BMW : adding prestige

At the end of the 1974 season, Porsche had won another Championship with the ever consistant Peter Gregg.
The Bavarian Make was only represented by the semi-official Hurtig Team Libra, ran by John Buffum, and some 2002s entered by small teams. Their drivers were no less than George Follmer, Brett Lunger, John Buffum, Andy Peterey but the cars could not fight for victory as they were slightly outdated. They finally wound up some good results but they could not do better : they would simply not continue in 1975.
BMW had something to do with their image in the US ; they stood, for the average American, as British Motor Works, and they wanted to do something about that. They had just won two European Touring Car Championships in a row and they were looking for new challenges. They were looking for a new identity and they did it their way.  So they decided to join the IMSA Camel GT series. Their approach proved the good one as they wanted to mix with the privateers and help promote the series.
The Bayerische Motoren Werke had been renamed Bavarian Motor Works and they wanted the fans to know it as they sported it on the windshields.
They had an all-star line-up of drivers : Brian Redman, Hans Stuck, Dieter Quester,  Sam Posey, Allan Moffat and even Ronnie Peterson! The cars were the 3.0CSLs that had been revamped and improved, L6 3,5L engines given for 410-420hp, that was enough to give the competition reasons to fear them.
They sported the colors of the 1973 season and had tested the cars at Talladega several weeks before the beginning of the 1975 season.
At the Daytona event, they experienced problems and were not able to make it to the finish line but, at Sebring, the CSL driven by Stuck-Posey-Redman and Moffat took a well deserved victory. At the end of the season, they had won 4 races and, if they did not win the title, it was probably because they did not take part of every race in the season. If it had been the case, they would have won, but that is history. But they had achieved their main goal.
At the end of the season, it was a success to Jochen Neerpasch and the hope for an even more successful season was to be expected. Unortunately for IMSA, they decided to concentrate on the World Championship for Makes and they ran a limited schedule with one car. Another team ran alongside the works car, it was Peter Gregg Racing who made an extra deal with the Bavarian make, with little success. BMW would then develop the nifty 320 by the means of the McLaren team. It was just another story.