EMW

EMW – An Eastern Story

Avatar photoSportsCarDigest Staff

In 1955 Denis Jenkinson wrote of the EMW sports racers: “By comparison, the well-known 300 SLR Mercedes-Benz sports cars have a poor air-flow over the bodywork with their numerous louvers, scoops and bulges.” Praise indeed!

The prototype BMW 340-1 Sportswagen was produced in 1949 and intended for series production. For a variety of reasons it remained a one-off but was raced in 1952 and then became the personal property of Paul Thiel, who is seen here at the wheel.

The EMW R3 was probably the most aerodynamically efficient 1.5-liter sports racer of its day and the most powerful. One set speed records at 156 mph, but it has remained largely unknown because it was East German. The team was due to race in Britain in 1955, but to get there they would have had to cross France…and the French would not let them.

Main Topic Hubs

Join The Community

Become A Member

 

Members only$29 / year

Keep going. This is where it gets good.

Supercars.net Membership is for people who'd rather know the spec sheet by heart than skim ten headlines. The rest of this story — and every other one like it — is a few seconds away.

  • Thousands of members-only stories

    Deep dives, driven reviews and the full archive back to 2005.

  • No ads. None.

    The whole site reads like a magazine, on every device.

  • Every car, every spec

    Twenty years of models, numbers and history in one place.

  • 30% off the shop

    Every Supercars.net shirt and piece of merch, all year.

Join Supercars.net — Keep Reading

$29 a year. Cancel anytime, no hoops.
Already a member? Sign in

BY CAR PEOPLE, NOT A NAMELESS MEDIA COMPANY. Your membership keeps a small independent team that celebrates the brands and cars that defined this industry doing this.

Join — Keep Reading $29/yr