1981 Sauber BMW M1 R is LAST of its Kind!

During the Goodwood Festival of Speed I have filmed this unique Sauber BMW M1 R. The BMW M1 didn?t see the motorsport life that was once in store for it, but it did spawn a few notable competitors, one of which is unquestionably the Group 5 M1 project by Sauber. I had the chance to get into the history of what?s known to be the only surviving example. With the chassis and suspension designed by Dallara of Lamborghini and Formula 1 fame, a body by Giorgetto Giugiaro, who went on to be awarded the accolade of Car Designer of the Century, the M1 originally built by Lamborghini was the first car designed for competition from the ground up by the recently formed BMW Motorsport. The basics of the story aren?t as special as the ingredients: Lamborghini was struggling with bankruptcy so the build deadline for the 400 units needed for homologation was far from achievable and a new production process had to be pieced together; and the Procar series, spectacular as it was to have the day?s current F1 drivers hammer it out before a Grand Prix, was put together because the cars weren?t eligible to race in any other series not built around them. For 1981, two years behind schedule, several teams did take the finally homologated Group 4 cars and converted them to race in the Group 5 class, but Sauber, expanding on the their sports car racing collaboration with BMW, built the only two Group 5 cars from scratch. Hear the name Sauber today and perennial F1 midfield contenders, or the silver Group C Mercedes-Benz collaborations called the C9s at the 1989 edition of Le Mans might spring to mind, but their history goes all the way back to the late 1960s and includes both gorgeous, and perhaps not so gorgeous, race car creations. The M1 is most definitely in the former category. The cars were a significant 150kg lighter than any of the other M1s converted from their Procar spec, and could lap the N?rburgring Nordschleife a full 20 seconds faster. For all intents and purposes they were in a class of their own. They were also the last cars that Peter Sauber physically worked on before taking up a more supervisory role. The debut race for these cars was the Silverstone 1000km. It didn?t go to plan though, and the GS Racing BASF car, the only one entered, retired halfway through with gear selection issues. By the following event however, all development pains were soon forgotten when Stuck and Piquet took a magnificent win at the grueling N?rburgring 1000km ahead of some serious competition, not least the works-run Porsche 910/80. The project looked to have come good after all? Unfortunately though. the win in the Eifel mountains would prove to be a false dawn. At Le Mans the BMWs were outclassed by the well-developed Porsches and the Lancia Beta Montecarlos, and recorded a double retirement; an accident for the GS car and engine failure its Sauber sister. Then things got a lot worse; at the next race Stuck had a huge, fiery accident. He was lucky to be able to walk away, but the car was left a smoldering write-off. Only the two chassis were ever made, so the Wurth car is the only example of its kind to exist today. The rest of the year failed to bring any significant results for the remaining car, and the project was brought to an anti-climatic end when the rules were changed in favor of Group C, which the manufacturers were much keener on at the time. So at the end of the season the surviving Sauber M1 was sold on to a Danish driver who entered it in events in Scandinavia until the mid ?80s, before Sauber bought it back and kept it as part of his private collection. The car was then seen very rarely, only when Peter decided it would be nice to blow the dust off, but in 2013, after 25 years of owning it, he decided the time had come to let it go. However when money is not your motivation for a sale you are afforded the luxury of being able to choose who becomes the next owner, so instead of advertising it he looked for the right person to pass it along to. Join my Notification Squad: click the Bell ? Make sure you like and comment the video, but also subscribe to the channel! *Michael - Automotive Mike* Socials: ?? https://www.facebook.com/AutomotiveMike ?? https://www.instagram.com/automotive_mike