Beschreibung:

For 1979, the chief executive of BMW Motorsport, former racing driver Jochen Neerpasch, conceived a one-make Championship to run as a curtain-raiser before World Championship Formula 1 Grand Prix races in Europe. The cars to be used were to be known as the Procar BMW M1s, comprising of a specially-built series of competition coupés based upon the Bavarian company's latest‚homologation special' batch of M1 coupé road cars. The F1 support-race series was created to aid BMW in building sufficient M1s to qualify the model for Group 4 classification within the contemporary FIA World Championship of Makes. The Procar M1 race series ran for two years, 1979 and 1980, and its enormously high profile is evident from the series Champions of those two seasons – none other than eventual triple-World Champions Niki Lauda (1975-77-84) in 1979 and Nelson Piquet (1981-83-87) in 1980. After BMW had fulfilled the homologation requirements for the M1 to be accepted into World endurance Championship Group 4 competition, the M1 Procars were campaigned by various teams in those frontline events in addition to other national series. Further to European events the M1 Pro-cars dominated the 1981 IMSA GTO series in the USA. This most attractive and highly collectible BMW competition coupé – production number '23' amongst this very rarefied and high-profile batch of circuit-dedicated supercars – was first delivered by the Bavarian Motor Works on May 9, 1979, to be completed in competition trim and fully race prepared by Ron Dennis's contemporary British Project Four racing team, soon to assume Formula 1 World Championship-winning dominance as McLaren International. Upon completion it was delivered new to the Austrian Konrad Racing team and was then campaigned as race number '88' driven by Franz Konrad in the 1979 Procar Championship, carrying Baumhüter and Minolta sponsorship livery. In February, 1980, the car was acquired by Kannacher GT-Racing of Krefeld, Germany, and passed subsequently to German racing driver Hans Heyer in February 1982. He then leased it to the GS-Team for the 1982 season. Its race history includes 11 outings in 1979, Franz Konrad taking seventh place in the hectic Procar-series second round at Monte Carlo during Monaco Grand Prix weekend, seventh in the concurrent German Championship race at the Norisring that June, and ninth at Diepholz in July. The car was also driven by Ralf-Dieter Schreiber (at Zolder) and by 'John Winter' (Le Mans-winning driver Louis Krages) in the German Grand Prix Procar round at Hockenheim (finishing tenth). In 1980 car '23' offered here wore Valvoline sponsorship livery and was used mainly in the Deutsche Rennsportmeisterschaft series, driven by Ralf-Dieter Schreiber, Friedrich Glatz, Jurgen Lassig, Volker Strycek and Jurgen Kannacher. It was also entered in the World Championship ADAC 1,000Kms at the Nurburgring, to be co-driven by Kannacher/Lassig, and placed 14th in the German Grand Prix Procar round at the Hockenheimring – driven by Lassig. The car's best results were fourth at the Norisring driven by Schreiber, who also placed sixth in the Nurburgring 300Kms while Lassig finished seventh in the EifelRennen at the same circuit. Jurgen Kannacher then handled the car throughout the 1981 Deutsche Rennsportmeisterschaft series, the car liveried in red and gold ARAL colours and normally carrying race number '77'. The combination finished sixth at Wunstorf, seventh at the Nurburgring and eighth at the Salzburgring. Celebrated BMW works driver Dieter Quester drove this car for the GS-Team Freiburg through 1982, winning the German Grand Prix support race at the Hockenheimring, finishing second in the Jim Clark Memorial meeting at the same circuit, and adding further second places at Hockenheim and the Salzburgring, and thirds at Zolder, the EifelRennen and Norisring. Dieter Quester also won the Hesse Cup race at Hockenheim that August before adding a further second place to this car's fine season record at th