21 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT BMW
-----plus one thing
that the author apparently didn't know!
But Baurspotting has got it covered! ;)

Here is a fun article from Aaron Miller on Supercompressor. I would make one slight correction to #12 which reads the following:
"12. The First "M" car, the legendary M1 was supposed to be a Lamborghini.
BMW and Lambo agreed in the 1970s to jointly build a race car. The Germans were supposed to provide the engine and some suspension bits, and the Italians were slated for the rest. For financial reasons, and at the last minute, Lamborghini pulled out in one of the biggest "that's what she said" moments in corporate history. BMW then picked up it's clothes, went back to their factory, and built this beast."

Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia BMW M1 page:
The M1 coupe was hand-built between 1978 and 1981 under the Motorsport division of BMW as ahomologation special for sports car racing. The body was designed by Giugiaro, taking inspiration from the 1972 BMW Turbo show car. Originally, BMW commissioned Lamborghini to work out the details of the car's chassis, assemble prototypes and manufacture the vehicles, but Lamborghini's financial position meant that BMW reassumed control over the project in April 1978, after seven prototypes were built. (N.B.: Baur, which was established in 1910, produced, among others, 1682 1600-2 Cabriolets, 200 2002 Cabriolets, 2597 E110 700 Sport Cabriolets and most of the 450 or so M1's for BMW, after Lamborghini could not fulfil its contractual obligations.) Only 456 production M1s were built, making it one of BMW's rarest models. The spirit of the M1 lived on in the M635Csi and the first-generation M5, which use a modified version of the M88/1 engine, the M88/3.^[4]

Most of the 450 BMW M1s were actually built by Baur, under BMW Motorsport supervision.

Enjoy the article:

21 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT BMW

All Photos: BMW Group AG (unless otherwise noted)

POSTED ON 3/4/14
BY AARON MILLER

Bayerische Motorenwerke was formed on March 7, 1916 as BFW — Bayerische Flugzeugwerke — and promptly started making airplane engines. Over the years, the company has set records for altitude and speed, built their very own Lamborghini, and made a building shaped like an engine. To celebrate the company's 98th birthday, we dug deep, and found 21 things you probably didn't know about BMW.

1. One of the first things BMW did (before they were even really BMW) was build the Red Baron's favorite airplane engines.
During WWI, there was a massive shortage of cutting edge airplane engines. So a little company called Rapp Motor merged with Otto Werke, an airplane maker just up the street in Munich, combining forces to satisfy the war effort's needs. Otto Werke was run by the son ofthe guy who invented four cycle engines, which made just about every fuel-efficient car in history even possible. That same technology went directly into the engine that legendary fighter pilot the Red Baron called the greatest engine in the war.

2. Their four cylinder engine heritage was so important that in the 1960s they designed their headquarters to look like one.
BMW's world headquarters were designed by an Austrian architecture professor to resemble a four cylinder engine, which is both a little weird and very cool at the same time, and kinda makes you wish every car manufacturer's HQ was shaped like an engine.

3. Those early airplane engines broke every record out there.
This BMW biplane hit 32,000 feet in 1919. It was a record back then, and that's roughly the altitude you cruise at today while you're cursing your decision to fly Spirit Airlines.

4. Everyone thinks that the iconic logo is of a spinning airplane propeller. They're wrong.
Contrary to popular belief, the logo never graced a propeller until the marketing team put it there in 1929 to promote the company's airplane heritage.

5. The logo's really an homage to Rapp Motor and Bavaria.
That blue and white? Yep, those are the national colors of the German state of Bavaria. Not saying that they don't look killer when affixed to the nose cone of a propeller, but that's not how they started out.

6. The first car BMW produced only had 15 hp and only existed because of the Treaty of Versailles.
After getting royally pwned in WWI, the Treaty of Versailles mandated that German companies were banned from producing warplanes and warplane engines, because duh. With their main source of cash flow decimated, they sought to diversify. So they came up with this little guy, the Dixi 3/15. It was a hit.

7. Here's the shocker though: that first BMW was actually an English made Austin.
And an American Bantam. And a Japanese Datsun (later Nissan). Austin designed and built the chassis to be used under license around the world, and several companies jumped at the chance to avoid the inherent development costs associated the design process. That being said, BMW's first dealership in Berlin was much, much nicer than their Sino-Euro-American competitors.

8. From early on, they were on the forefront of aerodynamic tech.
This 1940 328 Kamm Coupe (named after the father of German Aerodynmics Wunibald Kamm) was aerodynamically three decades ahead of its time. If it looks familiar, that's becauseShelby borrowed the same principles to make the Cobra Daytona Coupe in the mid-1960s. Essentially, by chopping off the rear end, you can increase the straight line speed by something north of 30% — a big deal when you're racing across Italy in the Mille Miglia.

9. They also built the world's fastest motorcycle... in 1937. It was a death trap and you had to wear that weird helmet.
This awesome contraption was aerodynamically slick, supercharged, and in 1937 (while most of the world was still on dirt roads) it was capable of hitting 173.7 mph. But, since the bodywork fully covered the rider, he was unable to put his legs down when he eventually came to a stop. Go big or go home.

10. BMW also pioneered bike racing for lunatics.
The concept of leaning out of a sidecar to improve cornering ability during a race dates almost as far back as the concept of sidecars themselves, but that doesn't mean you're any less crazy for doing so. Look at this nut job licking the pavement. Miraculously this sport continues to this day.

11. And then there was that time they almost became Mercedes in the late fifties.
In 1959 BMW was nearing bankruptcy due to a myriad of factors *cough* Cold War *cough*. Smelling blood, Mercedes' parent company Daimler-Benz mounted a Gordon Gekko style hostile takeover attempt. Collectively BMW said "f*ck that noise" and mounted a counter attack, enlisting even the lowest mechanics in the organization's help in buying back shares. They eventually found the help of a major private investor, whose family still owns a chunk of the company today. This battle of course spurned a major rivalry between the two brands that lasts to this day.

12. The First "M" car, the legendary M1 was supposed to be a Lamborghini.
BMW and Lambo agreed in the 1970s to jointly build a race car. The Germans were supposed to provide the engine and some suspension bits, and the Italians were slated for the rest. For financial reasons, and at the last minute, Lamborghini pulled out in one of the biggest "that's what she said" moments in corporate history. BMW then picked up it's clothes, went back to their factory, and built this beast.

13. That M1? It was also designed by the same guy that designed the DeLorean.
And the Lotus Esprit. And the VW Golf. And the... Nikon D4 camera? Giorgetto Guigiaro's kind of a legend. How a guy like that could also design the Yugo is truly one of life's mysteries.

14. BMW has been making electric cars for over 40 years.
They first debuted an all-electric 1602 at the Munich Olympics in 1972. It used 12 batteries, and could drive for up to 19 miles at a time. Even though it was all electric, its performance was anything but shocking: 43 horsepower was roughly half that of a normal 1602 at the time.

15. They Raced in Formula 1, and won the championship with a 20-year-old motor design.
BMW's M10 four cylinder engine was an evolution of a motor that first hit the streets in 1962 with 75 hp. By 1983, they had managed to squeeze over 1,400 hp out of it, and Nelson Piquetwon the world driver's championship in it.

16. They're still making WWII-era parts.
If you're planning on racing your classic BMW 328, you can still buy a brand new transmission for it via the BMW Classic program. That program is so thorough that a group of mechanics just built a factory new 1976 R90s Motorcycle by ordering all the parts from them online.

17. BMW just bought back its old motorcycle factory in Munich to build BMW Classic parts.
It's kind of poetic, if you think about it. They're gonna make a ton of new old parts for BMW Classic, inside a classic BMW building.

18. They also design airplane interiors, and even trains.
The only problem with the interior they set up for Singapore Airlines is that you'll never want to deplane. Also, San Francisco's BART system is set to replace some of their trains with new BMW designed models.

19. The BMW Z1 has way cooler doors than a Lambo.
And it's not even close. It's a shame they only made a little over 8,000 Z1s.

20. They almost made a Z1 coupe.
It would have been... weird. Still, you can see the Z3 coupe start to take shape in it, and it looks exactly like the kind of slick crossover SUV you wish they'd build today.

21. BMWs are basically LEGOs.
You can take a 1980s 3 Series, put on the rear suspension and brakes from an early 2000s MCoupe, the front suspension and brakes from a mid-1990s M3, the fender flares of a 1970s 2002 Turbo, and the steering of a late 1990s Z3, and have an amazing car.

Aaron Miller is the Rides editor for Supercompressor. He actually has put together an old BMW like a LEGO kit, but like most kids, he keeps taking off and adding parts. He hopes to finish it one day, but until then you can follow him on Twitter.

http://www.supercompressor.com/rides/bmw-21-facts-you-didn-t-know-about-the-german-luxury-car-manufacturer

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Wednesday, March 5, 2014