A BMW M1 transformed into a record-breaking monster before disappearing from view for 25 years is to be offered for sale at auction this week.
The M1 was used by Austrian racer Harald Ertl to break the land-speed record for a Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG)-powered car back in 1981, but has fallen on hard times since its last sale in 1993.
The car resurfaced last year and will now be offered at Coys' auction at the Techno-Classica show in Essen, Germany on Saturday (13 April) – and organisers reckon it could fetch a hefty £250,000.
The unusual M1’s story starts in 1979, when it was built to standard spec and delivered to its first owner in Berlin. Two years later it was purchased by Ertl, an established racer who spent three seasons driving for the Hesketh team in Formula One – at which point it underwent a startling transformation.
Working with British Petroleum, which was looking to promote its new Autogas product, Ertl retrofitted the M1’s straight-six engine to run on LPG, then added twin KKK turbochargers which upped its power output from 276bhp to 410bhp.
It also underwent a raft of aerodynamic changes, with the nose dropped and an air dam and huge rear wing added.
The redesign was clearly successful – on 17 October, 1981, Ertl took the M1 to Ehra-Lessien in Germany and let fly; the M1 maxed out at 301.4kph and duly broke the record, although there are no official documents to attest to that.
