One to Buy: un-raced as-new ex-Vasek Polak 1979 BMW M1 Procar
Having been conceived with the primary intention of serving as the basis for a Group 4 and 5 racing programme, the prospect of a multi-year homologation delay owing to production issues meant BMW had to think out of the box in order to get its expensively developed M1 out on track.
Accordingly, the renowned F1-supporting one-make Procar Championship was created for 1979 where M1s built to Group 4 trim were piloted by top Grand Prix drivers and Sports car pros in front of millions of eyeballs. In addition, 1979 also saw BMW run a Group 4 M1 art car painted by Andy Warhol in the experimental IMSA GTX category at Le Mans placing sixth overall and second in class.
Fortunately, 1980 saw the M1 accepted into the World Sportscar Championship and Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (DRM). To demonstrate the Group 4 car’s massive potential, BMW Motorsport ran a works car at that year’s Nurburging 1000km World Championship race where top F1 man Nelson Piquet and seasoned pro Hans-Joachim Stuck finished an incredible third overall to win the GTX class beating all bar one of the Group 5 cars in the process.
Most of the little over 50 M1 Procars built by BMW Motorsport were campaigned fairly extensively during the course of the early lives, however, set to go under the hammer at Broad Arrow Auctions’ Monterey Jet Center sale on August 14th is an un-raced example that remains in effectively as-new condition.
Chassis 4301057 was completed on May 9th 1979 and dispatched to Osella in Italy for final preparation. From here, the car made its way out to Hermosa Beach in California where it resided among the huge race car collection of renowned Porsche and BMW main dealer and team patron, Vasek Polak.
Polak retained chassis 4301057 until May 1989, since which time it has resided in two significant collections.
