Never to be outdone, BMW brought a freaking airplane to Techno Classica. They recently turned 100 years old, and the Bavarian propeller logo does stand for actual propellers.
But since this isn’t Atomic Toasters, I’m dedicating this post to the BMW M1: the best Lamborghini BMW ever made. Or something.
Look at the pointy nose, all business! If this was any other automotive site, the copy here would claim how a modern Camry would easily match the 277-horsepower M1 that also has six cylinders, not eight or twelve. But this is a Hooniverse Weekend Edition, and none of that is here to blemish the M1’s legacy as a true supercar legend.
It even looks so well-packaged from here. You probably could fit a 1978 sports bag in the frunk and a couple more behind the engine.
Inside, it looked completely spartan. No fripperies.
The taillights on the E26, as the type code went, were shared with the E24. Also, reportedly the door handles and heater controls are E21 3-series items and the rear brake calipers come from the E12 5-series front end.
Stripes.
Almost forgot! Here’s that airplane.
Techno Classica Weekend Edition: The 1978-1981 BMW M1
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Funny enough, a friend and I were just flipping through a book about the M-division from the 90’s, and came across this.
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i have to be That Guy here – the “propellers” in the BMW roundel are no such thing.
“At the BMW Museum in Munich, my affable tour guide, Anne Schmidt-Possiwal, explained that the blue-and-white company logo did not represent a spinning propeller, but was meant to show the colors of the Free State of Bavaria.”-
Frau Schmidt-Possiwal seems very stern about this point… there was a much more conciliable tone in some German magazine, along the lines of “the logo is (15 years or something) older than the first aircraft engine, yes, but the myth is now 75 years old, and hence, part of the full (hi)story.”
If you repeat something over and over again, it will become true!
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I remember seeing a silver M1 on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami some time in the late 1990s. I nearly wrenched my neck trying to get a long look at the thing. Gorgeous.
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I took some photos of some of my old Matchbox cars at Christmas, but the red BMW M1 like the one featured (with some of the paint knocked off, it was a toy after all) was not one of them; so here is an M1 Procar from the Phillip Island Classic in February
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And then they took the engine from the M1 AND MADE IT MORE POWERFUL and put it in a five series without a bodykit. I still want an M5, E28 or E34. Yes I know V6 Accords blah blah… I still want one because of subtlety, no longer available today.
http://blog.caranddriver.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/E28-M5-The-Camouflaged-Supercar-Arrives.jpg
http://blog.caranddriver.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/BMW-E28-M5-E34-M5-and-M1.jpg -
Currently, an M1 motive is on sale at our banner sponsor’s. Coincidence? It is, astonishingly enough, not very tongue-in-cheek, though.
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