Unlike many other examples, dealing with this subject – the BMW M – involve in some time traveling. To another place and time, to the race tracks of the 70’s.
In 1970, Robert Lutz said at a BMW board meeting the following sentence: “As a person, even a company needs to engage in sports. As long as she does so, she will be fit, trained, full of enthusiasm and performance”. This is how Lutz presented his case, emphasizing what motorsports brings into the company that sales the best drivers cars.
Lutz, is one who knows how to persuade, and in the first of May, 1972, a subsidiary company was established to Bavarian engines. BMW Motorsport – in short M.
In those years, BMW had success on the race track, the 2000TI won every race it stabilized around and Formula 2 driver who wanted to win needed a BMW. But,most of the racing activity slipped through by the company as a large portion of buyers prepared their vehicles on private workshops. M division was supposed to respond to this demand and to manage future racing plans.
The beginning was modest – at the existing plant, a well-equipped workshop was set, with dedicated tools and dynamo-meter along with only 35 employees. Jochen Nirfash managed them – a race car driver who became director. This group went straight to work – and to produce clear Impact built two cars. The first is the 2002 Rally version, only weighed 950 kg and producing 240 horsepower. But most of the noise came from the second one.
The Full Monty
It was important to Nirfash to show that he is serious. So he took a 3.0 CS and started a major metamorphosis. At first chassis parts have been replaced with aluminum ones, and he even used magnesium for some parts. Weight dropped to 1092 kg. then It received an increase in capacity (from 2986 to 3340 cc), fuel injection and an increased compression ratio – power went up to 360 hp. These data quite easily translated into success at the racetrack. For the M Division has brought not only a respectable arsenal of drivers, but also a new branding approach – the new symbol with the three stripes appeared not only on the cars, it appeared on the equipment, clothing and even on the utility trucks. There is a new player in the field and they wanted everyone to know it.
The car created by BMW M and Nirfash, 3.0 CSL, dominated the European championship for a decade and marked a few more records. It was the first 6-cylinder car used with 4 valves per cylinder. She used an ABS system long before it reached the road models of the company and at the end of her life, with special versions using Turbo, the engine’s output climbed to 800 hp. At the end of the 70’s, many years after being introduced, this car still won championships and carried the gospel M proudly. It’s time, for the next move.
Supercar
The story of the BMW M1 is a story of a rather complicated assembly that sometimes seemed like it will not end. It started when BMW agreed with Lamborghini on production of the chassis, but the Italian company encountered difficulties. So the chassis and plastic went to another company. These pieces were transferred to Italdesign (of Giorgetto Giugiaro), made up the first part of the puzzle. Then the M1 moved to Bauer, where she met the mechanical parts (6-cylinder, 277 hp at 6,500 rpm) and became an accomplished car.
It might look like a mish-mash car but it became famous and revered. Not because of its appearance or performance – a smart move introduce a single-model racing series for the M1. This races, heating the European rounds of the Formula 1 championship meant high exposure. Along with loving reviews from the automotive journalism, expressed immediately in the sales and leaving a long waiting list. The low silhouette of the M1, only 114 cm tall, looked good on the race tracks, and those famous race drivers used it on those tracks made it even more desirable.
The racing version introduced a much more exciting performance from the normal M1. Its engine produced 470 horsepower (at 9,000 rpm), and it easily passed 300 kph. Encouraged by the M1, BMW M builds powerful sedan based on the 5 Series, the M535i, with 218 hp, it translates the principles of the racing division to the public road. From that moment – leakage began to the public road targeting a much wider target audience.
Homologation
After logging a very successful Formula 1 (World Championship with a turbo, 1500 cc, 4-cylinder and over 1,300 hp), the small division already had 380 employees and was overlooking track activity, Training and planning road sports models. Such a sport model became the icon – identified today as one of the classics out of this division – the BMW M3.
This car was born when BMW decided to build the ultimate racing weapon, and the first M3 was exactly that. It was also the first product of M sold in significant quantities. Almost 20,000 cars were sold, require the division to leave the small workshop to a larger plant.
This is the point where the racing workshop production becomes a significant factor in BMW plans. In many ways, the end of the first M3 symbolize the end of an era. Division M will produce from that point, cars designed primarily for the road, not to the track.
An example of a change
If there is one car that symbolizes the changes and progress experienced by BMW M, this must be the M5. She started with a six-pot based on the M1 and assembled manually (2,191 units produced), on the E39 V8 amount of production was increased significantly (20,489 units) and then it peaked with the V10 mounted on E60 (20,577 units). From small racing production to big numbers with street oriented sports cars.
Not a small workshop
What began as a small workshop with a few dozen employees, grew and became a division that controls all kind of activities. BMW’s racing programs through its driver training programs, going through the individual department, and models bearing the name and even equipment levels. No longer a racing workshop at all.
During more than 40 years they have built quite a few cars that have become cult. And they continue to do so, refer to the sporting aspect of driving as the highest value, even in the age that keeps the driver outside from the act of driving. They still manage to be a benchmark in this area and all of them are still pouring content, meaning, and truth into Lutz’s statement.