1986 - Middle year for BMW
The legendary Dieter Quester (Austria) in companion with Thierry Tassin (Belgium) and Altfrid Heger (Germany) won the 24 hour race at Spa-Francorchamps with an average speed of 89.738 mph.
DPM become DTM
In Germany the DPM series changed name to DTM (German Touring Car Championship). This year was kind of lame for BMW. The BMW 635 CSi was quite outdated compared to it's competitors.
A new race car was on it's way, the E30 M3, but not until 1987 season. With this in mind it was quite fantastic that Kurt König managed to take a third place in the final standings with one race win at Zolder as best result.
Final standings in DTM 1986
| No | Driver | Car | Points |
| 1 | Kurt Thiim | Rover Vitesse V8 | 130 |
| 2 | Volker Weidler | Mercedes 190E 2.3-16 | 113 |
| 3 | Kurt König | BMW 635 CSi | 104 |
| 4 | Per Stureson | Volvo 240 Turbo | 102 |
| 5 | Volker Strycek | BMW 325i | 89 |
| 6 | Klaus Niedzwiedz | Ford SierraXR4Ti | 83 |
| 7 | Anton Goeser | BMW 635 CSi | 76 |
| 8 | Per-Gunnar Andersson | Volvo 240 Turbo | 75 |
| 9 | Manuel Reuter | Ford Sierra XR4Ti | 69 |
| 10 | Fritz Müller | BMW 635 CSi | 58 |