COVER Celebrating a half-century of M cars

CLASSIC Legendary Giugiaro-designed M1 looks just as radical today as it did in 1972. Only 453 were made

EVOLUTION Five decades and countless technical advances separate the M1 and the G80 M3 xDrive

DESIGNED by Giugiaro and conceived initially as a joint venture between BMW and Lamborghini, the M1 – just like the CSL – was meant to be a racing car to begin with. But for various reasons the motorsport project and the partnership with Sant’Agata faltered, which left BMW with what would turn out to be a rather nice problem to have: what to do with its new mid-engined racing car that looked great and was powered by a brand-new, Paul Rosche-designed, 3.5-litre straight-six engine? Perhaps the company should put number plates on it and see whether anyone wants to use it on the road, someone with foresight in Munich eventually asked.

In total a mere 453 road-going M1s were made between 1978 and 1981 – each with a list price of £30,000 (you could buy a house for a lot less than that in 1978), all of them were left-hand drive, carrying the official model designation of E26. The M1 didn’t sell terribly well, mainly because it didn’t carry much credence with the sort of punters who wanted ‘a real Italian supercar’ to be seen in, not one from Germany that had been made by BMW.

Yet in the end the M1 would go on to form the basis for the entire M division’s legacy, all on its own to begin with. For Munich’s bean-counters, even though they didn’t know it at the time, it really was the golden ticket.

Back then it must have felt like an incredible, cuttingedge car, because even today the M1 still seems surprisingly sharp and rapid to drive. It weighs only 1,300kg, so although the straight-six has a mere 277bhp, it still goes hard enough, still sounds authentic, and most of all it still feels precise and clean in its responses. Even the five-speed dogleg (first) gearchange is pleasingly slick once you acclimatise to it, which is not something that can be said for any of the M1’s theoretically more desirable Italian supercar rivals of the same era.

The driving position and entire cockpit design are pure mid-engined, in that you sit a long way forward – to a point where you quickly become acutely aware that most of the car’s innards, and mass, sit well behind you. The design inside is simple, functional, clean and neat. It works, even if it doesn’t exactly make your heart skip a beat with joy aesthetically. There are few frills inside the M1, but all the basics are spot on, and I rather like it because of that.

It doesn’t make an especially spine-tingling sound, and in this example the throttle response is a bit fluffy. But the steering, chassis and brakes are all way better than I expected – this is the first time I’ve driven an M1 – and the way it behaves, generally, is extraordinary. Even in 2022.

No, it doesn’t ignite your emotions like a Countach might have done back in the day, but there’s a purity of purpose to the M1, not to mention a quality of build and engineering that was often absent from its Italian rivals in the seventies.

Cards on the table, I was amazed by how relatively modern and, yes, not rubbish the M1 was to drive (and drive quite hard) around our track at Llandow – to a point where, yes, I really do understand why this example is insured for £450,000. In logical terms it’s simply worth that much as a car, and that’s before you even begin to think about the historical importance it also carries.

I could have driven it all day, to be honest, but there were many other great M cars to re-experience, so after one more lap I parked the M1 carefully and grabbed the keys to what

M1–19781978

Engine: 3.5-litre3.5-litre 6cyl6cyl Power/torque:Power/torque: 277bhp/330Nm277bhp/330Nm 0-62mph:0-62mph: 5.65.6 secondsseconds TopTop speedspeed 162mph162mph Gearbox:Gearbox: Five-speedFive-speed manualmanual Weight:Weight: 1,300kg1,300kg

appeared to be a quite immaculate M635 CSi. Powered by the same 3.5-litre straight-six as the M1, but with fuel injection and, therefore, a touch more power, the 286bhp M635 CSi first appeared in 1984, when Filofaxes were the things to be seen carrying and mobile phones had yet to be invented for the masses. It was the era of big hair and wide shoulder pads, which meant a suave-looking coupé such as the M635 CSi fitted right in – if indeed you could afford to buy one. At £45,780 it was eye-wateringly expensive for its time, yet in the end BMW made 5,855 examples, the identically powered E28 M5 selling in far fewer numbers (2,241 in total) but gaining more credibility in the process among the M-car cognoscenti.

On the surface, it’s not difficult to see why. Whereas the E28 M5 was a tautly suspended weapon of a car, and was the first genuine super-saloon, the M635 was a far softer, less aggressive, more chilled machine with packaging that would be deemed laughable today. Yet to drive, this delightful example still feels relevant, even if it’s ultimately a relic from a bygone age. The ride is deeply soothing, the power-steering light and accurate enough to allow you to place that big, charismatic nose with reasonable precision through any corner. It’s relaxed but not remote, and its engine and five-speed manual gearbox are both an absolute delight, sweeter and more potent than those of the M1. The cleaner response of the fuel-injection system undoubtedly makes a big difference to its driveability.

Truth is, I thought the M635 CSi would feel old and irrelevant in this company, but in the end I loved it and was once again amazed at how well it has stood the test of time.

E30M3Roberto RavagliaLimited Edition–1989

Engine: 2.3-litre 4cyl Power/torque: 212bhp/230Nm 0-62mph: 6.7sec Topspeed: 143mph Gearbox: Five-speed manual Weight: 1,200kg

BRILLIANT

Hardcore CSL and GTS are cut from same cloth. Both feel even more special now than when they were new

RARE Special-edition Roberto Ravaglia was a road-legal competition car

NEW PERSPECTIVE Time has worn heavily on originally highly regarded E30 M3, which has lost some of its shine

UNLIKE, I’m sorry to say, the infinitely more expensive and, in historical terms, far more highly regarded E30 M3. But then this particular example – a rare and much sought-after Roberto Ravaglia Limited Edition (only 505 of these were made, of which a mere 25 came to the UK) – has clearly done some hard miles as BMW GB’s one and only press car, so maybe that’s not being very fair.

Thing is (and you’ll need to whisper this very quietly), I’m old enough to remember driving the E30 M3 when it was new. One of the first big comparison tests I was ever involved with as a car journalist was between a red E30 M3 and the just-launched Ford Sierra Sapphire Cosworth. So I know the E30 M3 quite well, and have a deep-rooted recollection of it being one of the most exciting, most pure and just plain best sports coupés that there has ever been, Amen.

Yet for various reasons this one didn’t quite hit the same spot. Its driver’s seat was somewhat knackered for starters, failing to clamp me in position behind the E30’s fixed lefthand-drive-only steering wheel with anything like the same precision as it would have done when new. But also the 2.3-litre four-cylinder motor didn’t feel anywhere near as clean or punchy as I remember, with a coarseness above 5,000rpm that was either not there back in the day or whose appeal has simply diluted over time; a bit of both, I suspect.

The dogleg gearbox is still a delight, as are the steering, chassis and brakes – the latter especially. Due to it being a road-legal competition car, the E30 M3 had ventilated discs back in 1989, and even in 2022 they provide major stopping power and a lovely snap of feel through the pedal. But in the end, no matter how rose-tinted one’s spectacles are, truth is the E30 M3 no longer feels terribly quick or dynamic. It’s still a lovely thing just to be around, to talk about and to reminisce over. But the edge it once had has long since faded, at which point you do wonder; can it really be worth £100,000 more than it cost to buy when new (£29,000) back in 1989?

In logical terms, no, not when the hugely more modern, faster and immeasurably more capable E39 M5 you see here can be had for just £20,000 nowadays. I bought and ran an E39 M5 in the early 2000s, and I absolutely loved it. It had such a broad repertoire I ended up thinking it was all the car anyone could ever want, with an easy-going 400bhp from its creamy 4.9-litre V8 engine, a great sixspeed manual gearbox, exploitable but refined handling and a lovely interior. In 1998 it was expensive at £52,000, but it was worth the price because it was so much car.

Today, it still drives well, if not quite at the cutting edge beside its more modern M5 cousins – although, having said that, I think it’s stood the test of time better overall than the E60 M5 (the one with the V10 engine and the not-very-good SMG gearbox) that followed it. What I liked most about the E39 back then, and still do now, is its effortless potency. It doesn’t look all that much, but even today it still goes very hard indeed in the mid-range. Its cabin still feels relatively modern, even though it’s almost quarter of a century old now, and its chassis has an honest simplicity to it that doesn’t need a whole load of different drive modes to adjust to unlock its best secrets. Instead, you just climb in, fire up, maybe press the Sport button if you fancy a bit more urgency from the engine map, and off you go. It was lovely when new – and for £20,000 it is even more lovely today.

Less so the E60 M5, which I thought was fantastic in 2005 but reckon hasn’t aged terribly well since. All the ingredients for greatness are there. It has a 5.0-litre V10 engine with a monster soundtrack that delivers either 400bhp or an insanely aggressive 500bhp, depending which mode you select. And then there’s the theoretically fast-changing six-speed SMG gearbox with another button that allows you to scroll up through the shift speeds, plus a typically well developed rear-drive chassis, again with numerous modes than can be dialled up or down, depending what kind of mood you’re in.

But for a variety of reasons, the E60 now seems quite cumbersome and not especially sharp. To be honest, it feels compromised by its technology, not improved by it, with the gearbox action even worse these days than it was 17 years FOND MEMORIES Thanks to its effortless potency, the E39 has stood the test of time well

E39M5–1998

Engine: 4.9-litre V8 Power/torque: 395bhp/500Nm 0-62mph: 5.3 seconds Top speed: 155mph Gearbox: Six-speed manual Weight: 1,795kg

MY experience with the E60 M5 was the complete opposite to what happened when I drove the Z3 M Coupé, the E46 M3 CSL and the E92 M3 GTS. I sampled all these cars when they were new, and for a variety of reasons I didn’t think any of them was as mind blowing as most of my colleagues reckoned they were back then.

I remember the Z3 M as being a wild, but not especially wonderful car to drive. Yes, it boasted a great six-cylinder engine beneath its long bonnet, but it also had a cramped and claustrophobic cabin and a surprisingly wayward chassis. The CSL I recall as a truly great car that was ruined by a rubbish SMG gearbox, which deserved no place in a chassis this good, while the uber-rare V8 GTS seemed ridiculously expensive at £118k in 2009 and, I thought, just wasn’t as special as it should have been to drive. Not beside Porsche’s then-cheaper 911 GT3 RS, at any rate.

But at Llandow all three of these cars blew me away, albeit for entirely different reasons. The Z3 M was far better to drive than I was expecting, and far quicker than I recall, too. It proves that when you have a mere 1,420kg to propel, 321bhp from a high-revving, atmospheric straight-six engine is all you need and then some, thanks – especially when linked to a sweet shifting five-speed manual gearbox.

You put up with the movement around the tail in the Z3 M, and instead just hang on tight while wearing a huge grin for most of the time. Truth is, I enjoyed driving this model about five times more than I thought I was going to. In a weird kind of way, it felt more relevant and interesting now than it did when new in 1998, possibly because cars have become so much more predictable since.

The CSL has also aged well. Its chassis is still an absolute peach, with deliciously uncorrupted steering and fantastic damping, plus it has one of THE great six-cylinder engines of all time. It still feels properly quick, and its ’box, although far from cutting edge beside more modern paddleshift autos, doesn’t seem as much of a hindrance today somehow. Either way, I couldn’t get enough of the CSL at Llandow.

Just to sit in it feels incredibly special, and from the outside it looks even more gorgeous today than it did in 2004, when it cost £58,455. That’s risen today to more than £110k for a mint example such as this, but if ever a car deserves to be worth double what it cost new, 18 years later, this is it. I ache to own it, possibly because I know I never will.

Same goes for the M3 GTS, only more so. As I say, I wasn’t a huge fan of this car when it appeared in 2009, because I thought it was expensive and heavy at £118,000 and 1,580kg respectively. But time has been kind to the GTS, and it feels utterly addictive in 2022, to a point where it was my outright favourite car on the day.

With a higher-revving 4.4-litre version of the E92 M3’s 4.0-litre V8 linked to what is still a sharp-shifting sevenspeed dual-clutch ’box, the GTS goes like the proverbial you-know-what in a straight line, and the sound it makes is downright rude. But its steering, chassis and brakes define it as something above and beyond the norm, even by M-car standards. As does the stripped-out, zero-frills interior with its bucket seats and full racing harness, both of which would be a pain to live with everyday but, just to use on special occasions, lift the GTS experience to another level.

All it takes is one committed lap in this car, assuming its drivetrain and Cup tyres are up to temperature (and if they’re not, don’t even think about giving it the full beans) and you will be either completely hooked or slightly terrified. That’s the kind of car the GTS is. So even though it’s 13 years old now, it allows you to do things on a track that in most other models, latest G80 M3 included, you can’t even contemplate trying. It’s essentially a racing machine with number plates, much like the E30 M3 was originally, yet in

E46M3CSL–2004

Engine: 3.2-litre 6cyl Power/torque: 355bhp/370Nm 0-62mph: 4.9 seconds Top speed: 155mph Gearbox: Six-speed SMG Weight: 1,385kg SURPRISE Z3 M Coupé was better to drive than remembered – and quicker, too

1MCoupé–2011

Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbo 6cyl Power/torque: 335bhp/450Nm 0-62mph: 4.7 seconds Top speed: 155mph Gearbox: Six-speed manual Weight: 1,495kg

G80M3CompetitionxDrive–2021onwards

Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbo 6cyl Power/torque: 503bhp/650Nm 0-62mph: 3.5 seconds Top speed: 155mph Gearbox: Eight-speed auto Weight: 1,780kg

PINNACLE In many ways the G80 M3 Competition xDrive is the most rounded M car yet produced

AND that just leaves the two most modern M models in our collection, the F10 M5 – seen below in rare 30 Jahre Edition specification – and the current G80 M3 xDrive. The F10 was the epitome of technical perfection when it came out in 2011 – the same year as the 1M, incredibly. I remember driving this car on its international launch in Spain, thinking it was deeply impressive but also felt oddly aloof. Not quite emotionless, but clearly a machine that was led and therefore defined by its technology.

It was also the first turbocharged M car, and the first M5 to use a dual-clutch auto, plus it weighed two tonnes-plus with a driver on board. So even though it was the first M5 to do a sub-eight-minute Nürburgring lap, it felt more like an M7 than it did an M5, and nothing much has changed since.

You respect the F10 for what it can do – for its broad repertoire, for its sophisticated and refined cabin, and because is it very rapid indeed. This 30 Jahre Edition has 592bhp and 700Nm from its twin-turbo 4.4-litre V8. Uncorked it could probably top 200mph with four people on board, without feeling overly dramatic. But by a long chalk it is not the most memorable M5; it’s a bit too cool for school for that.

The latest G80 M3 xDrive, on the other hand, manages to combine similar technical capabilities with a serious hit of old-fashioned driver appeal thrown in for good measure. As a result, it probably represents a pinnacle of achievement for the M division. In many ways it’s the most rounded car yet produced, combining massive speed, a great four-wheeldrive chassis and vast amounts of safety and communications tech with a genuine dose of raw driver satisfaction.

Its electric power steering isn’t all that much compared with most of its predecessors here, and it weighs a seemingly ludicrous 1,780kg – that makes it an entire Caterham heavier than the first M3. In these respects, 50 years of evolution have done the BMW M car few favours.

But overall, the progress of the M division through the decades is genuinely astonishing, and in the M3 xDrive the results (crazy kerbweight aside) really do speak for themselves. This is an incredible car that can do all kinds of incredible things, but at its core it’s still a seriously fun and engaging machine to drive. One that invites you to enjoy it – just like its best predecessors.

No question, the M division is on a roll right now, with all sorts of exciting cars on the horizon, and not all of them powered by fossil fuels. Then again, they’ve always been on a roll at M, ever since it all started in May 1972. So here’s to the next 50 years…

F10M530JahreEdition–2011

Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 Power/torque: 592bhp/700Nm 0-62mph: 3.9 seconds Top speed: 155mph Gearbox: Seven-speed DCT Weight: 1,990kg

ROUND-UP

Notableabsentees

INEVITABLY there are some notable absentees from our collection, such as the E28 and E34 M5s – both of which are absolute legends, but neither of which we could source for our shoot, sadly. We also didn’t feature the E36 M3 from 1992, because it wasn’t the M division’s finest moment – nor with hindsight was the F80 M3 from 2014, at least not compared with the G80 that followed it.

To be honest, though, there have been no real lemons from the M division, and that is no mean achievement after 50 years in the game.

Themarchoftechnology

ONE of the things that becomes achingly obvious when stepping from one M car to the next is the unashamed march of tech. Take the steering wheels. To begin with there were no buttons at all, then towards the turn of the century one or two had started to appear in models such as the E39 M5. Now, the latest M3’s steering wheel is festooned with buttons.

The same thing goes for the cars themselves, in which the tech count has gone up unimaginably over the years. Most of this is welcome, but not all of it, because although fundamental safety levels have increased immeasurably, so has the weight.

Themid-enginedBMWs

WHEN M1 production ceased in 1981, the next mid-engined BMW wouldn’t appear for another 36 years and came in the form of the hybrid-powered, and somewhat more modern, i8. However, it was the M1 that set the template, so it’s the M1 that will be remembered most fondly as BMW’s best mid-engined car, no matter how much more relevant the i8 may have become today.

Pricesthen,valuesnow

VALUES of many M cars have gone up, not down, over the years, the biggest risers being the models that were limited in numbers. Take the M3 GTS. In 2009 it cost a heart-stopping £117,630, which at the time seemed ludicrous. Yet today, because only 150 were built worldwide, a GTS is worth £180,000-plus. The E39 M5, on the other hand, cost £52,000 in 1998 yet today is worth less than half that – partly because some 20,482 were made.