BMW 328
By Pieter Van Dien
Most would agree BMW has been successful in
establishing a brand image for producing
performance automobiles. Currently, BMW’s
model lineup provides a performance alternative
for almost every type of automobile possible, from
two seat roadsters, to stretch sedans to small
SUVs. How did BMW successfully build its
performance reputation? Many would point to the
iconic 2002, the two door coupe of the early
seventies that could out drive most sports cars of
the day. Yet, the true beginnings lie further back
in the company’s history. While never a big seller
like the 2002, the BMW 328 built between 1936
and 1940 was BMW’s first true sporting
automobile and it led the company to become
what it is today.
The BMW 328 began production in 1936, evolving
from the company’s sedans of the early 1930s.
While long a producer of well-regarded airplane
engines and motorcycles, BMW’s first forays into
manufacturing automobiles began in 1929. One of
its early cars was the 303 sedan, the first BMW to
utilize an inline six-cylinder engine and the now
trademark twin-kidney front grill. With a small but
smooth 1.2 liter engine, the 303 sold well to
Germany’s middle class. The success of the 303
led to the development of larger and more
powerful engines in the 309, 315 and later 319
which featured greater speed and performance.
Profits from this early line of cars allowed for the
development of a new sports roadster, the 315/1,
which debuted in 1934 and would become the
foundation for the 328.
In creating the 328, BMW sought to combine a
light and stiff chassis with a more powerful
engine. The weight and stiffness were addressed
by a tubular steel chassis adopted from the 319.
The chassis utilized light gauge tubing but still
provided high resistance to torsional twisting. A
relatively supple suspension was employed using
a controversial (for the time) independent front
suspension under the belief that a softer setup
would allow the tires to remain in contact with the
road, a mantra still touted by BMW today.
Aerodynamics were also addressed with
integrated head lamps, attractive fenders and a
fold-down windscreen resulting in a coefficient of
drag of .54 for the street roadster (eventually
lowered to .25Cd for the most highly evolved
racing coupes). Further completing the sporting
package were knock-off hubs for quick tire
changes. The twin-kidney grill and blue and white
roundel carried on from the 303 as they still do
today.
To power the 328, BMW continued the
development of their straight six engine. While
budget constraints prevented creating a new twincam
motor, BMW designers invented a unique
solution to allow for the preferred two-valves per
cylinder design. A single camshaft was employed
to operate the intake valves with the addition of
transverse pushrods and rockers to operate the
exhaust valves. This gave the benefits of twovalve
hemispherical combustion chambers but
saved the expense and extra weight of a second
camshaft. Engine capacity was 1.9 liters with a
compression ratio of 7.5:1. Three downdraft Solex
carburetors on top provided the air and fuel.
Turning to 4,500 rpm (6,000 rpm in final racing
trim), the engine produced 80 horsepower. With a
weight of just under 1800 pounds, the road car
was capable of almost 100 mph in street trim
through a four speed transmission.
The 328 debuted in June of 1936 at the Eifel
Races of the Nurburgring. BMW’s efforts in
developing the new car paid off - it won the race.
It was a stunning victory for a company that had
been building cars for less than ten years.
Subsequent victories were forthcoming by BMW
supported teams as well as privateers. Of note, in
1937 a 328 was taken to Brooklands and ran over
100 miles in one hour. The following year brought
one-two-three finishes in class at the Mille Miglia
as well as wins at LeMans and the Spa 24 Hours.
More specialized racing versions of the original
car followed, including more highly developed and
streamlined coupes, one of which won LeMans in
1939, followed by two 328 roadsters placing
second and third in class. At the end of
production, a 135 hp 328 coupe won the
shortened 1940 Mille Miglia with over a fifteen
minute lead, followed by three 328 roadsters
finishing in third, fourth and fifth places.
Jeremy Walton in Unbeatable BMW lists a total of
131 victories and 45 gold medals for the 328
between 1936 and 1940 and stated, “to put it
bluntly, if you didn’t have a BMW [328] in the late
1930s and you wanted 2-liter competition
success, you were wasting your time”.1 Pressed
into war service for the German government,
BMW ceased its racing activities in 1940, officially
disbanding its racing department in 1941. BMW
returned to the racing scene after the war with its
328 coupe taking the win at the first post-war race
in Germany, the Ruhestein Hillclimb in 1946. Six
years later, a 328 won the 1952 Alpine Rally, a
two thousand mile event. Even after that, the 328
continued to be competitive in club and regional
racing for some years.
Over its entire production run from 1936 to 1940,
four hundred and sixty four (464) 328s were
constructed according to BMW. Of these, a fair
number were imported to Britain and sold by H.J.
Addington as Frazer Nash-BMWs. Mr. Addington,
a competitive racer himself, was responsible for
some early race victories by 328s in England,
boosting the car’s image. Frazer Nash imported
mostly complete cars but also received bare
chassis for their own unique body work. After
the war, a form of the 328 engine saw duty in
the AC Ace, the forerunner to the AC Cobra.
The 328 in the Collier Auto Museum bears serial
number 85246, indicating it is the 246th car built
out of the total run of 464. Looking at the car you
are immediately taken by the aerodynamic
efficiency of the vehicle and its graceful lines.
Compared to its contemporaries, the 328 was
certainly at the forefront of functional design.
Rightly or wrongly, many credit the 328 as being
the inspiration for the later Jaguar XK120 and the
long line of curvaceous sports cars that followed.
The cockpit is notably tight, sporting two
independent seats, a large wheel and minimal
foot well space. The spare wheel sits in a recess
1 Jeremy Walton, Unbeatable BMW (Cambridge, MA:
Robert Bentley, 1998), 37.
on the outside of the trunk lid, although this was
not universal across the model line. In all, the 328
looks like it was made to be driven at high speed.
Although I have never piloted a 328, I would
expect it to have a bouncy, raucous ride, even if
refined and “supple” for its day. That is apparently
not the case. As observed by Klaus Schnitzer in a
1999 piece for Roundel Magazine, the monthly
magazine of the BMW Car Club of America, “my
expectations were not very high, but it [the 328]
turned out to be an incredible ride: quick,
sprightly, and feisty – the ultimate incarnation of
motoring”.2 Jeremy Walton found the 328 to have
well matched steering and brakes providing for
easily controllable drifts such that “you think you
are the finest driver on earth”.3 The sentiments
are perhaps best summed up by Mick Walsh of
Classic & Sportscar who in 1994 wrote “rarely
have I experienced such a sweet, willing and easy
car to drive”.4 Those impressions are consistent
with the automotive press’s comments of the late
1930s, which found the 328 to deliver a smooth
ride along with excellent grip, two traits that are
often at odds with each other.
Whether BMW would have gone on to become
the company it is today without the 328 is
impossible to say. Certainly the 328 launched
BMW into sporting automobiles and provided an
early and important taste for auto racing victory.
The early domination of the 328 allowed the car to
continue to be competitive even in the post-war
years, giving BMW credibility in its most perilous
times. In 1994 (1996 for the US), the 328 badge
returned to BMW’s lineup, this time as part of a
full range of 3-series cars offered in coupe, sedan,
wagon and convertible forms. The name was not
an exploitation of nostalgia, but a straightforward
designation indicating a 3-series car with a 2.8
liter engine. Like its ancestor, the new 328
sported twin-kidney grills and a straight-six
engine. It was also a darling of the automotive
press which delighted in the car’s communicative
steering, supple handling and power. Perhaps,
then, despite all of the changes over the years,
both the new and old 328 are not so different,
which serves as great testament to BMW’s
continued and consistent development of
performance automobiles from the beginning to
today.
2 David Haughter, “Living Legend”, Roundel Magazine,
August, 1999: 35. Klaus Schnitzer contributing.
3 Walton, Unbeatable BMW, 28.
4 Walton, Unbeatable BMW, 28, quoting Mick Walsh,
Classic & Sportscar, October, 1994.