This particular BMW M1 was entered in the Group 4 class at LeMans in 1981 by former Le Mans winner (in 1971) and race team manager Helmut Marko. A trio of German drivers, Christian Danner, Peter Oberndorfer and Leopold von Bayern piloted the car which started the 24hr race from the 41st position on the grid. This M1 was the fastest Group 4 qualifier, beating another M1 and two Porsches (a 934 and a 924 GTR). 1981 was not a good year at LeMans for BMW and only one out of the six M1s that qualified finished the race. This particular car retired during the 7th hour of the race after 49 laps due to crankshaft failure. At the time it had been running in 38th place.
The unusual markings on the car appear to reflect sponsorship by the city of Munich, which is the home city of BMW.
At the heart of this fine looking racecar is a 470bhp 3.5 litre BMW Motorsport straight six. The engine is mid-mounted and drives the rear wheels. The sponsorship scheme promotes the city of Munich (or München) which is BMWs home town.
This model is part of Minichamps fine range of racing BMW M1 models. To date (January 2006) a street version of the M1 has not been released, but I think it is likely one will eventually be produced in 1:18th. As on all of the Minichamps M1s, the headlights do not pop up, and the front part of the bodywork does not open. The interior is quite basic, but that is also the case with the 1:1 car. The engine looks good and the paint and graphics on the car are excellent.
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