David Donohue, son of legendary American driver Mark Donohue, won his first professional racing championship behind the wheel of this BMW M5 in 1994. Prepared by Ed Arnold Racing, of Oaks, Pa., this car was never sidelined by a mechanical failure. Winning or finishing second in all but one of eight races, Donohue won the IMSA Bridgestone Supercar Championship. BMW won the manufacturers crown.

The IMSA Bridgestone Supercar Championship featured the great cars of the mid-1990’s in a sprint racing format. This BMW M5 topped Porsche, Nissan, Lotus, Corvette, Ferrari and Mazda, among other “supercars” of the day.

BMW of North America’s now-classic championship ad and poster read, “The 1994 IMSA Supercar Champion Has Something Exotic Ferrari, Lotus and Porsche Competitors Don’t. Four Doors.

The next year, Donohue joined the new M3 racing program. With Shawn Hendricks now behind the wheel, Ed Arnold Racing captured a second consecutive driver’s championship. Other notable drivers who piloted the M5 team cars were Rob Wilson (1994), Cort Wagner (1994) and Randy Pobst (1995).

The engine uses the basic components from the production unit while Zytec Engineering, working with BMW Motorsport, made it special for this purpose. It is the last generation of this design, first seen in the 1975 3.0 CSL and the M1 Procar.

This car is owned by BMW of North America, LLC and is not for sale.

As seen in this video, the driver is one of the BMW Performance Center driving instructors...Donnie Isley. The car is now prepped and maintained for BMW NA by the Rahal-Letterman racing Team.