Legendary BMW M1 powered by LPG goes on sale

According to Coys of Kensington, specialists in fine historic automobiles and auctioneers, this BMW M1 was built to standard specification in 1979 and delivered to its first owner in Berlin. Then in 1981 the car was purchased by renowned racing driver Harald Ertl and undergone a complete makeover.

The special 1979 M1 was created at the behest of Austrian racing driver Harald Ertl, who teamed up with British Petroleum to modify the mid-engine coupe to run on Autogas, which the company was looking to promote as their new motor vehicle fuel.

Using Gustav Hoecker Sportwagen-Service GmbH, Ertl had the M1 engine fitted with twin KKK turbochargers developing in the region of 410bhp. On 17 October, 1981, Ertl managed to achieve a record breaking 301.4 km/h.

Chris Routledge, Managing Director at Coys said: “This is undoubtedly a piece of motoring history and possibly one of the rarest BMW’s to carry the M1 badge. There is huge interest from around the world from people who wish to own a piece of motoring and speed record-breaking history.”

This wonderfully sleek and even more aggressively-styled M1 has recently been unearthed from a garage in East London, ‘lost’ for nearly a quarter of a century and coming to the market for the first time since 1993. Its estimated sale price of $327,000 and Coys is auctioning it. For more information, please check this link.

24 April 2019