BMW M1 E26

Период: 1978–1981 Классификация: BMW M road car + homologation-driven motorsport project Статус: редакционная глава.

BMW M1 нельзя откладывать до поздней общей главы BMW M: хронологически он находится между E12/E21/E23/E24 и является ключевой частью происхождения дорожных автомобилей BMW Motorsport GmbH.

Road version

BMW PressClub describes project E26 as having started in 1976 and links its street legality directly to Group 4 homologation requirements.

Homologation logic

BMW PressClub historical description:

• Group 4 required a production run of at least 400 units within 24 consecutive months;
• two seats;
• road-production counterpart visually related to competition car.

Therefore the M1 road car and race project are structurally related, but their specifications remain separate.

⚠️ PRODUCTION CONFLICT

Official BMW sources disagree:

BMW Group Classic current parts/history page: 453 BMW M1 built between 1978 and 1981.

BMW PressClub USA historical release (2008): 445 total = 399 road + 46 Procar.

These totals cannot both represent the same production accounting.

Working database:

• production total = CONFLICT 445 / 453;
• road count = 399 only as PressClub-2008 accounting;
• Procar count = 46 only as PressClub-2008 accounting;
• no inferred remainder for the 453 figure.

Motorsport

M1 Procar / Group 4

BMW historical technical data:

• I6;
• 3500 см³;
• 345 kW / 470 bhp @ 9000 in cited Group 4 technical specification;
• 390 Н·м @ 7000;
• ZF 5-speed;
• racing chassis/brakes.

Historical texts also describe higher Procar power figures depending on configuration, so final race database will be chassis/season specific.

M1 Group 5

BMW PressClub technical description:

• 3.2-litre I6;
• turbocharger;
• up to 850 bhp @ 9000;
• boost 1.2–1.4 atmosphere in that historical document.

GROUP 5 — NOT SERIES ROAD CAR.

Art Car

Andy Warhol BMW M1 (1979):

• race car / Art Car;
• competed at Le Mans;
• not a factory road special edition.

Sources

1. BMW Group Classic — BMW M1 road version

www.bmwgroup-classic.com/de/modelle/bmw-klassiker/product-description-page.ad-234-1.bmw-m1-e26-strassenversion.html

1. BMW Group Classic — parts/history overview

www.bmwgroup-classic.com/de/services/ersatzteile/bmw.html

1. BMW PressClub USA — Thirty Years of the BMW M1

www.press.bmwgroup.com/usa/article/detail/T0017968EN_US/icons-for-connoisseurs-thirty-years-of-the-bmw-m1?language=en_US

1. BMW M — About BMW M Automobiles

www.bmw-m.com/en/topics/about-bmw-m-gmbh/automobile.html