Niki Lauda’s Old BMW M1 Could Be Yours

This is a BMW M1, a car you’re probably familiar with. Giugiaro-styled, originally co-developed with Lamborghini, first ever road-going M car and the only one not based on a regular BMW until the XM (dis)graced us with its presence a few years ago, et cetera, et cetera.

You can tell just by looking at it, though, that it’s no regular M1, if such a thing even exists. For a start, it’s wearing the M division’s blue, indigo and red tribal paint on a white base, and its almost delirium-inducingly cool Campagnolo turbofan wheels are painted white. There’s a non-standard front air dam too.

All these changes are because this particular M1 – one of 399 road cars built between 1978 and 1981 – was a prize offered to the winner of the 1979 Procar Championship, a short-lived but spectacular series that supported various rounds of the F1 championship, and saw F1 drivers pitted against one another in identical race-prepped M1s. 

The winner that year was an Austrian chap named Niki Lauda. Again, it's possible you’ve heard of him – won the 1975 world title, gained life-changing injuries in a horrific accident at the 1976 German Grand Prix, still came back a mere three races later to very nearly win that season too, then took the championship again in 1977 and 1984 just for good measure. Basically, one of the indisputable GOATs.

As that 1979 Procar title proved, he was pretty handy in non-F1 machinery too, which is how he came to be the keeper of the car we see here.

Although it’s had the aforementioned visual tweaks, it’s mechanically standard, meaning it’s powered by BMW’s venerable M88/1 3.5-litre straight-six, chucking out 277bhp and 243lb ft of torque, sent through a five-speed manual. Fairly modest figures by today’s standards, then, but with a quoted 0-62mph time of 5.6 seconds and a 161mph top speed, it was one of the quickest cars around in its day.

The ex-Lauda example, which has lived in the USA since 1987, is going under the hammer at Mecum’s auction in Kissimmee, Florida, on 17 January. Its odometer indicates it’s covered 20,350km – around 12,650 miles – so it not only comes with some serious provenance and very tasty-looking visual tweaks, but it’s also a minter. Perhaps that’s why there’s no estimate listed – considering M1s in general have been steadily creeping towards the half-million mark, we suspect this one’s not going to come cheap.