Imagine collecting your brand-new supercar straight from the factory in Germany, where only 399 road-going units were to be made. Now imagine doing that over four decades ago. That’s exactly what Pink Floyd founding member Roger Waters did in March 1980 when he took delivery of this BMW M1, fresh off the production line, just as the seminal album, The Wall, was dominating the charts. It really doesn’t get any more special than that. And now Waters’ BMW M1 is going up for sale with RM Sotheby’s, with a price tag expected to touch $650,000.
If the M1 isn’t rare enough already, this is one of only 59 examples finished in Blau (paint code 207), making it an exceptionally rare supercar. After 42 years with Waters, BMW’s first-and-only supercar still shows only 9,693 miles on its odometer. That’s roughly 230 miles per year during his ownership. Waters clearly understood he wasn’t just buying transportation but preserving an automotive icon. One featuring Giorgetto Giugiaro’s timeless wedge design wrapped around the motorsport-derived 3.5-liter M88/1 inline-six engine.
Waters maintained meticulous records throughout his ownership, accumulating substantial documentation including MOT inspections, registration paperwork, and the original German delivery plate. Trained technicians performed regular oil changes and tire replacements to keep everything functioning perfectly despite the low mileage. When Waters finally parted with his beloved M1 in 2021, it crossed over to America to join a noted collector’s garage. The new owner immediately invested over $30,000 in mechanical restoration, including rebuilding shocks and brakes while carefully preserving originality. This commitment paid off at The Quail in 2022, where the M1 captured the 50th Anniversary of BMW M Division Class award.
The M1 represented BMW’s ambitious attempt to challenge Porsche’s dominance in late-1970s motorsport. The result was a multinational collaboration where Italian craftsmanship met German engineering precision. Italdesign handled the fiberglass body, Marchesi assembled the tubular steel chassis, and Baur installed the hand-built powerplant that would eventually produce 273 horsepower.
Today, this time capsule of a supercar is something increasingly rare in the collector car world: a legitimate unicorn with famous single-owner provenance, ultra-low mileage, and impeccable documentation right through. It’s like finding a mint first pressing of the Dark Side of the Moon, something you’d rarely, if ever, come across.
