This Could Be Your Only Chance To Own The First BMW M Ever Built

 The racer was used to help develop the aero kit for the production car known as the Batmobile when BMW made the decision to bring the CSL to the road in order to make the race car legal. It is literally the first M. And it's for sale.

Before 1972, BMW was no stranger to racing. It had raced its motorcycles to land speed records and race wins, and its cars took plenty of trophies as well. But after the war, most of those road race cars were run by companies like Alpina and Schnitzer instead of in-house.

When auto executive Bob Lutz moved from Opel to BMW in the early 1970s, he had yet to build his legendary career. His decision to create the Motorsports department might have been the first big step in that epic career. "A company is like a human being. As long as it goes in for sports, it is fit, well-trained, full of enthusiasm and performance," he said in 1972. That's the same year this first BMW M car was created.

Specifically, BMW Motorsport GmbH was created on May 1, 1972, run by former Porsche works driver and Ford racing manager Jochen Neerpasch. He pulled in some top drivers and started work on its first race car for 1973.

That car is now an icon: the BMW 3.0 CSL, aka the Batmobile because of its wild body kit that included an ultra-low front air dam, strakes on the hood, and a gigantic rear wing. Aluminum body panels helped cut weight, as did a magnesium case for the transmission. The new race-ready engine put out approximately double the power of the road car.

BMW M built 21 CSL racers. 11 of those ended up raced by the factory team, with the rest sold to private teams. This was the first of the 21. Known internally as E9/R1, built on chassis 2276000, it's an incredibly historic BMW. And yes, it's for sale through Dylan Miles LTD.

Because of the significance of the car, it's got a very extensive history. The seller's story says it was raced in the DRM Championship by Hans Stuck, but it started the season without the bodywork. The kit was slapped back on overnight when the FIA finally approved it mid-season.

A failed water pump took it out of that first race, but it went on to nine sports car wins that year. It was sold to race in the US IMSA championship the next year, then sold again and retired at the end of the 1974 season.

The current collector has had the car since the mid-1990s. It was fully restored during that time, but it wasn't seen in public again until 2021 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. At Goodwood, it wasn't wearing the Batmobile parts, but it is wearing them once again, winning Most Iconic Car at the Salon Prive Concours D’Elegance this summer.

Up for sale by UK, this could end up as one of the highest-priced sales ever for a BMW. Standard roadgoing BMW 3.0 CSLs sell for as much as half a million, with the modern recreation fetching more than that.

But this car might have a hard time catching the BMW 507. The most expensive of those so far was a 507 with a factory hardtop owned by motorsport legend John Surtees. That one managed $5 million at auction in 2018.