BMW 328 Hommage

BMW's theme was lightness. Its release says the 328 was the first BMW built throughout on the principle of lightweight construction, and that the Hommage carried the idea into the present with carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) in place of the aluminium and magnesium of the 1930s. CFRP makes up large parts of the body and the whole of the interior structure, and it is left visible wherever it is used. Inside, almost the only other materials are saddle-tan leather and black aluminium, polished or matt. BMW's head of design, Adrian van Hooydonk, spoke for the car.

The details are the 1930s car's, redrawn. The Hommage has no doors, like the first 328 test cars, and four wide leather straps with aluminium buckles cross its bonnet (hood). The kidney grille stands tall and narrow, as on the early BMWs. Each round headlamp is split into four lit elements around a black cross, BMW's version of the tape cross used on headlamps in motor racing, and the two-part alloy wheels take up the hole pattern of the original rims. A large silver "75" sits on the driver's side. Inside, the only round instrument is the rev counter, which, as in the 328, shows besides engine speed only the oil temperature, oil pressure and water temperature. Two iPhones in holders shaped like stopwatches make up a "tripmaster", timing laps and working as GPS roadbooks, and there are four-point belts and the "bone", a cut-out for the electronics between the seats.

BMW's release names the engine only in passing, as "the powerful three-litre, six-cylinder engine" whose need for air the large front intakes display, and BMW of North America called it "BMW's most powerful inline six-cylinder engine"; GoAuto reported that BMW gave "little technical information". GoAuto also saw in the car's shape "an obvious reinterpretation and evolution" of the Vision ConnectedDrive, a BMW concept shown at Geneva earlier that year. Karl Baumer, whom the release names as CEO of BMW Group Classic, said BMW wished "to pay homage to the passion and inventiveness of the fathers of the BMW 328".⁠source 1​source 3​source 4

After Villa d'Este the Hommage crossed the Atlantic. In August 2011 BMW of North America gave it its North American debut at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion and the Pebble Beach Concours, as part of the 328's 75th year.

In May 2016 it went back to Lake Como. For BMW's centenary the company gathered all its Hommage vehicles in one place for the first time, in an exhibition called "Hommage and Concept Vehicles" at Villa Erba, each beside the older model that had inspired it. BMW's release lists eight, among them the MINI ACV 30 of 1997, the 3.0 CSL Hommage of 2015 and the 328 Hommage. "With our Hommage vehicles we're showing how proud we are of our roots," van Hooydonk said in the release.⁠source 3​source 2

Five years before the Hommage, BMW paid the same kind of tribute to the Touring coupé that won the 1940 Mille Miglia. Its press kit of 11 May 2006 presented the Concept Coupé Mille Miglia 2006 in Brescia, where that year's race started and finished, as a one-off made for the occasion.

BMW's designers modelled it in plaster. The whole body is CFRP, painted "fine silver". There are no doors, only fixed sidewalls, and the entire cockpit swings up to let the driver in. Inside are exactly three materials: extra-flat rolled stainless steel, folded in a way BMW says was inspired by paper folding, untreated cowhide left undyed to gather a patina, and Lycra. The running gear came from BMW's Z4 M Coupé.

Ten years later BMW counted it as the forerunner of its Hommage cars, built "in the days before the term 'Hommage vehicles' had been coined"; the first to carry the name was the M1 Hommage of 2008.⁠source 5​source 2

BMW's next tribute to the 328 brought back a car it no longer had. The Kamm coupé of 1940 was scrapped after an accident in the early 1950s, and in 2010 BMW Classic had it rebuilt from period photographs, in time to run at that year's Mille Miglia; BMW 328 Mille Miglia tells both cars' stories.⁠source 6​source 7

The 90th anniversary was kept at Villa d'Este too, this time with 328s themselves. BMW Group Classic, which organises the Concorso with the Grand Hotel Villa d'Este, announced in February 2026 that the 328 would be "the centre of attention" there, among several BMW anniversaries. At the Concorso of 15–17 May, held under the banner "Future needs Heritage", a 328 led both grand parades, outside Villa d'Este on the Saturday and in the park of Villa Erba on the Sunday. The jury gave its Best of Show, the Trofeo BMW Group, to the Bügelfalte, which raced as one of BMW's Mille Miglia roadsters in 1940 and which the release dates to 1937; the car, now with a private owner (Italy), also won its class, for cars of 1928–39.

In 2011 BMW had marked the 75th anniversary at the same Concorso with a new car made to look back at the 328. In 2026 the prize went to a 328. </content>⁠source 8​source 9​source 1