The M1 holds a special significance for BMW, being not only the firm’s first bona fide supercar, but also the first model to be solely developed by the M Division. The driving force behind the project was Jochen Neerpasch, then head of BMW Motorsport, who wanted to create a track-focused machine that could fly the flag for the company in top-flight competition.

In order to challenge the all-conquering Porsche 911, Neerpasch called for the new car to be mid-engined. Lacking the capacity to produce the 400 examples required to meet homologation rules, BMW approached arguably the experts in mid-engine design: Lamborghini. A tubular steel space-frame chassis was duly created by mastermind of the Miura, Giampaolo Dallara, but with economic headwinds proving a challenge for the ailing firm, the M1 project was taken in-house in April 1978.

Despite parting company with Lamborghini, the M1 remained an international affair, with the sleek, wedge-shaped fibreglass body being designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and built by Trasformazioni Italiana Resine, and the chassis assembled by another Modena firm, Marchesi. Both were made whole at Ital Engineering, a company founded by former Sant’Agata engineers and based just 10 miles from the Lamborghini factory. The partially finished cars were then sent to Germany, where Baur installed the engine—a hand-built 3,453-cc double-overhead-cam, fuel-injected straight-six designed by Paul Rosche.

The example offered here is one of the 399 completed road cars. Noted to have been delivered new via BMW (Schweiz) AG, the M1 was finished to European specification in left-hand drive. Marked as complete by Baur in February 1980, its original colourway was Toprot over a Schwarz part-leather interior, the combination it retains today. Following its delivery to Switzerland, the car was taken out of the country. According to the consigning owner, in 1980 they acquired the BMW from Max Heidegger AG of Liechtenstein. The vendor then took the BMW to the United Kingdom and registered the car with the DVLA in February 1987.

In their care the BMW has been used sparingly. In 2010, the vendor enlisted the services of the respected BMW-specialist workshop, Munich Legends, for ongoing maintenance and storage. The invoices for continued remedial work by Munich Legends, which are available to view on file, exceed £16,500 over the last 15 years. The M1 is now offered at auction in a condition that would invite light recommissioning or deployment as an eminently stylish driver’s car, and the odometer reads 44,126 kilometres at the time of cataloguing. Following intermittent periods of storage, bidders are encouraged to perform a mechanical inspection prior to using the BMW on the road.

Now offered with its matching-numbers engine and finished in its factory-correct colours, this M1 awaits its next chapter following a long stay with its consigning owner as a cherished supercar from one of BMW’s most exciting eras.