You want this road-legal BMW M1 Procar

The 31st of 40 BMW M1 Procars has just popped up for sale in California, and we want it. Quite badly, in fact.

Chassis 31 was never raced, but instead rebuilt as a road car and sold to its first, German owner in 1979 as a normal, production-specification M1. The car would eventually make its way to the US, and when it was stripped down for restoration, seller Canepa spotted signs it had once been a Procar.  

The decision was thus made to return the M1 to Procar spec, albeit one that was fully road legal. It was fitted with Procar suspension uprights, hubs, control arms, tie rods, axles, mirrors and custom Penske coilover suspension, plus the wing and bodykit which Canepa subtly reprofiled to better accommodate the front wheels.

Those wheels are 17 inchers, modified from an original set of BBS centre-locks and necessary to accommodate the non-standard Brembo brakes (M1 originals aren’t available anymore). 

The six-cylinder engine was rebuilt by VAC Motorsports, which sympathetically added electronic fuel-injection for 414bhp and 357 lb ft at the crank. It’s mated to a five-speed dog-leg ZF gearbox. 

Inside it’s all black leather, and the exterior is finished in Basalt Blau – a colour never offered to the public, but used on four M1s built for the BMW board and family. 

Price? Whatever it is, it’s so worth it.

Images: Canepa