BMW328

BMW 328 Versions

BMW built the 328 from 1936 to 1940 as an open two-seater, and most of the cars left Eisenach with the standard roadster body. Around it grew the works racing cars of the Mille Miglia, Touring's coupé, the British Frazer Nash-BMW, a handful of coachbuilt coupés and the cars that shared its parts.

An ivory BMW 328 roadster with crazed paint seen square-on, its two tall narrow grilles between headlamps set into the wings, in front of a mural of a period race and a white picket fence.
The Simeone museum's unrestored 1937 roadster, head-on, in Philadelphia on 23 July 2020.Al R, CC BY-SA 2.0

BMW built the 328 as one car, an open two-seater, and gave most of them the same body. BMW's archive record lists the standard roadster as the factory's own, and the coachbuilders' cabriolets and Wendler's closed cars as special models. The works team added racing bodies of its own, and in Britain the car was sold under another name. The line-up gives the four versions in order, with their dates and engines.⁠1​2

The versions

The BMW 328 Roadster is the production car, built at Eisenach from the spring of 1937 on a development of the 319's tubular frame, with the cylinder block of the 326 saloon (sedan) under Rudolf Schleicher's aluminium head.

BMW 328 Mille Miglia covers the works cars in Italy's thousand-mile race. In 1938 four 328s took the first four places in the two-litre class; in 1940, when it was run as the Gran Premio Brescia on a circuit of closed roads, streamlined roadsters and the Kamm coupé ran beside the Touring coupé, and BMWs finished first, third, fifth and sixth.

The BMW 328 Mille Miglia Touring Coupe is the coupé Carrozzeria Touring of Milan built on a 328 chassis in 1939. It finished fifth overall and first in the two-litre class at Le Mans that June, and won the 1940 Mille Miglia outright.

The Frazer Nash-BMW 328 is the 328 in Britain, imported by AFN Ltd of Isleworth from 1937 to 1939 and sold under the Frazer Nash-BMW name.

BMW's own tributes came later. The BMW 328 Hommage is a concept car of 2011, made for the 328's 75th anniversary.⁠1​3​4​5​6​7​8​9​10

The BMW 328 Hommage concept car from the right front in an exhibition tent, its X-lit headlamp and tan bonnet straps glowing.
BMW's 328 Hommage, a concept car of 2011, on show in Paris on 26 January 2012.Thesupermat, CC BY-SA 3.0

BMW 328 coupés

Every closed 328 was a special. BMW's archive record gives the roadster as the factory's only body and lists the coachbuilt cars as "Sondermodelle", special models; the other closed cars were BMW's own racers.

The best known is the coupé Touring built on a 328 chassis in 1939, which first raced at Le Mans that June; it has its own page. BMW's own streamlined coupé was the Kamm coupé: its body, BMW says, was made in Munich in the new "Künstlerische Gestaltung" department under Wilhelm Meyerhuber and shaped to Wunibald Kamm's wind-tunnel findings. It raced in the 1940 Mille Miglia and was scrapped after an accident in the early 1950s; the car shown since 2010 is BMW Classic's reconstruction, and BMW 328 Mille Miglia tells both stories.

The coachbuilders made a few more. Wendler of Reutlingen built sports cabriolets that the archive lists "auch mit Hardtop", with a hardtop as well, and two 328s with closed, streamlined bodies, whose photographs in the archive credit the design to Koenig-Fachsenfeld. In London in October 1936 AFN showed a two-colour coupé by Bertelli on the 328, Motor Sport reported. Another coupé is in Athens: according to the Hellenic Motor Museum's account, its bare-aluminium coupé was built by Carrozzeria Motto of Turin on a shortened 327/28 chassis, and the museum later moved the body onto a 328's.⁠1​8​10​11​12​13

Close view of a silver bonnet with a chrome 'Superleggera' script and Touring badge, a leather strap and louvres.
Touring's "Superleggera" script and badge on the bonnet of the Touring coupé, by the photographer's title, at the BMW Museum, Munich, on 28 June 2015.Anirban Das, CC BY-SA 4.0
A silver streamlined BMW coupé on a museum plinth behind a steel rail, seen from the front left, with full-width front wings, twin kidney grilles and a long fastback roof.
BMW Classic's 2010 reconstruction of the Kamm coupé in the BMW Museum, Munich, on 16 August 2014; the 1940 car was scrapped in the early 1950s.Jiří Sedláček, CC BY-SA 4.0
A bare-aluminium closed coupé body on a BMW 328 base in a museum, with BMW kidney grilles and leather bonnet straps.
The Hellenic Motor Museum's bare-aluminium coupé on a 328 base, in Athens.Joyofmuseums, CC BY-SA 4.0

Relatives

The 328's forerunners were BMW's first sports roadsters, the 315/1 and the 319/1 of 1934–36, and it was developed on the 319/1, keeping and improving its tubular frame and suspension. Its engine block came from the 326 saloon of 1936, given Schleicher's new head.

The 327 coupé and cabriolet could also have the 328's engine. That car is known as the 327/28; Jonathan Wood calls it the 327/80, and in Britain in 1939 AFN offered the 327 with the 328's three-carburettor engine. The engine page gives the counts in print and follows the six into the Bristol cars.

After the war small German firms, Veritas and AFM among them, gave many 328s a second racing life, as Jenkinson wrote in 1988. Franco Sbarro's replica came much later: according to an enthusiast's history of his cars, it was shown at Geneva in 1974, with a polyester body on a tubular frame and BMW engines; the buyers guide tells it from a 328.⁠14​3​10​15​16​17​18

A black BMW 327/28 coupé with a red side line on a museum turntable beside a plinth reading 1938 BMW 327/28.
A BMW 327/28 coupé, the 327 with the 328's engine, on the BMW Museum's turntable in Munich on 16 August 2014.Jiří Sedláček, CC BY-SA 4.0
A silver streamlined Werkmeister racing car on a gravel drive under trees, with an information board at its nose.
A Grosser Werkmeister of 1952, a post-war East German special built on 328 parts, at the Classic-Gala in Schwetzingen on 2 September 2022.Alexander Migl, CC BY-SA 4.0

Versions

Sources for Versions

Roadster
1,971 cc: BMW Group Archive (BMW Group Classic), Type record "Baumuster BMW 328" (AD-122-1)⁠1; Motor Sport, "A Guide to 1938 High Performance Cars", Oct 1937, p. 19⁠19
Mille Miglia Roadster
3 built: BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "The BMW 328 turns 75" (press kit), 11 May 2011⁠10; racingsportscars.com, "BMW 328 – All Results"⁠20
Touring Coupé
1,971 cc: BMW Group (BMW Group PressClub USA), "Return of a Legend: BMW Group Mobile Tradition acquires the BMW 328 Coupé Touring – Winner of the 1940 Mille Miglia" (media information), 22 Oct 2002⁠21
1 built: BMW Group (BMW Group PressClub USA), "Return of a Legend: BMW Group Mobile Tradition acquires the BMW 328 Coupé Touring – Winner of the 1940 Mille Miglia" (media information), 22 Oct 2002⁠21; racingsportscars.com, "BMW 328 – All Results"⁠20
Frazer Nash-BMW 328
1,971 cc: Motor Sport, "A Guide to 1938 High Performance Cars", Oct 1937, p. 19⁠19
48 built: The Frazer Nash Archives, "Frazer Nash-BMW"⁠9
52 built: BMW Historic Motor Club, "Specifications: BMW 328"⁠22

  1. Roadster

    1936–1940 · 1,971 cc

  2. Mille Miglia Roadster

    1939–1940

    3 built

  3. Touring Coupé

    1939–1939 · 1,971 cc

    1 built

  4. Frazer Nash-BMW 328

    1937–1939 · 1,971 cc

    48 built · 52

Pictures, top to bottom: Alf van Beem, Public domain (PD-self); Jiří Sedláček, CC BY-SA 4.0; Matthew Lamb, CC BY-SA 2.0; Steve Knight, CC BY 4.0.

Sources

Every source the site cites is on the sources page.

  • Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
  • Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
  • Databaseresults and listings, entry by entry
  • Uncheckedencyclopaedias and enthusiast sites: cited beside a good source, named in the sentence, or marked Unchecked
  1. BMW Group Archive (BMW Group Classic), Type record "Baumuster BMW 328" (AD-122-1), type record: "Bauzeit" and the body variants; type record, description: series production from spring 1937; type record, "Sondermodelle"; the photograph titles of the Wendler cars; technical data: "Hubraum". bmw-grouparchiv.de/research/detail/index.xhtml?id=3837210 Primary
  2. BMW Classic (BMW Group PressClub Global), "BMW 328" (data sheet), 11 May 2011, "History": the standard roadster bodies. press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0107839EN Primary
  3. Denis Jenkinson ("D.S.J."), "BMW type 328: fifty years ago", Motor Sport, Jun 1986, p. 40, p. 40, the 319 chassis and the 326 block; p. 40, the 319 as the basis. motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/june-1986/40/bmw-type-328-fifty-years-ago Reference
  4. racingsportscars.com, Mille Miglia 1938, results, the two-litre class. racingsportscars.com/results/Mille_Miglia-1938-04-03.html Database
  5. racingsportscars.com, Mille Miglia 1940, results, the BMW finishers. racingsportscars.com/results/Mille_Miglia-1940-04-28.html Database
  6. Motor Sport, "The Brescia Grand Prix", Jun 1940, p. 18, p. 18, the circuit. motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/june-1940/18/brescia-grand-prix Primary
  7. racingsportscars.com, Le Mans 24 Hours 1939, results, No. 26, fifth overall and first in the two-litre class. racingsportscars.com/results/Le_Mans-1939-06-18.html Database
  8. BMW Classic (BMW Group PressClub Global), "BMW 328 Touring Coupé" (data sheet), 11 May 2011, the Touring coupé; the Touring coupé's body and first race. press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0107839EN Primary
  9. The Frazer Nash Archives, "Frazer Nash-BMW", the 328 Sports: imported 1937–39; Frazer Nash-BMW 328 Sports panel. frazernasharchives.co.uk/index.php?idPage=35 Reference
  10. BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "The BMW 328 turns 75" (press kit), 11 May 2011, the 75th anniversary and the Hommage; "The BMW 328 Kamm Coupé": its body and shape; the drivetrain: the 326's engine; the 1940 Mille Miglia. press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0107839EN Primary
  11. BMW Group (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Back to the future: the BMW 328 Kamm Coupé" (press release), 23 Apr 2010, the loss of the car and the 2010 reconstruction. press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0079675EN Primary
  12. Motor Sport, "On the Earl's Court Show", Nov 1936, p. 23, p. 23, the Bertelli coupé. motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/november-1936/23/on-the-earls-court-show-2 Primary
  13. Historic Automotive Promotion, "1939 BMW 328 Coupe by CA.MO.", the Hellenic Motor Museum's account of the body. historicautopro.com/1939-bmw-328-coupe-by-camo Unchecked
  14. BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "75 years of the BMW Roadster. The BMW 315/1 and its Successors" (press release), 28 May 2009, the 315/1 and the 319/1. press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0022475EN Primary
  15. Jonathan Wood, "Bristol 400", Bristol Owners Heritage Trust, 10 Jun 2020, the 327/80. bristolownersht.com/2020/06/10/bristol-400-by-jonathan-wood Reference
  16. Motor Sport, "New Models", May 1939, p. 24, p. 24, the 327 with the three-carburettor engine. motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/may-1939/24/new-models-2 Primary
  17. Denis Jenkinson ("D.S.J."), "Frazer Nash-BMW type 328" ("In resurgam"), Motor Sport, Feb 1988, p. 40, p. 40, the German tuners after the war. motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/february-1988/40/in-resurgram Reference
  18. sbarro.phcalvet.fr (an enthusiast's Sbarro site), "Sbarro 328 Replica", the replica and its debut at Geneva. sbarro.phcalvet.fr/voitures/BMW328/328gb.html Unchecked
  19. Motor Sport, "A Guide to 1938 High Performance Cars", Oct 1937, p. 19, p. 19, Type 328 entry. motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/october-1937/19/a-guide-to-1938-high-performance-cars Primary
  20. racingsportscars.com, "BMW 328 – All Results", index, page 2 (1940); index, pages 1-3. racingsportscars.com/type/results/BMW/328.html Database
  21. BMW Group (BMW Group PressClub USA), "Return of a Legend: BMW Group Mobile Tradition acquires the BMW 328 Coupé Touring – Winner of the 1940 Mille Miglia" (media information), 22 Oct 2002, data sheet; text and data sheet. press.bmwgroup.com/usa/article/detail/T0022145EN_US Primary
  22. BMW Historic Motor Club, "Specifications: BMW 328", factsheet: "Number produced". bmwhistoricmotorclub.co.uk/cars/bmw-328 Reference