50 years of BMW M cars

By: Mark Higgins, Photography by: Unique Cars Archives, BMW

Date: 22.04.2022

Established in the late 1960s for motorsport, this division of BMW has created exceptional road cars

BMW Motorsport

In the late 1960s BMW established a subsidiary to oversee its racing endeavours that over the past half century has blossomed into a hugely successful operation and been responsible for some of the most distinguished road cars made.

Known as BMW Motorsport Division – that’s where the ‘M’ comes from – it opened its doors in May 1972 with 35 employees, its first project being the 3.0 CSL touring car, better known as the Batmobile.

BMW Motorsport’s early days were spent almost solely building road going homologation specials utilising many of the race car components of the same model to compete in the European Touring Car and other Championships.

The road car business flourished and by 1978 BMW Motorsport Division (aka M) employed over 400 staff.

From day one the primary characteristics of BMW M cars has been their greatly enhanced engines, gearboxes, suspension, brakes, exteriors aerodynamics and interiors, differentiating them from their standard donor models. All M variants are tested and tuned at BMW’s Nürburgring facility.

Alongside the full-house M cars, BMW also offers a range of milder packages including wheels, suspension, aero kits, steering wheels gearshifts and seats for those wanting more than the standard model offers without going the full hog. These models feature M badging throughout the exterior and interior.

The key difference between an M-Sport car and a thoroughbred M car is the badge designation with the full spec cars badged M3, M5, M6 etc.

Just to add a bit of confusion the 1 Series is badged 1M, and the Z3 and Z4 M roadsters and coupes wear only an M badge, despite being the full monty.

Over the past 50 years BMW M has given us a smorgasbord of models to salivate over and we’ve selected half a dozen to whet your appetite.

50 Years of BMW M cars:

Part one - BMW M1

Part two - BMW E30 M3

Part three - BMW E24 635 CSI M6

Part four - BMW M5 E39

Part five - BMW 1M

Part six - Z3 M coupe 

From Unique Cars #462, Feb 2022

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