MLife: The Holy M Grail

LIFE The Holy M Grail…

Words Jeff Heywood & Ian Bergin – Photos Patryk Bargielski

Many petrolheads and some BMW M aficionados are convinced that the legendary M1 is BMW’s first M car. They argue that the 70s supercar is the first BMW to be fitted with an M engine and, afterall, was given the moniker M1. They may have a point. A handful of others argue that the first BMW Motorsport car was the E12 M535i, while a few more throw the E9 3.0 CSL’s hat into the ring, saying the original shark-nose coupé should have that honour. All would be wrong. The accolade is actually reserved for the South African-built BMW 530 MLE (Motorsport Limited Edition). Such a thing is now a very, very rare car… but there is one here in the UK, owned by a lovely chap who just happens to be a Club member.

Ford Motorsport, run by Jochen Neerpasch and his right-hand man Martin Braungart, dominated touring car racing in the late sixties and the early seventies with its hot, lightweight Capris and Escorts. BMW had tried everything to beat Ford, but it had enjoyed only limited success. In desperation it turned to Neerpasch and Braungart for help. As the history books state, in May 1972, both Jochen Neerpasch and his assistant Martin Braungart were lured away from Ford by BMW to set up BMW Motorsport, taking Hans-Joachim “Strietzel” Stuck with them too. And the new team made an immediate impression. The E9 CS was a terrific racing machine, it just needed a few tweaks for it to become dominant in the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC). Aerodynamic improvements and, most noticeably, weight reduction were needed, as a result the CSL ‘Batmobile’ was born. Neerpasch and his crew’s input was quickly felt, Toine Hezemans won the ETCC title in 1973. BMW Motorsport would go on to dominate touring car racing with the E9 CSL throughout the rest of the 1970s, securing the ETCC title six times in total before the turn of the decade.

In the mid-‘70s, BMW South Africa wanted to go racing too, specifically in the country’s Star Modified Production Racing Series, which was effectively run to Group 2 regulations. There was only one problem, it needed a competitive four-door car. This ruled out the E9 CSL and no four-door BMW race cars existed at the time. To contest the 1976 series and to try and cash-in on some motorsport success, BMW South Africa wanted to run a pair of E12 5 Series models. A call was put through to Jochen Neerpasch in Germany and, after much discussion, the wheels were put in motion for a couple of E12-based competition cars to be ready in time for the season opener at Kyalami. The specification for each 530 MLE was formulated back at BMW Motorsport in Germany. Neerpasch handed much of the initial development work to Schnitzer, with input from BMW factory and F1 driver, Gunnar Nilsson, who proved to be invaluable as he lapped Kyalami in a

The 530 MLE in BMW Motorsport livery with BIC and Castrol sponsorship. Both Eddie Keizan and Alain Lavoipierre drove cars in this livery for one of the race seasons. Lavoipierre is at the wheel of this car

blistering 1 minute 39 seconds, despite an engine misfire!

The race MLEs were piloted by Eddie Keizan and Alain Lavoipierre, and both motorsport machines were immediately successful. Keizan was the quicker of the two drivers, winning 15 out of 15 races entered in the first season. The pair dominated the series for the next three years, with Keizan picking up three titles and the car remained competitive until the 530 MLE was finally retired in 1979. The 530 MLE was the most successful racing BMW 5 Series in history, an accolade it still holds to this day.

While the race cars were very cool, today we’re looking at one of the rare road cars that BMW South Africa needed to build so that it could go racing in the first place. In order to meet the homologation requirements of the Modified Production rulebook, a minimum of 100 road cars needed to be built. In the end, 110 examples of the homologated Type 1 BMW 530 MLE were produced and sold exclusively to South African customers in 1976, two years before the iconic M1 was launched. Demand was such that the 100 required for homologation were quickly snapped up. Not because the MLE was cheap. No, it cost R10,600 at the time, which is approximately £6,563…with only a radio thrown in as a no cost optional extra! Due to sanctions during apartheid, the South African public were starved of performance cars, hence the reason why so many ‘SA special’ cars – especially BMWs – exist. Think 333i, M745i and 325iS.

Although the road-going 530 MLE didn’t feature a full race engine, many competition-spec parts did find their way onto the car, making it the first true BMW M car for public consumption, if only in one market. And to rubber stamp their provenance and quieten down those who still disbelieve that this is M car genesis, these were the first BMWs that were given an M designation on their VIN plates, see the photo overleaf.

Handbuilt at BMW’s huge manufacturing facility at Rosslyn, Pretoria, E12 525 shells were pulled off the production line to be totally transformed from well-respected sports saloons into true racing cars. To shed precious kilos, the body was fabricated from lighter gauge steel and aluminium, with thinner glass fitted. Plus, holes were literally drilled everywhere; in the floorpan under the seats, through the parcel shelf, through the c-pillars and rear seat panel, the bootlid, doors and bonnet inner skins. Even the clutch pedal and boot hinges didn’t escape the weight-saving drill. Sound deadening was also removed all in the name of weight-saving. The battery was relocated to the boot for better weight distribution and BMW South Africa even went as far as constructing the rear bench seat, which the rules said must be kept in place, from foam without any springs for support. The kerb weight of the car tumbled to 1233kg. To put that into some sort of context, a 528i of the same era weighed 1385kg, that’s a 152kg saving. As all of this work was laboriously done by hand and it means no two cars are exactly alike.

The 110 Type 1 homologation road cars were all painted Chamonix White with the famous BMW Motorsport tricolour striping. Exclusive to the 530 MLE was a special front air dam, a substantial boot spoiler and hand-cast arch extenders, all constructed from fibreglass.

The cars were all fitted with Scheel sport seats trimmed in blue velour cloth and featured matching blue vinyl door panels. The package also included an Itavolanti steering wheel and wooden shift knob denoting the 5-speed transmission’s dogleg first gear. Electric windows, power steering and airconditioning? Not a chance. This is a true stripped out homologation special. Unique BBS Mahle 14” wheels were created as one-offs for the 530 MLE, wrapped in 195/70R14 tyres. Interestingly, the 530 MLE never came with an M badge as such, and this adds to the conspiracy theorists’ argument that the MLE isn’t a true M car, but one only has to look at the VIN to know that the MLE is the real deal.

At its core, the 530 MLE used the same 3.0L M30 engine found in the previous generation E9 and E3 vehicles. In the case of the MLE’s motor, however, it was tweaked by BMW engine guru Paul Rosche with input from Schnitzer Motorsport. The work followed conventional tuning ideas, using a hotter cam and high compression Mahle pistons, fed by twin down-draught Zenith INAT carbs. The result was a conservative 197hp and 227Nm, sent through a Getrag close-ratio five-speed dogleg gearbox and ultimately to the rear wheels via a Borg-Warner limited-slip differential with a 3.45 final drive. Some cars also had oil coolers specified in their build, as well.

In testing, this homologation special could sprint from 0-60mph in 8.5 seconds before reaching a top speed of 129mph. Subsequently, the suspension and braking systems were upgraded too. Bilstein shocks with firmer springs featured at all four corners, along with ventilated discs up front and solid discs in the rear.

The success of the 530 MLE was a great example of the mantra: what wins

Eddie Keizan in the 1977 Championship-winning 530 MLE, now sporting sponsorship from Finnish electronics company Salora and Castrol. Keizan and the 530 MLE dominated the South African Modified Production Racing Series for three years

The BMW South Africa 530 MLE that hit the headlines over the past 12 months has been fully rebuilt and restored, but is it 100% period correct?

on Sunday sells on Monday. It paved the way for BMW South Africa as a sporty brand and a serious motorsport contender in the country. Both on track and off, the BMW 530 MLE was a very special car, made even more so by it being a race-winning machine. In fact, due to the MLE’s popularity, a further 117 Type 2 examples were built in 1977 after the initial homologation run of 110 white cars, but these were manufactured on the production line and weren’t given the lightweight treatment. They also came in different colours and featured more creature comforts commonly found on the standard E12 525 and 528 models. The later cars are viewed as watered-down versions of the real thing, and therefore are far less sought after by collectors. One must be careful when making a purchase though, as interest rises in the E12 and E28 5ers, unscrupulous shops are taking these second-phase MLEs and trying to disguise them as original Type 1 cars, which now command serious money.

Ian Bergin’s stunning E12 530 MLE

Finding the 530 MLE came almost by accident. It’s the first Covid lockdown and Ian’s bored. He already has a stunning E28 M535i being fully restored by Matt Summerfield at Body Motorworks, Chesterfield, which will be powered by a Hack Engineering-built high-compression 3.7-litre M30 engine running on throttle bodies. But that’s for another day. Anyway, back to the MLE. In a state of ennui, Ian was scouring the internet looking for another project. He fancied another BMW

How Ian first saw the car in the mystery man’s collection in South Africa, on its gold wheels…

5er, possibly an E12 or even another E28. He saw a promising E12 M535i and was planning to go and look at the car before realising that, with the car and owner residing in Holland, it was impossible because of the travel ban. So, it was back to searching the World Wide Web, as well as putting feelers out to friends and contacts.

A week or two later he was alerted to a very nice black E28 M5 for sale in South Africa, part of a private car collection. After making contact with the seller, he received plenty of info and photos of the M5. The car quickly sold, so the seller asked Ian if he’d be interested in a 2002 Turbo and sent some pics over of the car. In one of the photos Ian noticed another vehicle in the background; it was an E12 with motorsport stripes and what looked like wide, gold BBS wheels. Ian originally thought it was an E12 M535i, “is that car available?” came Ian’s response. Unfortunately for Ian, the reply was negatoré, the E12 was owned by the same collector who remains nameless and has literally hundreds of cars and bikes in

Welcome to the UK. The 530 MLE swaps warm and arid conditions for the rain and damp of the UK. It soon went off to Macchina Motorsport for some fettling

his collection, some of which can be seen in one of the photos, and he wasn’t in the mood to let the car go. What Ian did learn was that the car was, in fact, an ultrarare 530 MLE and not an M535i, number 23/110 to be precise, with just 66,187kms on the clock. Or 41,000 miles in pounds shillings and pence. He discovered that the current owner had owned the car since 2011 after purchasing the MLE from South African racing driver Ulrich Sanne. Since he purchased the car, he had only added 60kms to the odometer. Sanne had owned the MLE since the mid-90s, unfortunately the history goes cold before Sanne’s ownership, which is a shame.

The car obviously had the credentials to be a stunner, so Ian decided to keep in touch, chatting with the owner on a regular basis over the next couple of months. He

The mechanical wizard that is Ben from Macchina Motorsport got stuck into a large list of jobs that needed doing on the MLE. This included the fitment of a stunning set of triple 45 Weber carburettors, which look amazing and sound glorious. Here, Ben and engineering whizz Gemma fettle the MLE’s M30 engine…

kept chipping and chipping away until the owner finally crumbled and agreed that he’d sell the car to Ian. Obviously, Ian could only view the car via the internet on videos and photos, which there were copious amounts of. The guy was a wellknown collector with a reputation for being a straight and honest businessman, so Ian took his word about the car’s condition, agreed the financials and became the owner in May 2020. In October 2020 a container ship finally sailed into London Gateway with Ian’s MLE onboard after an anxious five-month wait.

The MLE was removed from the container and Ian’s first thoughts were very positive. The car was as good as described, very original, including the original paint from 1976. On opening up the car, Ian couldn’t believe how immaculate the interior was, it was like new. The blue velour that the seats are trimmed in is unmarked and looks amazing. Of course the fabric is now NLA, as are many parts on the MLE. Some were unique to the MLE too, making them doubly rare. Ian hasn’t had to do anything to the interior except give it a good valeting. The paintwork also received very little attention, apart from a quick mopping by a detailer before a set of period correct BMW M tricolour stripes were applied. The stripe kit was supplied by Luis Malhou, the man responsible for project managing the complete restoration of 530 MLE #100 for BMW South Africa in 2019, which is well documented online.

In our conversation, Ian tells me that after showing his mum a photo of the MLE she said that they once owned an E12 BMW. Ian said it was the first family car he can recall as a kid. It was a Topasbraun car but she named it ‘the orange car’ to annoy Ian’s father.

Once the dust had settled on the car’s arrival in the UK and Ian had the opportunity to give the car a good once-over, he took the MLE over to Ben Rushworth at Macchina Motorsport, based in North London. Between them, they filled a white board with a list of jobs to do. Ben worked methodically through the list, replacing 90% of the suspension, including all new track rod ends, adjustable camber and caster top mounts, beefier and adjustable anti-roll bars, tension rods, subframe mount and a new diff bush. Plus new bushes were fitted to the trailing arms for camber and toe adjustment. The trailing arms were sent off for powder coating, they came back looking like new. Next on the list was new Bilstein dampers and H&R springs, the MLE now handling much better than a 45-year-old BMW E12 should do thanks to all the new suspension components and bushes. Ian and Ben are looking at the front springs again, though. They’d like to lower the nose by about an inch or so.

Once Ben was happy with the suspension work he moved onto the brakes, fitting EBC discs and matching fast road pads all-round with new braided lines fabricated in-house at Macchina Motorsport. The original four-pot calipers were rebuilt, too. Ian says Ben was pulling his hair out trying to get a solid, firm brake pedal, as each caliper has four bleed nipples and the car has a complex twinservo setup.

Ben then turned his attention to the wheels. The original, period 14” gold BBS wheels were removed and stored safely, being replaced with a set of silver 15” BBS Mahle wheels, which look superb, setting off the car to a tee. The wheels are originally from a Lotus Esprit S1, as seen in the Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. The wheels are shod with semi-slick trackday tyres from MRF, whose stickiness tames the MLE’s back-end to some extent, seeing as there is 200hp+ running through them.

Once the car was driving and stopping as it should, Ben then turned his attention to the MLE’s M30 engine. The bottom end was fine so he pulled the head, ported and polished it where it was needed and gave it a general clean up. A 288° Dbilas camshaft was installed by Ben that gives 11mm of lift. He then set about fitting one of Ian’s ‘smiley buys.‘ You know when you purchase something and, when you have it in hand or you are thinking about it, you have a smile on your face? Well that’s a smiley buy and Ian had sourced nothing less than a set of triple 45 Webers to feed the M30 with lots of golden go-juice. To make sure that plenty of Shell’s finest was reaching the Webers, Ben replaced the MLE’s mechanical fuel pump with an

Ben’s list included replacing nearly every suspension component and bush before one of the final tasks, replace the 14” gold BBS wheels with a set of 15” BBS-Mahle wheels

If you see this front end looming large in your rear view mirror I would move over. With the advantage of low weight and that gutsy M30 fed by triple webers giving over 200 horsepower, Ian’s 530 MLE is no slouch

Now virtually finished, Ian’s 530 MLE looks amazing, and being totally original, including the paint, makes it all the rarer…

All the proof that is needed that the 530 MLE was the first BMW M car, the MLE’s VIN plate. Under the heading type sits a large M after the number 530…

I’ve always been a huge fan of the E12’s simple three-box design and crisp lines. It was drawn by a team headed by Paul Bracq and assisted by Marcello Gandini of Bertone, who also penned the achingly pretty Lamborghini Miura, Countach and Diablo. Not a bad design team then! The slightly larger wheels and Motorsport tricolour striping help give Ian’s MLE a more race car look, whilst still keeping those wonderful lines. Ian and Ben at Macchina Motorsport will be looking at changing the springs over the winter to just drop the front down an inch or more so that the wheel sits better in the wheelarch

electronic one and the distributor was also changed to an electronic 1-2-3 Bluetooth distributor for tunability. The MLE was then taken to Northampton Motorsport where the Webers were set up to iron out any problems before a power run was performed on the rolling road. The results were very positive. Initially, the car was making an honest 200hp… at the wheels! With a promise of more to come. Read on…

Ian admits that he was concerned the car might be finished in too much of a rush, because the London Classic Car Show was looming large on the horizon, and one or two niggles still needed to be ironed out. Ian had agreed that the MLE would be ready to make its public debut on the BMW Car Club’s stand at the event. With the show getting ever closer, Ian agreed to take the car off Ben’s hands, agreeing to bring the car back so the remaining work could be completed. Even so, the car drove, tracked and braked wonderfully well and Ian was already starting to fall in love with the MLE. It was prepped and duly took its place on the stand at Syon Park back in June of this year, receiving a huge amount of plaudits from both the public and one or two wellknown motoring celebrities.

Since the London Classic show, it has been back in Ben’s workshop to complete the necessary work and, other than that, Ian has gone about the business of enjoying his car. Chatting to him he seems quite taken with just how well the MLE rides, “it’s very compliant, it is quite forgiving without being too stiff or a complete boat. Let’s not forget this is a 45-year-old car, with a chassis to boot, but it is very enjoyable to punt around. The Webers give the car a lovely, throaty roar and the MLE cruises along at a fair canter.” Although with 200-ish horsepower pulling it along, it isn’t what Ian would describe as fast, “it’s nippy enough and smooth to drive with a lovely, involving analogue feel that you just don’t get in modern cars with flappy paddles, electric assistance behind everything and enough ECUs to power a Mars-bound rocket.”

Ian has another project on the go for the MLE, which will (touch wood) come to fruition in the winter. When the car was on the dyno, there was a bit of stand-off during the power runs. Basically, back pressure caused by too much air, fuel and exhaust gases trying to exit through the M30’s stock exhaust manifold. BMW obviously didn’t pay a lot of attention to the car’s exhaust system and manifold because all six outlet pipes on the manifold run into one exhaust outlet, causing huge back pressure. In fact, the whole system is quite restrictive, so he has agreed with BTB Exhausts

to build an equal length, large primary exhaust manifold and side-exit system for the MLE. There is no off the shelf performance exhaust manifolds for RHD E12 (or E28), so Joe Ellis, MD at BTB Exhausts, is keen to fill this gap in the market. Ellis agrees that it makes sense to use the 530 MLE as a proving ground as the car was recently dyno’d with the restrictive stock exhaust, so there is a solid baseline to work with. Ian is being conservative, and is hoping that they will see a 15hp increase, maybe 20. Whereas, I think with the amount of back pressure that will be released by a full straight-through system and manifold on a three-litre engine will liberate an extra 20-25hp. Optimistic? Maybe, but with a bit of breathing plus the headwork Ben has done, all fed by triple 45s, the exhaust and manifold should allow all those gases to flow smoothly and see a quite dramatic rise.

So, we have to ask the question: just how rare is Ian’s MLE? The answer would be very, very, very rare. As far as we know, it is the only example in Europe, and only seven are known to exist worldwide. A couple of chaps in South Africa have a couple each, BMW South Africa own their recently-restored example, which has some parts from a Type 2 car used in its restoration. There’s one in Australia, and Ian’s MLE is the real deal, so that means there’s only one more car in existence that’s unaccounted for. Now that is what anyone would call ridiculously rare!

I would like to thank Ben Rushworth and Adam from Macchina Motorsport for the work, care and attention given to the 530 MLE. Macchina Motorsport has done an incredible job. I would also like to thank Joe Ellis from BTB Exhausts. Joe has a vision to help the wider E12 and E28 community of owners truly looking for a RHD M30 performance manifold and exhaust. I would also like to thank you Jeff, plus Pat Tremain and the BMW Car Club for featuring my 530 MLE and finally Patryk Bargielski (@patryk.ldn) for taking the pictures – Ian Bergin

Rare bird…

I first came into contact with Ian in early 2020 during the first lockdown, he was looking to buy an E12 M535i. There was a car up for sale on the Register and we had some information to share on it. We kept in touch for a while, then it all went quiet. I contacted him to see if he had been successful in buying the car. It turned out he had passed on it, but sent me some photos of a 530 MLE which he was trying to purchase.

I was aware that these cars existed, but had never seen one. As a result of our chat, I did some research. I was a little sceptical at first about the car, but once Ian sent me all the photos and copies of the documentation, the penny quickly dropped that this was an extremely rare motor vehicle and Ian kindly kept me up to date with his progress.

I didn’t know how different the MLEs were to the M535i, which they predated by some years.

The car eventually arrived in the UK and Ian and his team got to work on his to-do list. With Ian’s enthusiasm and a Herculean effort, it meant that he and the team were able to ready the car for its first full public appearance at the London Classic Car show earlier this year and the rest is now history .

My thanks must go to Ian. That the UK now has the only 530 MLE in Europe (that we are aware of), makes it one of the rarest BMWs of all.

Pat Tremain E12 5 Series Register Officer