1937 BMW 328 Mille Miglia Roadster

BMW was active and successful in sports racing activity before WWII. In the late 1930s, they used their technically advanced, high-performance 328 model. This car, chassis number 85032, was built in May of 1937, and passed to Rudolph Schleicher's experimental Department at BMW. It ran at Le Mans and the Tourist Trophy race in 1937. The following year, it was victorious in the two-liter class at the Mille Miglia (where it finished 8th overall), with A.F.P. Fane driving and William James co-driving. The car subsequently won a gold medal in the 'German Aplenfahrt' in both 1938 and 1939. That autumn, the car was dismantled and re-engineered as an open streamliner, destined for use as a factory entry in the 1940 Mille Miglia alongside the two factory fixed-head streamliners. The unique bodywork worn by #85032 was designed by Wilhelm Kaiser of BMW's new design department. It was built at the factory racing department at Milbertshofen, Germany, and nicknamed 'Buegelfalte' or trouser crease, referring to the creased fender tops. The car received an intricate steel tube frame, upgraded brakes, a Hurth-gearbox and a 130 PS engine to compliment the new bodywork. Its finished weight was 725 kgs (1,595 pounds).

The 1940 Mille Miglia encompassed nine laps of a 110-mile route between Brescia, Mantua and Cremona, and this roadster, driven by Hans Wencher and Rudolf Scholz, finished 6th.

The car is significant because it was the only special roadster to be built at the factory in Munich. Two other second series streamlined roadsters were skinned in aluminum by an independent coachbuilder, Touring of Milano.

BMW had been actively involved in racing in the 1930s, enjoying many victories with the technically advanced, high-performance 328. The chassis design in unique to this model, with a tubular frame, transverse strengthening, and a suspension with a transverse leaf spring with lower wishbones at the front. The straight-six engine makes 120 horsepower. Wilhelm Kaiser, under Chief-Stylist Wilhelm Meyerhuber, designed the unique bodywork. The nickname of the car is derived from the creases on the top of the fenders, referred to as 'Buegelfalte' translating to 'trouser crease.'

During the war, the Buegelfalte roadster was given to Albert Speed, the Minister for Armaments. It was later seized by Russia as reparations and given to MiG aircraft eengineer Artem Mikoyan. He lent the car to his young son before he traded the car to Guido Adamson of Latvia in 1972 for a modern Lada. In 2001, the car was driven from Riga to Munich and stored by BMW in its museum. A copy of the Buegelfalte was made and now resides in the BMW museum.