The BMW 328 will be featured at the 2015 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, scheduled for March 12-15 at the Golf Club of Amelia Island in Florida. The 20th annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance will showcase the legend and legacy of the car that set BMW on its path to become known as the “ultimate driving machine.”
Eight decades ago BMW responded to a national call that Germany should build not only the world’s fastest and greatest pure racing cars, but the world’s best sports cars as well. While Mercedes-Benz and Auto-Union carried Germany’s racing colors on the grand prix circuit, BMW became Germany’s primary flag carrier in international sports car competition.
The BMW 328 struck just the right balance with elegant and aerodynamic styling, impeccable road manners plus advanced and inspired engineering. Even BMW’s signature nieren split grill that survives to this day as a BMW styling hallmark remains an important component of the 328 design package. So was real world open road performance.
“The 328 is the car that set BMW on its current course,” said Bill Warner, Founder and Chairman of the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. “The poise, speed and stamina of the 328 and its descendants are the roots of BMW’s reputation and give genuine credibility to BMW’s ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’ label.”
Competition was at the heart of the 328’s genesis. It debuted on the 14-mile Nurburgring’s 154-turn Nordschleife, winning the sports car class of the 1936 Eifel Race. That first BMW 328 prototype not only won the two-liter class (without supercharging), but also achieved the best time of all sports cars. The BMW 328 then won the Belgian Grand Prix des Frontieres in Chimay and the Bucharest Grand Prix.
“The star of the BMW 328 class for our 20th anniversary is the unique 328 Buegelfalte (‘trouser crease,’ for the razor edge fender styling) roadster,” said Warner, “It finished sixth in the 1940 Mille Miglia and is the only 328 special roadster built at the BMW factory. We’re honored to have it on the field for our 20th anniversary concours.”
The Amelia Island Concours 2015 will be held March 13-15th on the 10th and 18th fairways of The Golf Club of Amelia Island at the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island. The show’s Foundation has donated over $2.5 million to Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, Inc. and other charities on Florida’s First Coast since its inception in 1996. In 2013 the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance won Octane Magazine’s EFG International Historic Motoring Event of the Year award.
[Source: Amelia Island Concours]
