Steve Sutcliffe takes to the track in eleven of the best BMW M cars in history.

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BMW’s M division might well be 50 years old this month, but to begin with it made only racing cars – hence the M (for motorsport) in the name – its first-ever creation being the outrageous 3.0-litre CSL ‘Batmobile’ from 1972. At the start, the M Division employed a mere 35 people. In 1978, however, everything changed. In the same year that Britain birthed its first test-tube baby, BMW Motorsport GmbH – as it was known back then – also produced its first- ever road car, the M1. Since then, it has never looked back. Five decades on, the M Division has built more than half-a-million cars, at the same time underwriting BMW’s reputation as a creator of some of the world’s finest driver’s machines. It’s a reputation that many manufacturers have tried, and largely failed, to emulate.

So for a magical couple of days in May, nearly 50 years to the hour after M was born, we brought together a rare and varied collection of the best cars made by the now-mighty division during the past half century. Steve Sutcliffe took to the track in each, to review some of Bavaria's finest creations to date.

Chapters
00:00 The M division
1:02 M1
2:40 M635CSi
4:39 E30 M3
6:35 Z3 M Coupe
8:27 Progress?
9:01 E39 M5
10:56 E46 M3 CSL
13:04 E60 M5
15:18 1M Coupe
17:18 The ones that got away...
17:53 E92 M3 GTS
21:21 F10 M5 "30 Jahre"
24:15 G80 M3
28:20 The future of BMW M

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