Did BMW almost produce the World's greatest car?
- John Quinn
- Sep 2, 2020
- 3 min read
The McLaren F1. I don't really need to say anymore than that, do I?
Arguably the greatest car ever built. A record-holder for nearly 20 years, as the fastest ever production car, at 241mph. It was a car designed without compromise by the infamous Gordon Murray to be about pure driving pleasure.
The power-plant that propelled the F1 to it's mighty top-speed, was built by BMW (after Honda left the party). Legendary engine designer Paul Rosche was recruited by Murray to develop a naturally-aspirated V12 that could bend-time. What he came up with, was the BMW S70/2.
Obviously, before shoehorning the engine into the middle of a McLaren F1, the engine needed testing and developing to ensure it met the exacting requirements of the no-compromise supercar. BMW could have chosen to stick the engine in their own mid-engined sportscar, the M1, but examples of those were rare enough in their own right and slightly too precious to butcher.
So, what BMW decided to do was infinitely cooler. They squeezed the V12 into the chassis of an e34 M5. Not just a regular saloon M5 either, they went for extra cool-points and used an M5 Touring as the donor vehicle.
This tale had somewhat gone under the radar for near three decades, until David Clark, former Director of race and road cars at McLaren, appeared on an early episode of 'The Collecting Cars' podcast. David was in his role at McLaren during the development of the F1 and revealed the existence of the V12 powered M5 Touring when talking to Chris Harris. (The whole episode is worth a listen if you have the time).
Apparently the car is still nestled away in the depths of BMW in Munich. Why BMW have never discussed or showed the car to the public is up for debate. Maybe the engine has been removed, they're a rare and valuable commodity after all, but we have to remain positive and hope this skunkworks mule is still in full operating condition and taken out every now and then by BMW engineers as a way of blowing off steam.
A BMW M-Car, an estate BMW M-Car, with a V12 from a McLaren F1. It's the stuff of dreams.
BMW have form with this type of thing. They produced a one-off e46 M3 Touring back in the early 2000s, teasing us all with what could have been. At least they did tease us though, as the M3 Touring has been wheeled out numerous times as a promotional tool. Just a shame it never made production.
They actually produced a similarly jaw-dropping machine in the mid noughties, the V10 powered e61 M5 Touring. The block for that engine had F1 connections too, actual F1...Formula 1, it being based on BMWs engine that was powering the Williams F1 car of the time.
They haven't given us a fast estate car since. Not surprising, when the V10 M5 Touring only counted for less than 10% of sales of the e60/61 M5 production run.
Which makes the announcement of the upcoming G20 M3, arriving later this year, being made available as a Touring variant, all the more surprising. It's engine won't quite have the allure of fast-BMW estates of the past, the S58 turbo-charged straight-six starting it's life in the X3 and X4 SUVs. But hey, we can't complain, more fast estates, especially in these modern times, has to be heralded as a good thing.
Now, off to eBay to see if there are any e34 Tourings and McLaren F1s going for spares or repairs.
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