328 BMW Addendum

Following the article last month on the 50th anniversary of the Type 328 BMW, keen readers have pointed out a few errors. Tony Mitchell, the secretary of the Frazer Nash section of the VSCC wrote to say “I know. and I know that you know as well, that the Type 319 BMW was a 2 litre (see para 1 of article). The 1 1/2 litre was the Type 315. from which the Type 319 came, which led on to the 328”. Walking up Prescott hill-chinb, ostensibly to study the corners before competing, I met Mark Garfitt, who was competing in the Classic Meeting with his Type 319. Naturally we were soon talking Frazer Nash BMWs and naturally he also stressed that the BMW beginnings were with the 315 which was a 1 1/2 litre six-cylinder. which was enlarged into the 319 and ultimately the 328 appeared. It wasn’t so much that I got it wrong, but I did not express myself very clearly.

Anthony Blight, who is working on another magnum opus about the sports cars of the nineteen-thirties has been studying BMW history arid pointed out a definite error in the lower caption on page 615. The appearance of the first 328 BMW production model in Germany was certainly at the Berlin Motor Show, but it was in February 1937 and not the Autumn of 1936. It was the London Motor Show held in the Autumn at 1936, where AFN Limited exhibited their prototype door-less car number 85 003, at which the 328 was first offered for sale, thus pre-empting the German debut by a few months.

Blight also questions the reason for using down-draught inlet Potts into the hemispherical combustion chambers on the 328 aluminium cylinder head, suggesting that it was due to lack of space between the pushrods on the left side of the engine. That is a point for technical discussion which we are now pursuing. D.S.J.