The Spirit of BMW: 50 Reasons Why We Love Them
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About this ebook
Known as 'the ultimate driving machine', BMW is one of the world's most prestigious car brands. Renowned for their smooth handling, precision engineering and sleek looks, BMWs pair driving comfort with powerful engines. Originally formed during the first world war, the company reached new heights of popularity in the 1960s and is still going strong today.
This captivating book outlines all the most iconic BMW models, from their first car, the Dixi of 1927, to today's high-performance models, including the beautiful 1955 507 roadster, the instantly recognisable 2002 from the 1960s, and the iconic E30 M3, first manufactured in the mid-1980s. Each evocative vintage photograph is accompanied by insightful explanation.
The ideal gift for every car enthusiast, whether they're a BMW owner or just aspire to be, this beautifully illustrated book conveys perfectly the joys of this classic brand.
Vaughan Grylls
Vaughan Grylls is an artist and writer. He was educated at Goldsmiths and at the Slade and has taught at Reading, Cambridge and Williams College in the US, at several other colleges and universities in the UK. He was Director of two British art schools but is now retired. He has published a number of photographic books and an account of his life in British art schools ‘I Brought this in Case: the 1960’s, Four Art Schools and Me’.
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The Spirit of BMW - Vaughan Grylls
THE SPIRIT OF
BMW
50 REASONS WHY WE LOVE THEM
IllustrationTHE SPIRIT OF
BMW
50 REASONS WHY WE LOVE THEM
Vaughan Grylls
IllustrationCONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
01. THE BMW IMAGE
02. MODEST BEGINNINGS
03. A BRILLIANT CAR DESIGNER
04. REINVENTING BEAUTY
05. CUTE BMW
06. THE 1 SERIES
07. THE 2 SERIES
08. THE 3 SERIES
09. THE 4 SERIES
10. THE 5 SERIES
11. THE 6 SERIES
12. THE 7 SERIES
13. THE 8 SERIES
14. THE X SERIES
15. THE I
16. THE M
17. THE Z
18. THE CUSTOM
19. THE ULTIMATE DRIVING MACHINE
20. GO COMPARE
21. POLIZEI BMW
22. BODY BUILDING
23. HOLD THAT ROAD …
24. BMW ADS
25. BREAKDOWN BMW
26. ABANDONED BMW
27. THE DESIGNERS
28. ART CAR
29. THE ICONIC LOGO
30. THOSE KIDNEYS
31. THE FRONT END
32. THE KINKY SIDE
33. THE REAR END
34. FROM THE TOP
35. THE COCKPIT
36. CONVERTIBLE COOL
37. BACK SEAT DRIVER
38. CLEAN LINES
39. THE WHEELS
40. HOMAGE TO SPEED
41. THE IDRIVE
42. THE COLOUR
43. THE ENGINES
44. SKI BMW
45. BIMMER SPECIALS
46. RACING AND RALLYING BMW
47. BMW IN AMERICA
48. HEADQUARTERS MUNICH
49. THE BMW MUSEUM
50. SHOULD YOU BUY ONE … OR TWO?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INDEX
INTRODUCTION
The Ultimate Driving Machine
This is not a technical book. It is about BMW, a German company that designs superlative cars. These cars entice you into taking for granted how good they actually are, until you drive a car of another make. Then the difference becomes glaring.
Why has BMW climbed to global pre-eminence? Simple. A BMW is a stylish, high-performance automobile that is sporty and easy to drive. Before BMW, high-performance cars could be challenging to master.
When BMW’s 3 Series hit the market, its rivals were caught on the back foot. Mercedes had to rethink its legendary construction costs, ponderous design and performance. It was to little avail. BMW would overtake Mercedes in the world’s key automobile import market – the USA. A Mercedes may have been classy, but a BMW was fun and young too.
Lesser makes struggled even more. Few today remember the Dolomite Sprint, promoted embarrassingly in the UK by British Leyland’s Triumph as ‘The BMW Eater’. Not after covering a hundred miles in an hour on a German autobahn it wasn’t. Saab and Audi were the nearest European style rivals in the US, yet Saab was a minnow of a company next to BMW, while Audi was just not as sexy and didn’t have the model range.
BMW – Bayerische Motoren Werke, or Bavarian Motor Works – was established in 1916 as a manufacturer of aero engines, which it produced from 1917–1918 and then from 1933–1945. In 1928 BMW bought Automobilwerk Eisenach, which held a licence from Austin in England to build the Austin 7 model known as the Dixi. BMW made some changes and put their badge on it.
Illustration1970s BMW magazine advert.
IllustrationThe BMW 328 Mille Miglia Touring Coupé winning the race in Brescia, Italy, 1940.
IllustrationThe BMW Dixi Cabriolet.
Throughout the 1930s, BMW designed their own cars at Eisenach. A particular eye-opener was the 328, a sports model built between 1936 and 1940. Using their impressive 2-litre straight-six, an engine that would become a BMW hallmark, the 328 won important races such as the 1936 Nürburgring Eifelrennen, the 1937 Tourist Trophy, the 1940 Mille Miglia and the 1939 Le Mans 24 Hours race.
In the Second World War, BMW focused on military production, from army motorcycles to the engines for airplanes such as the Dornier bomber. But by the end of the war, BMW’s factories lay totally destroyed thanks to British and US air raids.
Like most industrial conglomerates in Nazi Germany, BMW had used slave labour. Although no BMW director or employee has ever been prosecuted for war crimes, at BMW’s centenary in 2016 the company issued a statement: ‘To this day, the enormous suffering this caused and the fate of many forced labourers remains a matter of the most profound regret.’ The mea culpa appeared inadequate.
After 1945 BMW were not allowed to manufacture automobiles because of their involvement in the war, so they produced