A superb and rare photo of the amazing Ernst Henne, riding the first constructed prototype of the BMW W25 racing car during the 1934 tests at the famous Nurburgring Circuit in Germany. 

During his career, Henne would race the BMW 328 racing car five times. Of those five races he won three, including the Eifelrennen of 1936, where the photo was taken!

The magnificent Ernst Jakob Henne was one of German’s most famous car and motorcycle racers ever. He became incredibly famous as a world speed record holder. Between 1928 to 1937, he achieved a total of 76 land speed world records, the last on November 28, 1937 with the 279.5 Km/h (173.7 mph) on a fully-faired 500cc supercharged BMW. This record stood for 14 years.  In the 1920s, Henne was one of the most successful German motorcycle racers. Among other things he was the 1926 German champion in the 500cc class, 1927 German champion in the 750cc class and the 1928 winner of the Targa Florio in Sicily. Few know the talented Henne also won several highly prestigious International Six Days Trial offroad motorcycle races! Henne was one of the most successful sportsmen in the 1930s alongside such German greats as Max Schmeling, Gottfried von Cramm, Rudolf Harbig, Rudolf Caracciola, Manfred von Brauchitsch and Bernd Rosemeyer to name a few.

The BMW 328 sports car was designed by Fritz Fiedler and in production between 1936 and 1940. It featured many advanced features for its time, such as a tubular space frame and a hemispherical combustion chamber engine. It was much praised at the time for its performance and handling, proving to be suitable not only for the BMW factory drivers, but also perfect for everyday motoring.

The car won many races, including the prestigious Mille Miglia — a class win in 1938 and the outright winner (with a streamlined body) in 1940. It also won the RAC Rally in 1939 and came in fifth overall (first in its class) in the 1939 Le Mans 24 hours.

After the Second World War, the manufacturing plant in Eisenach where the BMW 328 had been built found itself in the Russian occupation zone, and automobile manufacturing in Eisenach would follow a state directed path until German Reunification in 1989. One of the Mille Miglia 328s (disguised as a Frazer Nash) and BMW's technical plans for the car were taken from the bombed BMW factory by English representatives from the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Frazer Nash companies. Fiedler, the BMW engineer, was persuaded to come too. Bristol Cars was set up to build complete cars, called Bristols, and would also supply engines to Frazer Nash for all their post-war cars. The first Bristol car, the 400, was heavily based on the BMW plans. This Bristol engine was also a common option in AC cars, before the Cobra.

The engine of the BMW 328 has hemispherical or cross flow combustion chambers. The intake valves are opened by the usual overhead valve push rod arrangement of a side cam, push rods, and rocker arms. The exhaust valves, on the other side of the cylinder head, are opened by the same cam shaft, vertical push rods, rocker arms, horizontal push rods, and a second set of rocker arms. In 1999 the BMW 328 was named one of 25 finalists for Car of the Century by a worldwide panel of automotive journalists.

This is a very nice and very rare non period photo that reflects a wonderful era of Mercedes ‘s automotive history in a wonderful way.  This is your rare chance to own this photo, therefore it is printed in a nice large format of ca. 4" x 6" (ca. 10 x 15 cm).  It makes it perfectly suitable for framing.