TOP 10 WINS

As the name suggests, motorsport is integral to BMW's M division. Damien Smith recalls its most famous successes

- Damien Smith

Formed by Jochen Neerpasch in 1972, BMW's performance arm became responsible for its most loved and admired road cars. But M stands for motorsport, and it's on the shoulders of the company's diverse and successful racing exploits that its famous products have been built. It therefore seems only right that we revisit BMW's greatest competition successes.

BMW board member Robert Lutz summed up the need for M in 1972: "A company is like a human being. As long as it goes in for sports, it's fit, well trained, full of enthusiasm and performance."

2008 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX

BMW Sauber F1.08, Robert Kubica

The brittle marriage between BMW and Williams ended in 2005, whereupon BMW bought the Sauber team to do Formula 1 on its own terms. By 2008, BMW Sauber was a genuine force, and in Montreal, highly rated young Robert Kubica scored a fortuitous win after McLaren's Lewis Hamilton rammed Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen in a pit-lane misjudgement. Nick Heidfeld made it a one-two as the Pole vaulted to the head of the championship. BMW's challenge faded thereafter, though, and Canada 2008 remains its only all-in F1 win. It withdrew from the sport at the end of 2009 amid the credit crunch, then Kubica's promise was ended in 2011 by a rally crash that almost cost him an arm.

1993 BTCC AT SILVERSTONE

BMW 318i, Steve Soper

The British Touring Car Championship's 2.0-litre, one-class golden era was well under way when Schnitzer upped the ante by quitting the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft for an all-out assault on the UK series. The dream team of Steve Soper and Joachim Winkelhock scored a one-two straight off the bat at Silverstone, then won eight of the 17 rounds between them, the German outscoring the Brit to become champion. The influx of big-name European teams and drivers had begun.