During the 1970s, BMW Motorsport came to the fore as a hugely successful builder of racing engines and complete racing cars. Today, we have taken a closer look at three distinct machines from that era. Perhaps the most famous of all is the M1 Procar. The racing version of the M1 road car, it was originally conceived for a one-make series to support F1 races. The production cars were also built in sufficient numbers for them to be homologated as GT racers. The featured example is one of these and was raced in period by American Joe Crevier in the highly competitive IMSA GT series. It was repatriated to Germany in more recent years and has become a regular in the CER2 events.
The 635 CSi Group A highlighted today as well, is also powered by a straight six engine but that is about where the similarities stop. It was built for the much tighter Group A regulations and is fairly close to the standard production car. It was nevertheless highly successful, competing in the European Touring Car Championship during the mid-1980s with great verve. The car we take a look at today is chassis RA1-08, which was raced in Italy in period and has just been completely restored by Geoff Steele Racing in England.
BMW Motorsport's four-cylinder engine was popular with sports car and single seater manufacturers. Among the many sports prototypes powered by the hugely powerful 'four' was this Lola T298. Sold new to France, it was driven to the European Hill Climb championship by Jean-Louis Bos in 1981.

Enjoy the links:

1983 BMW 635 CSi Group A (E24 RA1-08)

1980 BMW M1 Procar (4301195)

1979 Lola T298 BMW (HU100)