Production chronology1978–1981
Sourced production or model lifecycle range used by the main catalog timeline.
limited_edition_research ↗4 years
← BMW
BMW / Model record
BMWM1
Production1978–1981
Recorded originGermany
ClassSports car
Also known asBMW M1 E26
Power273 hp
Built453 units
Production
453
confirmed units built
every.autos editorialconfidence: high
BMW's only mid-engined production car for thirty years — and the reason BMW Motorsport exists as a road-car maker.
The M1 was BMW's one true mid-engined production sports car until the i8 arrived decades later, and it began a troubled, fascinating life. Styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Italdesign and developed with help from Lamborghini, it emerged in 1978 as the first car built by the newly formed BMW Motorsport division.
Under the rear deck sat a 3.5-litre M88 straight-six making 273 hp, in a body that weighed about 1,290 kg. Racing plans were repeatedly upset by shifting regulations, so BMW improvised the Procar series — a one-make championship that ran alongside Formula 1 and was won by Niki Lauda in 1979 and Nelson Piquet in 1980, putting grand-prix drivers in identical M1s.
Only 453 were built between 1978 and 1981. Commercially it was a near-miss; historically it's the seed of everything the M badge later became.
Written and fact-checked for every.autos · every claim checked against the sources below · 2026-07
Background
The BMW M1 is a mid-engined sports car produced by German automotive manufacturer BMW from 1978 until 1981.
Text adapted from “BMW M1” on Wikipedia ↗ · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗ · retrieved 2026-07
Chronology ledger
Dates with their meaning intact
US EPA model years2011
Model years represented in FuelEconomy.gov; a US-market observation, not a worldwide production range.
EPA FuelEconomy.gov ↗1 year
Netherlands RDW first-admission observations1979–2017
First-admission years observed in Dutch vehicle registrations; this is market evidence, not a worldwide production range.
Netherlands RDW ↗39 years
Research notes
Mid-engine sports car, BMW's first Motorsport (M division) production car, designed by Giugiaro. 453 units (399 road cars, 53 for motorsport); spawned the one-make M1 Procar Championship (F1 support series, 1979-1980). Corrects the existing record's year_from from 1974 (likely a concept/announcement date) to the real 1978 production start.