19th November 2015 5:00pm EST
The Birth of the BMW Sporting Juggernaut
BMW introduced the 327 Cabriolet in the turbulent, pre-war year of 1937. An innovation in many ways, it featured a very attractive lightweight body by Autenrieth of Darmstadt which concealed an inline six-cylinder 1971cc. engine, four-speed transmission, and independent front suspension. The aesthetic and technical specifications of the BMW 327 confirm its status as a highly-advanced automotive creation of the 1930s. Its design would later define and pave the way for the best of post-war automotive development - elegance and agile performance combined with streamlined efficiency.
This BMW 327 was completed in May of 1939 and delivered on May 19 to BMW dealer, Zipperer in Offenburg, Germany. The exterior was black with ivory side panels. The Cabriolet soft top was tan and the interior was beige leather.
At this writing, this car’s ownership history is largely unknown from 1939 up until the time of its purchase by the current owner in 1970. Over its lifetime however, it has survived, remarkably, with minimal changes to its original specifications. The original ivory-colored side panels have been painted over in black. The original top shows wear, as does the original beige leather interior. The left door latch does not work properly.
Currently this car is not in running condition. However a thorough inspection shows that for the most part, the car is complete and correct. The odometer shows 28,890 kilometers.
“A sportier alternative. It possessed uncommon grace (and) beauty.”
The Munich firm of BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke) was founded in 1916 and initially designed and built aircraft engines. In 1928, the company purchased an automobile manufacturer named Dixi Werke, located in Eisenach, Germany. This acquisition formed the basis of BMW car production, which grew in the 1930s to include both sporting and touring versions.
1936 was a very important year for BMW. At the Nurburgring they introduced a new race car, the brilliant 328 roadster, and at the Berlin Auto Show, they introduced the 326, the company’s first four-door luxury sedan. It was this BMW 326 that the company used in its development of a new sports cabriolet introduced in 1937, the BMW 327. The 327 used a shortened version of the box-section ladder frame of the 326, with bodies made by Autenrieth of Darmstadt and shipped to Eisenach for final assembly of the car.
The BMW 327 boasted a robust, overhead-valve engine, with twin side-draft Solex carburetors, that delivered 55 horsepower in its original form. It utilized a four-speed transmission, independent front suspension, rack and pinion steering, hydraulic brakes, and a central chassis lubrication system. With just a 2,400-pound curb weight, the car handled like a true sports car, lightly and crisply, with a top speed of 80 mph in its first iteration.
A total of 1,965 pre-war 327s was produced by the BMW factory in Eisenach in several variations. After the war, the Eisenach factory fell into the Russian Zone of East Germany. Car production eventually resumed in Eisenach under the direction of the original BMW employees, now citizens of the German Democratic Republic. The 327 was one of the models put back into limited production, which ended in 1955 after five hundred and five additional 327s had been produced under the slightly-revised company name of EMW.
In England after the war, the highly-regarded Bristol Aircraft Company decided to embark on automobile production. At first, Bristol built an engine that was a slightly uprated version of the pre-war BMW six-cylinder engine, the 80-horsepower version from the 328 Roadster. They then set about building their own Bristol automobile which was based heavily on the BMW 327. This product of England became a very successful, high-end, luxury touring automobile, further reinforcing the position of the original BMW 327 as a brilliant design.
“It is refreshing and unusual to encounter a car specifically designed to cruise at 80 mph. A remarkable car is this Type 327 from the point of view of fast touring.”
During the seventy-six-year lifetime of our subject BMW 327 Cabriolet, this historically-important automobile has, incredibly, remained relatively original and complete, an extremely rare occurrence in the old car world today. But it seems quite within reason, considering that this BMW 327 has been the property of a single owner for the past forty-five years, and has been in storage for the past thirty of those years.
The new owner will have multiple important decisions to make about the care and feeding of this automobile. As a discriminating and informed collector, the new owner will want to think about the intended use for this beauty. Whatever the final decision, this 1939 BMW Sport Cabriolet is sure to be appreciated by its new owner, as well as by enthusiasts the world over.
“An elegant, sporty and reliable automobile. The first choice for a pre-war rally.”
It is an exciting and rare moment when an important and long-lost automobile re-emerges from decades in hiding. The BMW 327 Sport Cabriolet is one of the rarest and most iconic BMWs of all time, the epitome of 1930’s Grand Touring. The automobile offered here presents an outstanding opportunity for a connoisseur of vintage BMWs to own a mostly original and complete, numbers- matching example of one of the most important, respected, and desirable BMWs ever to leave the factory gate.
- John Kleen, Vintage Sports Car Specialist