BMW Ultimate Drives Volume 1: 1937 - 1982 208 pages Color and some b&w photos Hard cover 30 x 30 cm 1,911 kg English The contents were hotly debated, the dream factor was deemed important. When worldwide celebrities like Elvis Presley buy BMW (a fifties 507 during his 1958-60 German military service), we thought you should know how it feels to steer such seductively rare combinations of V8 power and the coachbuilders art. So we have some ultra rare—handmade by the hundred—fifties star cars from 503 to 507 and sixties 3200CS, the latter previewing road and race versions of the elegant road (CS/CSi) and race (CSL) BMW coupés of 1969-75 vintage. As you’ll see by whisking through the contents of Volume 1, Jeremy Walton and chief photographer William Taylor went for a bit of both, from affordable, to million dollar babies. Although BMW manufactured 15 horsepower Austin Sevens under license from the British in late 1927, desirability of the Dixi then BMW-branded machines shot up with the 1934 debut of the 315/1 sports 2-seater which gave the European establishment such a team–prize winning shock on Alpine rallies of the thirties. That simple but efficient 315 derivative led to the legendary 328 6-cylinders and 80bhp. These 2-liters became world class benchmarks from a debut Nurburgring victory. We have driven examples both as traditional open sports cars of shattering 21st century value to the underwritten but hugely significant 327/28 coupe, which was the glamorous forerunner to a line of postwar BMW coupés that continue today. |