (Gilles Villeneuve, Jody Scheckter) and Renault (Jean-Pierre Jabouille, René Arnoux) were excluded, officially because their teams were running on Michelin tires while the Procar cars were using Goodyear tires. In reality, politics played a role: BMW was a direct competitor to both manufacturers, and neither France nor Italy wanted to see their drivers racing in a competitor's cars. In addition, both teams did not belong to FOCA and often clashed with FISA president Jean-Marie Balestre, who considered Procar a provocation. When the French Grand Prix was threatened, Bernie Ecclestone declared, “No Procar, no Grand Prix,” and the series went ahead in Dijon, where Nelson Piquet took the win.
The inaugural season consisted of eight rounds, awarding points to the top ten on a scale of 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1. With a permanent seat and a front row spot for the top five, Lauda quickly became the man to beat, alongside his former BRM and Ferrari teammate Clay Regazzoni. In the second half of the season, Hans-Joachim Stuck joined the title race, driving Manfred Cassani's BMW M1. Stuck, who drove an ATS in F1 and could only dream of a front row spot, took advantage of Procar to show that he could compete on equal terms with the world championship leaders, a chance he got after failing to finish in the top five in Grand Prix qualifying.
What had started as a prestigious showcase for the biggest names in Formula 1 quickly turned into a testing ground for touring car specialists, and by the end of 1980, the BMW M1 Procar series was already on the way out.
After consecutive victories at Silverstone and Hockenheim, Niki Lauda arrived at Monza with a slim two-point lead over Clay Regazzoni and a ten-point lead over Hans-Joachim Stuck. The Italian Grand Prix weekend saw Stuck take the win, Regazzoni retire, and Lauda finish second, which was enough to crown the Austrian the first Procar champion.
The 1980 season marked a radical change. The calendar was reduced to nine rounds, three of which (Donington Park, AVUS in Berlin, and one other) were no longer linked to Grand Prix races. For the first time, the series deprived Formula 1 stars of their automatic front row places, forcing Alan Jones, Jacques Laffite, Carlos Reutemann, Nelson Piquet, and Didier Pironi to earn their places like everyone else. This opened the door for drivers from other disciplines to claim victories.
Indeed, the first four races were dominated by talent from touring cars: Jan Lammers won at Donington, Manfred Schurti at AVUS, and Hans-Joachim Stuck, who had just lost his seat in F1, won two consecutive victories at Norisring and Monaco. It was only at Brands Hatch, in the fifth round, that F1 drivers regained the upper hand, with Reutemann sweeping the podium and Pironi winning at Hockenheim.
The last three races were dominated by Brazilian Nelson Piquet. He won at the Österreichring, Zandvoort, and Imola, finishing the season 13 points ahead of 1980 world champion Alan Jones and 19 points ahead of Stuck, becoming the series' second champion. Rumors circulated that Piquet's car was “not quite the same as the others,” a suspicion fueled by his ties to Brabham and the involvement of Bernie Ecclestone's company, BS Fabrications, in the preparation of the BMW-M1s.
By the end of 1980, four hundred M1s had been homologated for Group 4, and BMW announced its entry into Formula 1 as an engine supplier for Brabham. With the factory now focusing on the premier class and the series' founder, Jochen Neerpasch, having left BMW Motorsport a year earlier, Procar's financial momentum evaporated.
A total of 35 F1 drivers competed in the BMW M1 Procar during its two years of existence, including seven world champions: Lauda, Piquet, Mario Andretti, Alan Jones, James Hunt, Emerson Fittipaldi, and Alain Prost. This unique spectacle disappeared after 1980, leaving fans with vivid memories of a brief era when Grand Prix weekends were not limited to the single-seaters that dominate the sport today.
