VIN: the Dieter Quester / Alf Gebhardt BMW M1 Procar chassis 4301021 'Carte de France'
History of chassis 4301021
Chassis 4301021 was the M1 Procar supplied to professional Austrian racing driver, Dieter Quester.
Having started his career with an Alfa Romeo Giulietta in 1961, Quester raced a variety of Porsches and BMWs before landing a works drive with the Munich firm in 1967. Quester went on to win a plethora of races for BMW over the next eleven seasons, among the highlights of which were victories at the 1973 Spa 24 Hours and 1976 Nurburgring 1000km.
Dieter Quester elected to have his M1 run by Tom Walkinshaw for the 1979 Procar season. Quester and Walkinshaw had co-driven an Alpina CSL together in 1977 (when they picked up a win at the Silverstone Tourist Trophy ETCC race) and then an Alpina 320 in 1978.
Back in 1976, Walkinshaw had established his own preparation outfit (Tom Walkinshaw Racing – better known as TWR) and owing to the team’s expertise with BMWs, Quester commissioned TWR to look after his Procar throughout 1979.
To reflect backing from title sponsor Gusser Beer, Quester had chassis 4301021 painted the company’s trademark bright green colour scheme emblazoned with a suitably large Austrian flag motif.
He contested all eight rounds of the 1979 Procar series (along with the non-championship Gunnar Nilsson Memorial Trophy organised for the M1s at Donington) during which his best finishes were fifth in the season-opener at Zolder, sixth at Silverstone and a brace of seventh place finishes at Zandvoort and Monza. The Austrian collected another third at Donington although no points were on offer at this event.
Having accumulated 22 points, Quester finished twelfth in the standings.
For 1980, Quester ran chassis 4301021 under the banner of BMW Austria and contested eight of that year’s nine Procar events. He recorded best finishes of fifth at Zeltweg and sixth at the Norisring to claim joint 14th in the final standings.
With backing from BMW France, Quester also raced 4301021 at the 1980 Mugello 6 Hour World Sportscar Championship race where he was partnered by F1 star Didier Pironi and finished sixth overall to win the over two-litre Sports category.
The appearance at Mugello was in preparation for an assault on the 1980 Le Mans 24 Hours where Quester and Pironi were joined by Marcel Mignot. Famously, chassis 4301021 appeared at la Sarthe in a sensational ‘Carte de France ‘Art Car livery. Having qualified 25th, Quester, Pironi and Mignot went on to finish 14th overall and fourth in an IMSA class dominated by much more powerful Porsche 935 turbos.
Having failed to start the final Procar race of 1980 at Imola (owing to an electrical misfire during the warm up lap), Quester contested the DRM season finale at Hockenheim but did not finish despite having been classified 16th.
Chassis 4301021 was subsequently returned to BMW who then sold it (now in the traditional M1 Procar colour scheme of white with a Motorsport tricolour) to Alf Gebhardt in Oklahoma.
The car was delivered to Gebhardt at Daytona where, alongside Hans-Joachim Stuck and Walter Brun, he finished the 24 hour race sixth overall and won the GTO class. Gebhardt contested another trio of IMSA events that season (the Sebring 12 Hours, Riverside 6 Hours and Laguna Seca 100 miles) but 4301021 failed to make the finish on all three occasions.
Gebhardt subsequently sold the car to a boss of one his co-drivers and the car reputedly raced on,
More recently, 4301021 has been restored to its 1980 Le Mans configuration.
Notable History
Dieter Quester (Tom Walkinshaw Racing)
Green, red & white Gusser beer livery
12/05/1979 PRO Zolder (D. Quester) 5th oa (#50)
26/05/1979 PRO Monaco (D. Quester) DNF (#50)
03/06/1979 IND Donington (D. Quester) 7th oa (#50)
30/06/1979 PRO Dijon (D. Quester) 14th oa (#50)
13/07/1979 PRO Silverstone (D. Quester) 6th oa (#50)
28/07/1979 PRO Hockenheim (D. Quester) DNF (#50)
12/08/1979 PRO Zeltweg (D. Quester) 11th oa (#50)
26/08/1979 PRO Zandvoort (D. Quester) 7th oa (#50)
09/09/1979 PRO Monza (D. Quester) 7th oa (#50)
Team Castrol Austria
13/04/1980 WSC Mugello 6 Hours (D. Quester / D. Pironi) 6th oa, 1st S2.0+ class (#43)
26/04/1980 PRO Donington (D. Quester) DNF (#77)
11/05/1980 PRO Avus (D. Quester) 10th oa (#77)
17/05/1980 PRO Monaco (D. Quester) DNF (#77)
White & Blue French map livery
15/06/1980 WSC Le Mans 24 Hours (D. Quester / D. Pironi / M. Mignot) 14th oa, 4th IMSA class (#83)
Green, yellow & white Gusser beer livery
22/06/1980 PRO Norisring (D. Quester) 6th oa (#77)
12/07/1980 PRO Brands Hatch (D. Quester) 11th oa (#77)
09/08/1980 PRO Hockenheim (D. Quester) DNF (#77)
16/08/1980 PRO Zeltweg (D. Quester) 5th oa (#77)
14/09/1980 PRO Imola (D. Quester) DNS (#77)
28/09/1980 DRM Hockenheim (D. Quester) DNF (#28)
White with BMW Motorsport tricolour
Sold to Alf Gebhardt (Bavarian Motors International), Tulsa, Oklahoma
01/02/1981 WSC Daytona 24 Hours (H.J. Stuck / A. Gebhardt / W. Brun) 6th oa, 1st GTO class (#14)
21/03/1981 WSC Sebring 12 Hours (A. Gebhardt / M. Surer) DNF (#14)
26/04/1981 IMS Riverside 6 Hours (A. Gebhardt / B. Beilcke / M. Freberg) DNF (#14)
03/05/1981 IMS Laguna Seca 100 mile (A. Gebhardt) DNF (#14)
Sold and subsequently restored
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: unattributed
