‘It was evident that the factory had yet another classic in its own time as they had with the 328 two decades earlier.

The wholly individual coupé or convertible was a true follower of the 328 traditions … one of the very few non-Italian body designs to be assured of classic status from the ‘fifties …’ – Sloniger and Von Fersen, ‘German High Performance Cars, 1894-1965.’ At the end of WW2, BMW was in a much worse state than Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart because one of its major plants – the old Dixi works at Eisenach in Saxony – was within the Russian Zone and would soon be cut off from the West behind the ‘Iron Curtain’.

Nevertheless, manufacture of what would later be called ‘EMW’ cars recommenced at Eisench under Russian control almost as soon as hostilities ceased.

BMW’s Munich factory though, had been badly damaged by Allied bombing and for the next few years a much-reduced workforce struggled on producing household utensils, agricultural machinery, bicycles and railway brake sets...