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BMW WR 500




As the story goes, just three days after its completion, the R32 started quite successfully in its first race. From 1924 onwards, the R 37 won everything that was on offer in Germany. Schleicher even took part, and won in races in Great Britain. Victories by Köppen and Ernst Henne at the Targa Florio were added. On the list of world records you'll find Ernst Henne mentioned for the year 1937 with nearly 280 km/h on a fully enclosed 500. Henne is said to have established 76 records. The above record remained unbeaten untill 1951.

It is not by chance, that up to now, you've heard nothing of BMW as a motor car company. When the company was founded during the First World War, the motor car was not really the most important thing in their minds. After the war, Germany, and the whole of Europe was in such a bad state, that the most one could hope for was the mass distribution of motorcycles.

Of course, Franz Josef Popp as director general, had also considered the production of automobiles, particularly after the ban on producing aircraft engines. In an article from 1924 he maintained the he, in fact, was the real inventor of the Volkswagen, which he described in his own way. On this subject, he would later even be approached by Adolf Hitler.

He was also friends with Wunibald Kamm, whose streamlined car-bodies could achieve considerable performance using motorcycle engines. However, whether or not the aluminium used was really a desirable material for the calculation of the extremely low priced 'Volkswagen', was questionable.


Part 6





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