Raceland Gold Edition made by Spark. Exclusive model.
Chassis #81.M1R.01 of the Group 5 BMW M1 had been built up at the Sauber factory in Switzerland for the 1981 World Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours where it was raced by Dieter Quester, Marc Surer and David Deacon until the engine failed. In 1982 BMW Italia acquired the car and entered the BMW in the World Endurance Championship. Of course the 3.5 litre 6-in-line N/A BMW engine lacked a lot of power against the new Group C and Group 6 cars and was without a chance of overall victories. Still a well prepared Group 5 car was a reliable weapon especially in endurance racing as the brand new Group C cars suffered from numerous teething problems.
At the 1982 edition of the Nürburgring 1000 km race at the Green Hell Nordschleife the Enny BMW started from 14th position. The new Ford C100 was fastest in qualifying nearly one minute ahead of the BMW M1. With Helmut Kelleners and Umberto the oldest drivers of the grid shared the cockpit with Enzo Calderari but with these 42 and 43 year old warhorses the team had lots of track experience on board. While many of the new Group C cars fell victim to the murderous 23 km Nordschleife and even the strong Porsche 935 had to let down feathers the BMW ran like a Swiss clockwork, won its Group 5 class and finished a sensational third overall.