This weekend, spectators at the Norisring DTM races will get a proper treat from some of the best racing cars BMW ever made. The company announced that every race of the weekend will be previewed by a spectacle courtesy of BMW M1 Procar models. BMW is bringing back its Procar racers and pilots for one giant throwback to the iconic series which saw race car drivers from all fields compete against each other.
It’s almost too good to believe and genuinely hard to imagine just how awesome these races used to be back then. To get a better idea, picture Marco Wittmann going up against Sebastien Loeb and Lewis Hamilton going at it with the exact same car, with almost no rules. It would be a proper racing royale. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen anytime soon but it’s nice to know it did once.
The video below shows one of the legends who used to drive a BMW M1 Procar back in the day, teaching a young DTM driver how the damn thing worked. Marc Surer steps in front of the camera in the short clip below, alongside Sheldon van der Linde, the youngest DTM driver today, who wasn’t even born in 1980 when Surer was starting the Norisring race aboard the M1 from pole position.
He shows the young talented driver from the DTM how the car was started back then and explains what a dogleg gearbox is and how it’s used. It’s interesting to note that these cars had massive amounts of power but no power steering. Therefore, you really needed to be in good physical form in order to be able to keep these massive race cars in check. Sheldon even makes a joke that he may not be able to drive the car considering how small his arms are. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to see how the cars and the drivers have changed over the years.
