"How BMW Built Their Only Supercar After Lamborghini Collapsed"

In 1978, BMW received a phone call from Italy. The company they had trusted to build their supercar had gone bankrupt. They were left with four unfinished prototypes, a motorsport programme on the line, and absolutely no idea what to do next. What followed was one of the most chaotic, improvised, and ultimately extraordinary development stories in automotive history. A car built by five different companies across two countries. A chassis designed by Lamborghini. A body styled by the man who designed the original Volkswagen Golf. And an engine so good that BMW kept using its architecture for the next decade. But here's the twist — by the time the first cars reached customers, the race series the M1 was built to compete in had already been won. The window had closed. BMW had a supercar and nowhere to put it. So they did something nobody had ever done before. They invited the five fastest Formula One drivers from qualifying each weekend to climb out of their F1 cars, get into a BMW M1, and race it. On the same weekend. At the same circuits. Against each other. Niki Lauda won the first championship. Nelson Piquet won the second. And the BMW M1 — a car that was never supposed to exist — became one of the greatest supercars ever built. This is the full story. And it's wilder than anything BMW's marketing department would ever tell you. #cars #usa #mrbeast #bmw #m1 (TIMESTAMPS) 0:00 - Introduction 0:24 - BMW In 1972 — The Plan 0:42 - Jochen Neerpasch And The Supercar Idea 1:38 - The Lamborghini Partnership 2:50 - Lamborghini Goes Bankrupt 3:27 - Building The M1 Five Companies two Countries 4:23 - The M88 Engine 5:20 - The Racing Window Closes 5:55 - The Procar Series F1 Drivers In BMW M1s 6:39 - Niki Lauda And The Championship 7:08 - The M1 As A Road Car 8:14 - Legacy And What It's Worth Today 9:34 - Outro