BMW328

BMW 328 Mille Miglia Touring Coupe

One car, chassis 85368: a BMW 328 with a closed Superleggera body by Carrozzeria Touring of Milan, built for Le Mans in 1939, where it won its class, and winner of the 1940 Mille Miglia outright. BMW calls it the Touring Coupé, or the Mille Miglia Touring Coupé; the 1940 entry list called it the Berlinetta Touring.

A silver streamlined coupé with leather straps across its bonnet and a race number on its rear side window, passing straw bales on a narrow hill-climb road.
BMW's Touring coupé driven up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on 24 June 2016.Matthew Lamb, CC BY-SA 2.0

On 22 October 2002, at a press conference, an American collector handed BMW the car that had won the Mille Miglia for it 62 years before. BMW's release called the moment "the end of a 50-year odyssey". The car was a single BMW 328, chassis 85368, under a closed aluminium body that Carrozzeria Touring of Milan had built, body number 2312, for Le Mans in 1939. It finished 5th there and won the two-litre class; 10 months later Huschke von Hanstein and Walter Bäumer won the 1940 Mille Miglia outright in it. Then the war swallowed it, and by 1949 it was racing in the United States.⁠1​2​3​4

A silver BMW 328 racing coupé with a fastback roof seen nearly head-on in a museum, leather straps across its bonnet.
The Touring coupé head-on in the BMW Museum, Munich, on 28 June 2015, 13 years after its return.Anirban Das, CC BY-SA 4.0

Why BMW went to Touring

In 1938, BMW said later, its rivals showed at Le Mans and in the Mille Miglia that small-engined cars could go very fast in light, streamlined bodies, and that open cars were less efficient through the air than closed ones. BMW decided that year to build a hardtop racing car on the 328 roadster, but "initial testing did not exactly yield the desired success". Le Mans now allowed closed cars, a race on the autobahns from Berlin to Rome was being planned, and the Mille Miglia was ahead, so BMW's racing department turned to Touring. The Milanese coachbuilder, BMW's history says, had already done a similar job for Alfa Romeo, and "agreed without hesitation". Motor Sport saw both cars at Le Mans in June 1939: after the new Alfa Romeo's "beautiful streamlined saloon body, painted bright red", it added a line about the BMW.

Exactly the same type of body was used on Prince Schaumberg-Lippe's B.M.W.

Motor Sport, July 1939⁠5​1​6

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The Superleggera body

Touring's Superleggera system, "ultra-lightweight" in BMW's translation, hung thin aluminium panels on a frame of small tubes. BMW's release of 2002 describes the coupé's as "a filigree tubular space frame" under an outer skin of aluminium, and gives the specification's weight for the race-ready car. Motor Sport described the winner in 1940 as a closed car with its wheels enclosed; as the pictures on this page show, its rear wheels sit under spats and its front wheels are open. BMW gives it a drag coefficient of about 0.35, and its own Kamm coupé of 1940 about 0.25. Leather straps hold the bonnet (hood) down, and a chrome script on it, beside Touring's badge, names the system.⁠1​5​7

BMW Group Classic's close-up of the car, chassis 85368, in its collection.Video: CLOSEUP: BMW 328 Touring Coupé (enable subtitles and sound), BMW Group Classic, 2017
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 beside a leather strap on the Touring coupé's bonnet (hood), by the photographer's title, in the BMW Museum, Munich, on 28 June 2015.Anirban Das, CC BY-SA 4.0

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Engine and running gear

Under the bonnet is the 328's six, in race form. BMW's data sheet of 2002, which describes the car as it came back that year, lists three Solex carburettors bored out from their standard size, lighter valve gear, a crankshaft with nine counterweights and a raised compression ratio, with a Hurth four-speed gearbox (transmission) and Alfin drum brakes. BMW says the nine-counterweight crankshafts were made for the 1940 Mille Miglia engines.

Its output is disputed, by BMW as much as anyone: the release of 2002 gives two figures in its text and a third, the highest, in its data sheet, which BMW's sheet of 2011 repeats. The specification shows that figure, with Motor Sport's from its report of the 1940 race behind the asterisk.

The winning car had enclosed wheels and coupe top, and gave 130 b.h.p., or 65 b.h.p. per litre, at about 5,500 r.p.m.

Motor Sport, June 1940⁠1​8​5​7
The engine bay of a white BMW 328: a six-cylinder engine with three downdraught carburettors under mesh filters.
The engine of a white road-going BMW 328 at Tjolöholm Classic Motor, Sweden, on 19 May 2019: the same six with its three downdraught carburettors, not the coupé's race engine; the mesh filters are not original fittings.Herranderssvensson, CC BY-SA 3.0

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Le Mans, 17–18 June 1939

BMW sent three cars to Le Mans in 1939: the coupé, No. 26, for Prince Max zu Schaumburg-Lippe and Hans Wencher, and two roadsters, No. 27 for Ralph Roese and Paul Heinemann and No. 28 for Willi Briem and Scholtz. The coupé ran 236 laps, 3,188.45 km (about 1,981 miles) at 132.85 km/h (82.55 mph), and finished 5th overall and first in the two-litre class, with the roadsters 7th and 9th: the first three places in the class were BMW's. Only four cars finished ahead of it: Wimille and Veyron's winning Bugatti, a Delage and two V12 Lagondas. BMW's release of 2002 put it its own way: the coupé had "only conceded defeat to much larger racing cars".⁠2​6​1

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The 1940 Mille Miglia

BMW says the five cars it built or prepared for the 1940 race, this one among them, were driven in convoy across the Alps under their own power in March 1940, for practice in Italy, and that Mercedes-Benz's race manager, Alfred Neubauer, travelled to Italy to see what the competition had. "The winning B.M.W. was the last year's Le Mans car," Motor Sport told its readers. Von Hanstein and Bäumer, No. 70, won the 1940 Mille Miglia outright, nine laps of a road circuit from Brescia, with von Hanstein at the wheel until he stopped near the finish and let Bäumer drive it over the line, as BMW tells it. The race, its five BMWs and the Kamm coupé that, BMW says, might have fought it for the win are on the Mille Miglia page.⁠1​7​3​9

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The war, and after: Germany, Canada, the United States

The race was, BMW says, the 328's last public appearance of the war. BMW's racing department was disbanded early in 1941, and its director, Ernst Loof, and most of his staff were sent by the Luftwaffe to an aero-engine repair shop in Paris. BMW's two accounts of the coupé's war do not agree: in 2002 BMW wrote that all trace of it was lost while its other racing cars were hidden in Bavaria; by its 2010 account, the five Mille Miglia cars sat out the war together in a rural hideaway and survived it almost undamaged.

The rest is BMW's account of 2002. American officers confiscated the car after May 1945.

During one excursion the Mille Miglia Coupe went out of control and ended up in a ditch near Freising, where it was left abandoned.

BMW, "Return of a Legend", 22 October 2002

A former BMW engineer, by then managing the occupying forces' repair workshop, saved it, painted olive green as it now was, and in the end bought it from the authorities. He repaired it well enough for his friend, the racing driver Hermann Lang, to win the Ruhestein hill-climb with it in June 1946, which BMW calls Germany's first post-war car race. At the end of 1947 the engineer emigrated to Canada and took the coupé with him, and before long he sold it to an American racing driver and photographer from New York.

In America it was painted red and given large bumpers, and its owner drove it on the road and raced it. Racingsportscars' records follow it from the Watkins Glen Grand Prix of 17 September 1949 (27th) to Bridgehampton, where it was 4th in a sports-car race of up to three litres on 9 June 1951, and to Linden and Allentown, until 1952. After its owner's death in the mid-1950s it passed to his widow and stood, battered, for some 30 years in a rented garage in Wallingford, Connecticut. In the mid-1980s a Californian collector and restorer found it, bought it and spent years restoring and reconstructing it, and raced it again in historic events.⁠1​10​4

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Back to Munich, and the restorations

BMW Group Mobile Tradition, BMW's heritage department since 1994, negotiated with the collector for a long time and reached an agreement in the summer of 2002. In October, at the press conference and a drive that followed, the coupé was handed over. BMW's release said it "acquires" the car, after negotiating its return.

There's hardly another pre-war model that has defined the BMW brand to the same degree as this coupe.

Holger Lapp, head of BMW Group Mobile Tradition, 22 October 2002

BMW's releases name two restorations: the Californian's of the 1980s, and a second for the new BMW Museum by René Große, of Wusterwitz in Brandenburg, whom BMW named in 2010 for his "BMW 328 Touring Coupé and Mille Miglia Roadster restorations". BMW Classic was still driving it in 2016, at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.⁠1​10

The Touring coupé at the 2016 Festival of Speed, in BMW's centenary class.Video: This Mille Miglia Winning BMW 328 Is An Automotive Time Machine, Goodwood Road & Racing, 2016

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The Mille Miglia Storica

The modern Mille Miglia is a regularity event, and BMW enters its own cars. In 2004, by BMW's account, Giuliano Cané and his co-driver and wife, Lucia Galliani, won it in this coupé, which BMW calls "the first car to back up its success in the original Mille Miglia with glory in its historical reincarnation". In 2010 they won it in the coupé again, by BMW's account "without a single technical hitch".⁠5

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BMW's tribute: the Concept Coupé Mille Miglia (2006)

In May 2006 BMW showed a concept car at the start and finish in Brescia during that year's Mille Miglia, the Concept Coupé Mille Miglia 2006. Its "bodywork design is oriented on the BMW 328 Mille Miglia Touring Coupé", BMW said: a silver body of carbon fibre over modern running gear, with no doors. BMW built it as a concept car, and it is told with BMW's other heritage cars on the Hommage page.⁠11

BMW's silver 2006 Concept Coupé Mille Miglia, a concept car, spot-lit in a dark museum space.
BMW's 2006 Concept Coupé Mille Miglia, a concept car built as a tribute to the Touring coupé, in the BMW Museum, Munich, on 24 January 2009.Biser Todorov, CC BY 3.0

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Specification

Production

Sources for Production, Touring Coupé

Built
One good source.'Model year 1939'. BMW Classic (BMW Group PressClub Global), "BMW 328 Touring Coupé" (data sheet), 11 May 2011⁠8; 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 2002⁠1
Coachbuilders
Good sources agree.Superleggera; Touring body number 2312. 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 2002⁠1; racingsportscars.com, Le Mans 24 Hours 1939, results⁠2
Built at
One good source.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 2002⁠1
Built1,939
CoachbuildersCarrozzeria Touring (body)
Built atMilan (body)

Engine

Sources for Engine, Touring Coupé

Engine maker
One good source.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 2002⁠1
Capacity
One good source.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 2002⁠1
Engine position
One good source.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 2002⁠1
Bore × stroke
One good source.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 2002⁠1
Compression ratio
One good source.As the car was returned in 2002. 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 2002⁠1
Fuel system
One good source.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 2002⁠1
Carburettors
One good source.Three 30 JF, rebored to 32 mm. 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 2002⁠1
Cylinder layout
One good source.Six cylinders in line. 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 2002⁠1
Cylinders
One good source.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 2002⁠1
Fuel
One good source.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 2002⁠1
Engine makerBMW
Capacity1,971 cc
Engine positionFront
Bore × stroke66 x 96 mm
Compression ratio11.4:1
Fuel systemCarburetor
CarburettorsSolex
Cylinder layoutInline
Cylinders6
FuelPetrol

Performance

Sources for Performance, Touring Coupé

Power
Good sources disagree.BMW Classic (BMW Group PressClub Global), "BMW 328 Touring Coupé" (data sheet), 11 May 2011⁠8; 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 2002⁠1; Motor Sport, "The Brescia Grand Prix", Jun 1940, p. 18⁠7
Top speed
One good source.BMW Classic (BMW Group PressClub Global), "BMW 328 Touring Coupé" (data sheet), 11 May 2011⁠8; 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 2002⁠1
Power136 hp

Power, Touring Coupé

Good sources disagree.

  • 136 hpDisputed: BMW Classic (BMW Group PressClub Global), "BMW 328 Touring Coupé" (data sheet), 11 May 2011, at 6,000 rpm⁠8; 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, at 6,000 rpm⁠1
  • 130 bhpDisputed: Motor Sport, "The Brescia Grand Prix", Jun 1940, p. 18, at about 5,500 rpm, the 1940 race⁠7
Top speed220 km/h

Running gear

Sources for Running gear, Touring Coupé

Gearbox
One good source.Hurth, four speeds. 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 2002⁠1
Gears
One good source.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 2002⁠1
Layout
One good source.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 2002⁠1
Front brakes
One good source.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 2002⁠1
Rear brakes
One good source.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 2002⁠1
Tyres
One good source.As returned in 2002. 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 2002⁠1
GearboxManual
Gears4
LayoutRWD
Front brakesAlfin drum, 280 mm
Rear brakesAlfin drum, 280 mm
Tyres5.00 x 17 front, 5.50 x 17 rear

Body and chassis

Sources for Body and chassis, Touring Coupé

Body
One good source.BMW Classic (BMW Group PressClub Global), "BMW 328 Touring Coupé" (data sheet), 11 May 2011⁠8
Panels
One good source.A thin skin over small tubes. 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 2002⁠1
Seats
One good source.Driver and passenger, 1940. BMW Group (BMW Group PressClub Latin America and Caribbean), "80 years ago: victory of BMW at the Mille Miglia" (press release), 28 Apr 2020⁠9
BodyCoupe
PanelsAluminium
Seats2

Dimensions and weight

Sources for Dimensions and weight, Touring Coupé

Length
One good source.As returned in 2002. 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 2002⁠1
Width
One good source.As returned in 2002. 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 2002⁠1
Height
One good source.As returned in 2002. 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 2002⁠1
Kerb weight
One good source.'ready to drive'. BMW Classic (BMW Group PressClub Global), "BMW 328 Touring Coupé" (data sheet), 11 May 2011⁠8; 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 2002⁠1
Wheelbase
One good source.As returned in 2002. 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 2002⁠1
Fuel tank
One good source.As returned in 2002. 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 2002⁠1
Length3,990 mm
Width1,520 mm
Height1,320 mm
Kerb weight780 kg
Wheelbase2,400 mm
Fuel tank100 L

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Production

Production: how far the sources agree

1, chassis 85368
Good sources agree.

  1. 1chassis 85368

    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 2002⁠1; racingsportscars.com, "BMW 328 – All Results"⁠4

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Sources

Every source the site cites is on the sources page.

  • Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
  • Databaseresults and listings, entry by entry
  1. 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, the heading, the history and the data sheet: chassis 85368, Touring body number 2312; the history: closed cars at Le Mans; Touring's superleggera bodies; "Recipe" paragraph: the frame, the skin, body number 2312; the data sheet, and the history's outputs; the history: Le Mans 1939; the history: the convoy across the Alps, Neubauer; the history: 1941 to the mid-1980s; the heading, the negotiations, the handover and Holger Lapp's words; data sheet; 'Recipe' paragraph; text and data sheet. press.bmwgroup.com/usa/article/detail/T0022145EN_US Primary
  2. racingsportscars.com, Le Mans 24 Hours 1939, results, the results: No. 26, 5th, 1st S2.0; the results: Nos. 26, 27 and 28, and the leaders; results, No. 26. racingsportscars.com/results/Le_Mans-1939-06-18.html Database
  3. racingsportscars.com, Mille Miglia 1940, results, the results: No. 70, 1st; the results: No. 70. racingsportscars.com/results/Mille_Miglia-1940-04-28.html Database
  4. racingsportscars.com, "BMW 328 – All Results", pages 2–3, chassis 85368, 1939–52; pages 2–3, chassis 85368, 1949–52; index, pages 1-3. racingsportscars.com/type/results/BMW/328.html Database
  5. BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "The BMW 328 turns 75" (press kit), 11 May 2011, the Touring coupé and the Kamm coupé: the 1938 trials, the Berlin–Rome race, Touring and Alfa Romeo; the Kamm coupé: the two coupés' drag coefficients; "The 1940 Mille Miglia": the race engines' crankshafts; "The BMW 328 today": 2004 and 2010. press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0107839EN Primary
  6. Motor Sport, "Les 24 Heures du Mans", Jul 1939, p. 6, p. 6, the Alfa Romeo saloon and the BMW; p. 6, the BMWs and the class results. motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/july-1939/6/les-24-heures-du-mans Primary
  7. Motor Sport, "The Brescia Grand Prix", Jun 1940, p. 18, p. 18, the winning car's body; p. 18, the winning car's output; p. 18, "the last year's Le Mans car"; p. 18, the report. motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/june-1940/18/brescia-grand-prix Primary
  8. BMW Classic (BMW Group PressClub Global), "BMW 328 Touring Coupé" (data sheet), 11 May 2011, data sheet. press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0107839EN Primary
  9. BMW Group (BMW Group PressClub Latin America and Caribbean), "80 years ago: victory of BMW at the Mille Miglia" (press release), 28 Apr 2020, the driver change; the 1940 race. press.bmwgroup.com/latin-america-caribbean/article/detail/T0307595EN Primary
  10. BMW Group (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Back to the future: the BMW 328 Kamm Coupé" (press release), 23 Apr 2010, the five cars' wartime hideaway; "initially seized by the Americans"; René Große's restorations for the BMW Museum. press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0079675EN Primary
  11. BMW Group (BMW Group PressClub Belgium–Luxembourg), "The BMW Concept Coupé Mille Miglia 2006" (press kit), 11 May 2006, §1–2: the tribute, the body, the showing at Brescia. press.bmwgroup.com/belux/article/detail/T0027420FR Primary

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