FOUND THE DREAM CAR IN SOUTHERN GERMANY In 2005, he found the dream car at a BMW dealer near Bodensoen in southern Germany in a slightly damaged condition. The Italians are good at many things, but rust protection is not one of them. 
The rudder frame is vulnerable and needed to be renovated, just as there were traces of life in the US. The M1 was never officially imported to the US, but private companies converted European sports cars to the strict US safety approvals, which included large bumpers with built-in anti-roll bars and heavy steel beams in the doors to increase safety. German M1 specialist Axel Hagemann, who has restored 22 other M1s and acquired a large stock of original M1 parts from BMW, restored Claes' car to its original European configuration. THE ENGINE – M88/1 The engine was in top shape, so it has only had small things like the water pump fixed. It is known among BMW northerners as the M88/1; a 3.5-liter high-performance engine with mechanical Kugelfischer-Bosch injection. 
The latter is the explanation for the M1's tendency to spew fire when the accelerator is released. The system is too imprecise to shut off the fuel quickly enough in time. It was actually the world's first engine with a digital ignition system. If you were to have it done today, it is impossible to find original spare parts, but there is an auto electrician who hosts spare parts from old flea market transistor radios, says Claes. Turbocharging was not ready for the engine, but the entire construction was designed to handle the 850 hp that the wildest racing versions were intended to get. Click 'NEXT PAGE' to read on
