Powered by BMW - The Legacy of BMW-Powered Race Engines | Condor Speed Shop

In addition to being one of the most iconic global automotive brands, BMW has historically built engines for an intriguing and diverse roster of customers. From Formula cars to top-secret supercar projects, BMW was a popular and unique choice for those seeking well-engineered and highly sophisticated power units. Their reputation for this, however, often goes overlooked, perhaps overshadowed by the many great cars they have built on their own.

The story starts in a fitting place for the German marque - European touring car racing. Their lineup of saloon cars, including the 1600, 2000, and 2002, was a perfect fit for the technical tracks of Western Europe. It soon became evident that not only were the chassis optimized for competition, but their mighty 4-cylinder M10 engines were also up for a fight.

The mass-produced M10 capped out at 2 litres of single cam glory and could take on a firing squad without missing a beat. This production line engine would go on to become the basis for Formula 2 engines throughout the 70’s and early 80’s as well as BMW’s Group 5 & IMSA E21 320i’s. There it would develop into an 8000RPM+ screamer before reaching its final, cultivated form with the Brabham Formula 1 team in 1983.

This would be the ultimate peak of F1’s (first) turbocharged era, where teams would push the envelope and remove the turbo wastegates, running close to 1000 horsepower in qualifying trim. 

In the midst of F1’s wildest time to date, BMW was called upon by team owner Bernie Ecclestone and legendary car designer Gordon Murray to supply the Brabham F1 Team with power units for their innovative, sleek, and gorgeous championship contender, the BT52. BMW Motorsports boss Paul Rosche would offer up the M12/13 engine, a direct descendant of the mighty M10.

While it was well beyond its road-going counterpart in horsepower, the M12/13 utilised the M10’s stout engine block to the fullest. It would be mated to 4 valve heads with a single turbocharger, and its compact design was optimal for packaging in the BT52, giving it a decisive advantage over its bulkier V6, twin turbo rivals from Renault, Ferrari, and Alfa Romeo. This allowed Murray to create something far more aerodynamically efficient, giving way to uniquely skinny and short sidepods akin to a rocket, while the smaller displacement, 4-cylinder engine layout allowed for smaller radiators and far lower frictional losses overall compared to the competition. This concept would go on to propel Nelson Piquet to his second F1 Driver’s Championship as well as a 3rd place finish in the Constructors Championship for Team Brabham. 

This success from 1983 would soon be the basis for another iconic era in automotive history, which stems from the same partnership between designer Gordon Murray and BMW Motorsport boss Paul Rosche. 

This story’s lineage picks up in a busy Milan airport in 1988, following a depressing result for Team McLaren at the 1988 Italian Grand Prix, where drivers Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost both finished without scoring a single point for the Championship-contending team.

Designer and Chief Technical Director Gordon Murray, Team Boss Ron Dennis, and a couple of their business partners sat for a beer drinking session in the crowded terminal, awaiting their flight back to England. After a few pints lifted their spirits, the group hatched a plan to take on a new, ambitious project to build the best car in the world, full stop. This was the genesis of the McLaren F1.

While McLaren’s on-track engine alliance was with Honda at that time, Murray, Dennis, and company would be forced to look elsewhere for their road car power unit. It didn’t take long for Murray to phone his old friend Paul Rosche, thus renewing the successful partnership from a few years back. 

Here, BMW would do something similar to what they had done back in ‘83. They would look to their most reliable road car engines and figure out a way to build them into something suitable for the brilliant supercar. 
It would be called the S70/2 V12, and it would consist of two M20 2.5-liter engine blocks welded together and would have some incredibly unique characteristics, most of which are still found in BMW engines to this day. Its cylinder heads were based on the design eventually used for the iconic, European S50B30 engine, thus featuring 4 valves per cylinder and variable valve timing (VANOS), as well as individual throttle bodies. The more timid, family car version of this engine (the M70 and S70) could be found in the 750i and 850i models from that period. While those more docile, mass-produced units ranged from 295-375 horsepower, the S70/2 delivered 620 horsepower and nearly 500 lb ft of torque. 

What started as a “road car only” project by Murray and his partners soon gave way to temptation and found its way onto racetracks, culminating in an overall win at the 1995 LeMans 24 Hours. That car and two others were actually homologated from road car chassis before McLaren went on to build another 23 GT-R models specifically for competition. 

But wait, there’s more. The S70 would not stop with the success of the McLaren F1; in fact, it flowed almost seamlessly to its next era, powering BMW’s factory V12LMR prototype concept. With technical support and engineering help from the Williams Formula 1 team, the V12LMR would go on to achieve an overall victory at the 1999 LeMans 24 Hours piloted by Joachim Winkelhock, Pierluigi Martin, and Yannick Dalmas. 

Surely, this would be enough to fill the heart of any brand motivated by engineering brilliance and motorsport pedigree, but this is only part of the story. Stay tuned for Part 2, where we will delve into BMW’s return to Formula 1 in the early 2000s, partnering with two of the sport’s most historic teams, both of which are still racing in the series today.

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