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When a nostalgic enthusiast brought his ailing BMW into Yves Decan’s Belgian workshop, he wanted a 1970s street racer. Looks like he got it.

The BMW M3 grew from a sublime saloon to dominate Touring Car racing for five years. John Barker compares the road and track versions.

After it won the 24-Hours of Spa in 1997, this E36 Super Tourer ended up mothballed in a museum in Japan. So, what is it doing at Donington Park? Enter ex-BTCC champion Andrew Jordan

Woody and Buzz were breaking the box office back when this E31 850CSi rolled off the production line. Twenty-seven years later, the little-used period piece has a few tales to tell…

Which is the best two-seater sports car out of the BMW Z4, Jaguar F-TYPE and Porsche Boxster 718? Simon Jackson, editor of BMW Car, our own Paul Walton and 911 27 Porsche World's Matt Bell argue the case for each before judge Ben Barry gives the final verdict.

Despite its suburban lines, this BMW E3 Kombi is the lone survivor of three built by BMW Motorsport, designed to keep up with speeding rally cars

This is where modern motor sport-bred BMWs began – on the road in the 3.0CSL in its earliest, purest form.

This racing 1972 BMW 3.0 CSL E/R1 was the very first car to emerge from the new BMW Motorsport workshop. Now restored, we drive it on track

The 3.0 CSL and its contemporary, the 2002 Turbo, laid the foundations for BMW’s ‘ultimate driving machine’ adventure. Along with their less powerful but still charming siblings, they pointed the way to BMW’s modern car-making template: mixing the excitement and drama of the better Italian sports saloons and coupes with the reliability and quality of a German car. It’s been paying dividends ever since.

The truth is reliably stranger than fiction, and with the near-mythical motor BMW M built for Gordon Murray’s extraordinarily neat BT52 Formula 1 racer there’s almost as much strange fact and fiction as there was boost. (And there was a lot of boost.)

In many ways the M Coupe is the odd one out in this group of BMW icons. It has no motorsport pedigree, production was short-lived and objectively it was neither a commercial nor even critical success. So, why is it here? Because above all, this car is a brilliant demonstration of the M division’s vision and craft, transforming unpromising base materials into something arresting, unique and – as time goes on – highly sought after.

Let’s be clear about what E28 M5 didn’t do first. The world’s first super saloon? A Dodge Coronet 426, Mk2 Jag 3.8 and many others would line up to set you straight on that point. BMW M’s first four-door? You could probably argue that the South African 530 MLE homologation special of 1976 nabbed that honour. Neither the MLE nor the German-built 1980 E12 M535i that came later had the M1’s 24-valve straight-six, mind, but the M635 CSi coupe did, and it was unveiled almost 18 months before the E28 M5.

Step One of raising your profile as a car brand: build a supercar. And since you’re BMW Motorsport GmbH (the snappy one-letter nickname isn’t official until 1991), best make one that’s a racing car as well as a road car.

With over 300hp on tap, this turbo-swapped R53 Cooper S is one full-on monster mini.

It might be over 30-years since E24 production ended but it’s still got Six appeal by the barrel load, is this one of the best classic BMWs ever made?