![]() While it was based on a pre-war design it was very popular, selling over 9,000 examples during 1949 and this helped to keep the company afloat until the 1950s when automobile production could restart.īMW’s first car of the 1950s was the 501, a large luxury saloon that would also be offered as a coupe and a convertible as the decade progressed. Stop-gap production of household appliances continued in Munich but it wasn’t until 1948 that BMW was able to restart vehicular production with the R24 motorcycle. BMW had been classified as an armaments company and so its machines and tools were dismantled meanwhile, its plants in Eisenach and Berlin ended up in East Germany and no longer under its control. As the National Socialists embarked on Germany’s re-armament, BMW expanded, took on new sites and developed and produced engines for the war effort.Īs the war ended BMW’s fortunes took a serious nose-dive as allied soldiers requisitioned and occupied its plants. Streamlined versions of the 328 would go on to class wins at Le Mans and would win the Mille Miglia outright in 1940.īy now, the world was in the grip of the Second World War the 328’s competition wasn’t quite as stiff as it might have been and despite the success of BMW’s road cars during the 1930s – and its obvious engineering prowess – it was once again its aircraft engine production that became most important. It was revealed to the world at the Nürburgring racetrack and won on its debut, beating the opposition in its class by a country mile. This was an out-and-out sportscar that demonstrated that intelligent lightweight design could reap rewards, and despite having a capacity of just two litres was a phenomenal machine. ![]() The theme was explored with a variety of different models, and culminated with the debut of the iconic 328 in 1936. The success of the 3/15 PS BMW launched a series of machinery based on this concept, and powered by the diminutive four-cylinder engine, but it was the arrival of the 303 in 1933 that underlined BMW’s intention to be a manufacturer of more luxurious cars – complete with six-cylinder power. Since then, the marque has become synonymous with not only sporty road cars but success on the racetrack. They drove over 2,650 kilometres to take victory without accruing a single penalty point and averaged 26mph.Īt the time, the leading German motoring publication Automobilzeitung said: “BMW amazed the entire motoring world by putting on a flabbergasting performance.” It was the company’s first motor car race – and its first victory the era of BMW motorsport had begun. To prove its new car was up to the job, BMW immediately entered the 3/15 PS into the competitive arena of international motorsport, with three examples piloted by Max Buchner, Albert Kandt and Wilhelm Wagner entering the International Alpine Rally. ![]() A year later the first BMW-badged car was born, the BMW 3/15 PS DA2, based on the Austin Seven but with numerous improvements engineered into the car by BMW. Based in the Thuringia region of Germany, the company was producing the ‘Dixi’ an Austin Seven under licence. It was an excellent design featuring a boxer engine designed by aero engine engineer Max Friz BMW’s use of such engines in its motorbikes became a trademark that continues today.īuoyed by its early success, BMW purchased the Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach company in 1928. Despite the promise of its aircraft engines, BMW was banned from producing them under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles after the First World War and turned its hand to the production of various other mechanical items including brakes for trains – and motorcycle engines.īMW was highly successful in these enterprises in 1920 it relocated its main headquarters to Munich and in 1923 it launched its first-ever vehicle, the R32 motorcycle. The engine would go on to bag the world record for altitude at 32,000 feet – not bad for 1919. In the beginning, BMW was a long way from motor car production aircraft engines were its business and the first wholly BMW designed unit, the BMW IIIa penned by engineer Max Friz, was renowned for being the best of its generation. ![]() BMW – Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Works) – saw plenty of peaks and troughs on its journey to becoming a highly successful manufacturerīMW can trace its origins back to Rapp-Motorenwerke, a manufacturer of aircraft engines during the First World War which changed its name firstly to Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG in 1916 and then to BMW in 1917.
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