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Broad Arrow Auctions is offering a 1981 BMW M1 at its Zürich Auction 2026 that ticks nearly every box on a collector's wish list: Swiss ownership from new, 4,842 km on the clock at cataloging, a first owner whose name is tied to the car's racing history, and a chassis number two from the end of road-car production. The estimate is CHF 450,000 to CHF 500,000.
The car is chassis 4301450. BMW built 399 road-going M1s, and according to the BMW M1 Registry cited in the catalog, this one is the penultimate example fully completed. Only one later car is recorded with an engine installed; the remaining chassis numbers are documented as spare bodies. It was built on 5 March 1981, finished in white over black cloth, and sold new through BMW Switzerland to Seger & Hoffmann.
The Owner Who Wanted Every Color
Seger & Hoffmann is a name that carries weight with BMW Motorsport people. The firm built the bodywork for the M1 Procar race cars and sponsored a Sauber-run M1 in Group 5. It also hoarded M1s, in the form of pristine spare parts and complete road cars, including this one. According to the catalog, the company wanted an M1 in every color, so it had this car repainted in the red it wears today.
The money ran out in 1984. Seger & Hoffmann ran into financial trouble, and the whole collection went to Peter Bachmann. Many of the cars, this one included, had been partly taken apart, and period photos in the file show a row of removed engines lined up beside them. In 1986, Bachmann hired Fredy Gretener, now a respected Swiss M1 specialist, to finish the job. Matching numbers meant little to collectors at that point, so the car was fitted with the engine from chassis 4301445, which it still carries. The speedometer reportedly read zero when it was reinstalled, which is why the current mileage is believed to be accurate.
Four Decades, Almost No Driving
The paper trail after that is short because the car barely moved. It was registered briefly in March 1983, then taken off the road a month later. After Gretener finished it, he kept it preserved for decades. In July 2013 the Frauenfeld road traffic office granted it Swiss Veteran Vehicle status after a technical inspection, with just 2,674 km showing. It was re-registered when it was sold to its current owner in December 2013, and Gretener has maintained it since, including an annual exercise run of roughly 50 km.
The seats were re-padded in 2023 using original parts after 42 years of wear, along with some mechanical work, all under Gretener's supervision. The history file includes copies of the Swiss registration documents from new, period photos, and Gretener's invoices for work done under the current owner.
What the Hagerty Numbers Say
The Hagerty Price Guide puts a 1981 M1 at $680,000 in #1 Concours condition, up 8.8 percent. A #2 Excellent car is $550,000 (up 2.8 percent), a #3 Good car is $390,000 (up 1.3 percent), and a #4 Fair car is $290,000, unchanged. As of this month, the best cars are climbing fastest while the bottom of the market has stalled.
The recent sales list on the same Hagerty page backs that up. Similar M1 results run from $472,500 to $770,000 between November 2025 and March 2026, including a 1981 car at $625,119 in late January 2026 and a 1980 car at $770,000 a few weeks earlier. That is a wide spread for one model, and it says a lot about how much condition, history and mileage matter on an M1.
The Broad Arrow estimate is in Swiss francs, so convert at the day's exchange rate before comparing it to Hagerty's dollar figures. The car does come with a caveat buyers will weigh: the engine is not the original, and the catalog says so plainly. Against that, there's the sub-5,000 km mileage, unbroken Swiss history and the Seger & Hoffmann connection. A guide number is a starting point for a car like this, not a ceiling or a floor. And anyone planning to bid should budget for the buyer's premium on top of the hammer price; our explainer on auction fees and the real cost of buying walks through how that math works.
Why the M1 Still Matters
The M1 was the first BMW M car and the division's first fully independent project. It was meant to take on Porsche in Group 4 racing, with a mid-engine layout, a tubular space-frame chassis from Gianpaolo Dallara and a wedge body from Giorgetto Giugiaro. A deal with Lamborghini to build it fell apart, and production was shared among TIR, ItalDesign, Baur and BMW Motorsport. In total, 453 cars were built from 1978 to 1981, road and racing versions combined.
The Procar BMW M1 Championship, created to help homologate the Group 4 and Group 5 racers, was won by Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet in its first two seasons. The road car had the opposite problem. The late-1970s fuel crisis dampened demand for exotic cars, and many of the 399 sat in showrooms waiting for buyers to catch up.
Zürich has been a busy stop for Swiss-pedigree cars. We also covered a single-owner 1998 Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster heading to the same sale, and BMW's pre-war racing roots, which the catalog traces back to the 328, showed up in our look at a half-scale BMW 328 Junior Stimula offered by Broad Arrow's Zoute online sale.
So here's the question: is a nearly unused M1 with a swapped-in engine worth more to you than a driven car with its original one, or does the mileage and Swiss story outweigh the paperwork?
