BMW Group Classic turns the spotlight on motor sport legends spanning nine decades.

Munich. It’s a weekend for winners. At three major overlapping events, BMW Group Classic is currently reviving memories of legendary motor sport triumphs recorded by BMW motorcycles and cars. For 90 years now, the BMW brand has regularly left its stamp on the winners’ lists of major competitions on the track. The various chapters of this extraordinary success story are being brought back to life once again at the Le Mans Classic historic race meeting, the Silvretta Classic Alpine rally and the BMW Motorrad Days in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. 

Making a particularly spectacular appearance is the BMW V12 LMR, which celebrates a comeback on the Le Mans Circuit des 24 Heures. The twelve-cylinder sports machine is piloted by Frenchman Yannick Dalmas of the BMW works team that won the Le Mans 24 Hours in this car 15 years ago. Lining up at the start of this year’s Silvretta Classic, meanwhile, are the BMW 319/1 and BMW 328 with which the company garnered its first successes in car racing back in the 1930s. But the beginnings of BMW’s run of motor sport successes – now covering nine decades – go back to two wheels. In 1924 Franz Bieber took the first German Championship title on a BMW R 37, a historic model that numbers among the highlights of the vehicle display mounted by BMW Group Classic at the BMW Motorrad Days.

Le Mans Classic 2014: legendary sports cars revisited, “taxi rides” in the BMW M3 and BMW M4.

It was 15 years ago that BMW claimed its first win in the Le Mans 24 Hours in France. That same place now witnesses a reunion of the winning car – the BMW V12 LMR – and Yannick Dalmas, who with Joachim Winkelhock (DE) and Pierluigi Martini (IT) had wrapped up victory over 366 laps of 13.6 kilometres.

At the historic motor sport event on what is now also known as the Circuit de la Sarthe, he once again takes the wheel of the sports car with start number 15 and the 580 hp twelve-cylinder engine that dominated the 1999 event with its impressive reliability and unassailable speed. Dalmas had already achieved overall victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours four years earlier. Driving the McLaren F1 GTR – likewise powered by a BMW twelve-cylinder unit – he managed to capture victory in Le Mans in 1995 on the debut race outing with a newly-developed car. The McLaren F1 GTR, with German endurance and touring car racer Jörg Müller behind the wheel, also sees action in the demonstration drives at Le Mans. Steering a first-generation BMW M3 – which caused a sensation in 1990 as a Group A touring car after being rebored to 2.5 litres – is one of Germany’s most successful race drivers: Prince Leopold of Bavaria, a seasoned competitor with more than 120 wins in touring car, sports car and vintage car races under his belt and now a BMW brand ambassador. And another anniversary demands to be commemorated: it was 75 years ago that BMW managed to gain its very first class win in the Le Mans 24-Hour Race. Now the BMW 328 Touring Coupé Le Mans returns to the site of its former triumph. 

The historic Le Mans Classic race meeting marks its seventh edition this year. Racing cars embracing nine decades bring the sporting flair of their various eras back to life. Other icons of racing history go on show to the public in the infield of the tradition-swathed track. In the intervals between races, visitors also have an opportunity to take a spectacular “taxi ride” on the endurance circuit, with BMW France providing the latest high-performance sports cars from BMW M GmbH for the purpose – the BMW M3 and the BMW M4. 

Silvretta Classic 2014: winners of the past, sports cars of the future.   

Looking back at the early triumphs by BMW vehicles is also the focus of BMW Group Classic’s presence at the Silvretta Classic 2014. Among the cars registered for this reliability and regularity rally across Alpine roads in Austria’s Vorarlberg – hosted by Motor Presse Stuttgart – are a BMW 319/1 and a BMW 328. It was with the BMW 319/1, built 80 years ago, that the Munich carmaker first coined the principle of lightweight construction as a recipe for success in motor sport. Thanks to its low and perfectly balanced weight, this model – powered by a 55 hp six-in-line engine – achieved an impressive run of victories that prompted the company to further intensify its motor sport involvement. The initial upshot of these efforts was the BMW 328, whose successes ultimately culminated in overall victory in the 1940 Mille Miglia. Beyond this, BMW Group Classic has nominated a BMW 507 for the three-day vintage rally. The roadster ranks to this day as a byword for aesthetic automotive design of the post-war era. The model registered for the Silvretta Classic 2014 was built 55 years ago.

In parallel with the vintage Alpine event, this year also sees the return of the Silvretta E-Car Rally. Participating in this competition for alternative-drive vehicles are both the all-electric BMW i3 and the forward-looking BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports car. This fifth edition of the Silvretta E-Car Rally likewise leads through Alpine territory in three stages, serving as a serious litmus test for efficient energy management.

BMW Motorrad Days 2014: looking back on 90 successful years of motor sport.

The triumphs in the Eifelrennen, the Ruselbergrennen and on the Solitude track that propelled the BMW R 37 to the title in the first German Championship in 1924 were only the beginning. The latest highlight in this longstanding winning streak is the hat-trick secured by Michael Dunlop (NI), who won the Superbike and Superstock events as well as the Senior TT on the Isle of Man this year, astride a BMW S 1000 RR.

As part of the BMW Motorrad Days in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, BMW Group Classic will be documenting the entire spectrum of racing victories gleaned over 90 years by BMW motorcycles. A line-up of 13 icons of BMW racing history will be on display at the biggest motorbike party of the year, illustrating a journey through time from the BMW R 37 and the BMW RS 54, whose engine generated 21 world championship titles in sidecar competitions, through to the winning bikes in the Paris-Dakar Rally – the BMW R 80 G/S and BMW F 650, all the way to the BMW S 1000 RR. 

Once again thousands of two-wheeled aficionados from Germany and around the world have converged on the Alpine venue, many of them enthusiastic owners of a BMW motorcycle and, as such, ambassadors of the brand’s living history. Over the three days of the event they have the opportunity to talk shop with experts from the BMW Group Archive and the Classic Parts Shop of BMW Group Classic. The international nature of this gathering of the BMW Motorrad family is further underlined by the attendance of official BMW Clubs from all over the world. For David de Bruyn of South Africa, the new president of the umbrella organisation, the BMW Clubs International Council, the event in Garmisch is a highlight of the year which he, as a passionate biker, would not miss on any account. In all, 13 presidents of national umbrella organisations, as well as many other club members from Europe, America and Asia, are attending the BMW Motorrad Days 2014.