BMW 328 Buyers Guide

A BMW 328 is the type BMW's archive records as built from 1936 to 1940: three prototypes in 1936, then the series cars built at Eisenach, in Thuringia, from the spring of 1937. It has Fritz Fiedler's frame of two steel tubes, and a six-cylinder engine with the cylinder block of BMW's 326 saloon (sedan), Rudolf Schleicher's aluminium head and three downdraught Solex carburettors. Most had BMW's standard body, the production roadster; BMW 328 Versions sets out the other bodies. The right-hand-drive cars sold in Britain under the Frazer Nash-BMW name are 328s too.

BMW's own description of the series car, written in 2011, gives details a buyer can check: doors with no handles outside, a speedometer and rev counter of equal size, a lidded glove box, a vee windscreen (windshield) in two halves with a wiper on each, Kronprinz centre-lock disc wheels, a recess in the tail for the spare wheel, and two leather straps across the bonnet (hood). The Simeone Foundation in Philadelphia, which shows its 1937 roadster unrestored, names among the rare originals on it the rear-wheel spats, the hand-worked shutters in front of the radiator, the direction indicators and the carpets.⁠source 2​source 3​source 4​source 5​source 6​source 7

How many 328s were built is in the specifications, with BMW's figure first and the others in print beside it. How many survive has only been estimated, and the roadster page gives BMW's two answers. The Frazer Nash Archives count the British cars: all but two of those AFN imported still exist.

The chassis numbers began with 85001, the prototype in which Ernst Henne won at the Nürburgring on 14 June 1936; Denis Jenkinson's account of the numbering is on the roadster page too. Racingsportscars' results record the numbers of many of the cars that raced, and the works cars are on the notable cars page.

BMW keeps records of its own. Since early 2024 the BMW Group's archive has issued a digital birth certificate with what it calls detailed information on the car. Its order form asks for the car's type and its chassis, engine and gearbox numbers, wants proof of ownership, and says that what the certificate can hold depends on the model and the car's age. The Simeone museum gives its car's delivery date and first destination from BMW's factory archives. BMW's regional Classic Partners also make vehicle appraisals, BMW says. A car's numbers are worth setting against what the archive holds.⁠source 6​source 3​source 8​source 9​source 7

The 328 had gearboxes of two makes. BMW's archive record lists a ZF box with a 3.88 to 1 final drive and a Hurth box with 3.70; the Simeone museum, describing its own ZF-equipped car, puts the change to Hurth at chassis 85281, when a heavier rear axle came in. The BMW Historic Motor Club's factsheet gives the two sets of ratios the other way round, but the Simeone car and Motor Sport's British listings fit BMW's. The club's technical adviser describes the 328's Hurth box as a little longer than the box of the earlier BMWs, with a centre bearing and a detachable bellhousing.

BMW explained in 2013 why it had the box made again.

So a 328 may have another maker's gearbox, an original box modified over the years, or BMW's copy of 2013, which BMW says has better materials and a stronger bearing for second gear.⁠source 2​source 7​source 10​source 11​source 12​source 13​source 1

The British cars are 328s with right-hand drive, which AFN Ltd brought in from 1937 to 1939 and badged as Frazer Nash-BMWs; Frazer Nash-BMW 328 has their history. The car in the picture, a BMW of a type before the 328, wears the same Frazer Nash-BMW badge, so the badge tells a buyer the importer, not the type. The Frazer Nash Archives count the cars AFN imported and the BMW Historic Motor Club the 328s built with right-hand drive; that page sets the two counts side by side.

Jenkinson, in 1986, said where to look.

The 328's engine also went into the 327 coupé and cabriolet, a car of its own known as the 327/28, which AFN sold in Britain too in 1939; BMW 328 Engine tells its story and gives its counts in print. The engine was itself built on the 326 saloon's cylinder block. So a 328 is told by its chassis, the chassis number and BMW's record of it, more than by the engine alone. The history tells what Eisenach built after the war.⁠source 14​source 4

Some 328s became Veritas cars: Ernst Loof's firm, formed in 1947, often started from a used 328, the BMW Historic Motor Club says, and BMW 328 Engine follows the German specials. The club, founded in 2006, counts Veritas and AFM cars among those it exists to preserve, beside the Frazer Nash-BMWs and EMWs.

New bodies are made as well. Thornley Kelham, restorers in Gloucestershire, describe finishing a roadster that reached them as an unrestored rolling chassis, "although with mostly new body frame and panels"; they mounted the body with insulating material between it and the chassis.⁠source 15​source 13​source 16

By the account of an enthusiast's history of Franco Sbarro's cars, his replica of the 328 was shown at the Geneva motor show in 1974 and made for about 10 years, about 100 of them, 20 for the United States. The site describes a different car under a similar shape: a polyester body over a large-section tubular frame, about 20 cm (8 in) shorter than a 328 on the same wheelbase and width, BMW suspension, disc brakes at the front and BMW engines of the 1970s, four-cylinders from the 1602 to the 2002 ti or a six from the 5 Series. It lists an America version, longer and wider, with the six of the 525, and a Spéciale with wide wings (fenders). A 328 has drum brakes, hydraulically worked, at every wheel, and its own six with three downdraught carburettors.

BMW Classic made a replica of its own in 2010, a reconstruction of the lost Kamm coupé, for its collection; BMW 328 Mille Miglia tells its story.⁠source 17​source 2​source 18

For the Mille Miglia of today a car needs the Registro 1000 Miglia's certificate. The organisers' entry notice for 2026 set the rule: "To apply for entry, cars must be in possession of the Registro 1000 Miglia certificate (or have applied for it at the time of entry; even in this case, admission is subject to obtaining the certificate)." The Registro catalogues and certifies the main cars of the 24 speed races of 1927 to 1957 and issues three certificates: Participant, for cars that ran in one; Eligible Car, for cars "whose models took part"; and a Guest List for other cars of the kinds that raced, built before the end of 1957. Of the races before 1947, 328s ran in those of 1938 and 1940.

The Registro in turn asks for a FIVA Identity Card "certifying their originality", under an agreement the organisers renewed with FIVA in 2023. FIVA issues the card through the national authority of the country where the car is registered, after a physical inspection against its Technical Code. A card lasts at most 10 years, and a new one is needed when the car changes hands or its specification changes. FIVA adds a caution of its own.

When BMW's copy of the Hurth box was made, the FIA and FIVA confirmed its authenticity, which BMW said mattered especially for entry to official events.⁠source 19​source 8​source 20​source 21​source 22​source 1

The 328's Hurth box locates the ball at the foot of the gear lever with two pegs from new, the BMW Historic Motor Club's technical adviser writes; on the earlier boxes, which have one, the peg wears until the change grows imprecise, and he describes a second peg as the cure. The chassis is lubricated by a one-shot system worked by the foot, and when Thornley Kelham finished its roadster it re-routed brake and chassis lubrication lines to their correct places. The car in the picture has mesh air filters that are not original.

Even a car kept as found has had work. The Simeone museum's roadster had a mechanical overhaul in 2002, the museum says, and an instrument now sits where its dashboard cigarette lighter was.⁠source 13​source 10​source 16​source 2​source 7

In October 2026 these were among the organisations whose own pages offered 328 owners records, parts or work. BMW Group Classic in Munich offers the BMW Group archive's birth certificates, sells parts through the BMW Classic Center (some 40,000 parts for classic BMWs in 2013, the remade 328 gearbox among them), and runs a workshop for maintenance, repair and restoration, with certified regional Classic Partners for servicing and standard repairs. The BMW Historic Motor Club in Britain covers the 328 and the Frazer Nash-BMW, and is recognised by BMW, by its own account, through its membership of the International Council of BMW Clubs. The Frazer Nash Archives keep the history of the Frazer Nash marque, the British 328s with it.

Among restorers, Thornley Kelham's pages describe the roadster told of above.⁠source 9​source 1​source 13​source 6​source 16