Remember Rod Stewart? I know he’s one of those artists you need to check whether he’s died since you last heard of him, but given I just did, I can confirm he’s still alive, and by the looks of it, still kicking. Back in the 80’s, Rod did a song called “Some guys have all the luck”. Given he’s known not only as a Scotsman with a smoky voice but also as a great womanizer, it’s pretty clear what “all the luck” was referring to. This week however, we’ll talk about another guy who really has all the luck – in car terms.

It all started during an innocent catch-up lunch with an old friend from university back in Sweden, before we both moved to Switzerland many years ago. I know he’s interested in cars, so naturally, that’s the turn the discussion took after we’d updated each other on jobs, travels and families. It turned out my friend had just bought himself the nowadays quite rare BMW M635 Csi, one of my all time favorites and a car I wrote about back in 2020. My friend went through the purchase that was a bit our of the ordinary, but will stay between him and me, and then said, kind of matter-of-fact like, that it was nice to finally complete his line-up of three cars with the same engine.

My brain was working intensely while my jaw was seeking the ground, as my friend (who by now was rapidly taking on a heroic status) told me he’s also the owner of an M5 of the first, E28 generation, and even more incredibly, of an original M1. The M5 is up in Sweden, but the M1 is a car he regularly drives down here in Zurich. And of course, these three wonderful cars are all powered by one of the greatest engines of all time – the so called M88. a suitably legendary engine for one hell of a car line-up!

The M88 engine was first featured in the M1, after the prototype cars had been tested also with a four-cylinder, turbo engine. The straight, 3.5 litre six cylinder with the so called DOHC dual overhead camshaft and four valves per cylinder produced around 280 hp with fuel injection, and around 330 Nm of torque at a relatively low 4500 rpm.

The power was enough to take the light and aerodynamic M1 to 100 km/h in around six seconds, a spectacular time in the late 70’s. Combined with a top speed of around 260 km/h, this made the M1 the fastest standard German sports car when it was launched in 1978, a crown it held onto until its end of production in 1983, when Porsche updated the 911 Turbo.

The M5 (E28) was launched in 1985, two years after the M1 had been discontinued. The four-door sedan was hand-built and powered by the third version of the M88 engine, referred to as M88.3, with around 10 hp more than in the M1 in the non-catalyzed, European version. The M5 was however a car BMW intended for the US market, where the catalytic converter reduced the power somewhat. It would only be produced for three years until 1987.

The M635 Csi had seen the light a year earlier than the M5, in 1984. Contrary to the latter, it was built by BMW itself and not the separate M division, officially called BMW Motorsport. It rode 10 mm lower than the standard 635i and also had reinforced brakes, a lower front spoiler and two side mirrors – as standard! As its M brothers, the gearbox was of course a manual, 5-speed dogleg box from Getrag.

So there we go, three absolute legends of the automobile world, all powered by the same legendary engine – and all in my school friend’s garages. As it turned out, this was far from the ordinary catch-up lunch! Looking at it a bit closer though made it clear just how extraordinary his small collection is. Rarest of the three is the M1, of which only 453 were built. The M5 was made in 2241 units, but more than half of these were sold to the US. At 5855 units, the M635 Csi was the mass-produced car of the three.

As long-term readers know by now, Switzerland is a rich country and one that is full of car enthusiasts, so that you usually see all kinds of car legends in quite high numbers. When it comes to this trio however, not a single one of either car is for sale at the moment on the regular sites, not even an M635 Csi. Checking Classic Driver turns up three M1’s currently for sale, starting at around half a million USD. The M5 is slightly more common and will set you back around USD 100′. The M635 Csi is the cheap one of the bunch, with good cars starting at around USD 60′.

It’s in other words quite a good pension fund for his older days my friend has collected. But knowing him, I know that’s also not the reason he got them, and I know he drives and enjoy all three cars. Good for him! And in terms of having all the luck, I guess you can be lucky in other things than cars – as well. I’ll settle for that for now…