45 Fun Facts About BMW

What does BMW stand for?

Bayerische Motoren Werke means Bavarian Motor Works, though the firm that took the name in 1917 made aircraft engines, not cars.

In which city is BMW headquartered?

Munich is BMW's home city, and the company wanted its home state of Bavaria represented, so the roundel shows Bavaria's white and blue.

What does the 'M' in BMW's M performance division stand for?

The M stands for Motorsport: BMW Motorsport GmbH was founded in 1972 to run the company's racing programme before it began building high-performance road cars.

Which actor played The Driver in The Hire, BMW's 2001 series of short films?

Clive Owen returned as The Driver 15 years later in The Escape, a new BMW short directed by Neill Blomkamp.

Which firm, famous for fast BMW-based cars, did BMW buy the brand rights to in 2022?

Alpina: BMW took over the brand, while the Bovensiepen family firm in Buchloe kept servicing and supplying parts for existing Alpina cars.

BMW became a car maker in 1928 by acquiring an Eisenach factory that built which British car under licence?

The Austin 7 was built under licence at Eisenach by Dixi; BMW bought the Dixi works in 1928 and sold the little car on under its own badge.

What did BMW's flat 2020 communication logo turn transparent?

The black outer ring became transparent, which BMW said would give the logo more openness and clarity.

According to a persistent myth, what does the BMW roundel depict?

The story that the roundel shows a spinning aircraft propeller is a myth born of a 1929 advertisement; the blue and white quarters actually echo the Bavarian flag, and the logo predates the ad by twelve years.

Why did BMW's roundel alter Bavaria's heraldry rather than copy it?

Law forbade state arms on commercial logos, so BMW's roundel set Bavaria's white and blue in reverse order instead of copying the state emblem.

Prisoners from which concentration camp were forced to build aero engines at BMW's Allach works?

Dachau prisoners were among the forced labourers who built BMW's aero engines at Allach, while the company's car production stopped altogether.

How did BMW survive after World War II, when banned from producing vehicles or aircraft?

Pots, pans and bicycles kept BMW going, while its old Eisenach car plant, seized by the Soviets, went on building cars under the BMW name.

Which Italian-designed microcar did BMW build under licence from 1955?

The Isetta came from Iso, an Italian firm then building refrigerators and scooters, and BMW bought its production tooling along with the licence.

Which rival nearly took over BMW in 1959?

Daimler-Benz came close to absorbing BMW in 1959, when BMW's own supervisory board chairman backed a merger, before opposition to the deal kept BMW independent.

Which industrial family's investment rescued BMW from a takeover threat in 1959?

The Quandts, led by Herbert Quandt, rescued BMW with a fortune their father Günther had built arming the Wehrmacht.

Which 1962 range of compact sedans began BMW's reputation for sporty cars?

The New Class arrived after BMW's 1950s money crisis and is credited with saving the company financially, as well as defining it as a maker of sports sedans.

Which BMW range took over from the 2002 and 1602 compacts in 1975?

The 3 Series went on to spawn the M3, which debuted on its second generation in 1986.

Which mid-engined BMW supercar did the M division build from 1978?

The M1 was built to race, but by the time production got going the homologation rules had changed, so BMW created a one-make Procar series for it.

Which Italian company was first contracted to build BMW's mid-engined 1978 supercar?

Lamborghini was hired to engineer and build the car, but its money troubles led BMW to take the project back and finish the cars in Germany with coachbuilder Baur.

In which model did BMW introduce its first V12 car engine?

The 750i's V12 was electronically held to 250 km/h under a gentlemen's agreement among German carmakers to cap their top speeds.

Which 1999 model was BMW's first SUV?

The X5 was BMW's first SUV, yet BMW marketed it as a Sports Activity Vehicle to stress how well it handled on the road.

Which British carmaker did BMW buy in 1994, at great cost, before selling most of it off in 2000?

Rover cost BMW £800 million in 1994, yet after years of losses BMW sold the business to the Phoenix Consortium for £10 in 2000, keeping Mini.

Which carmaker outbid BMW for Rolls-Royce Motors in 1998, only to see BMW get the Rolls-Royce name?

Volkswagen bought the car company, but the Rolls-Royce name belonged to aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce plc, which passed the rights to BMW, leaving VW with Bentley.

Where does BMW build Rolls-Royce cars?

Goodwood, West Sussex, got a new plant because the old Crewe works stayed with Bentley, and BMW began building Rolls-Royce cars there in 2003.

What was BMW's first mass-production electric car, released in 2013?

The original i3 ended production in 2022 after about 250,000 cars, and its Leipzig line was retooled to build the next Mini Countryman.

Which 2014 model was the first BMW-badged car with front-wheel drive?

The 2 Series Active Tourer used the front-drive platform BMW shared with Mini, which went on to carry the second-generation X1.

What is BMW's slogan in the United States and Britain?

'The Ultimate Driving Machine' was coined for BMW of North America in the mid-1970s and became the brand's line in both the United States and Britain.

What is BMW's official English slogan, its version of 'Freude am Fahren'?

Sheer Driving Pleasure renders 'Freude am Fahren', a line BMW's 1960s ads coined as the company rebuilt its image around sporty driving.

What is BMW's headquarters tower designed to resemble?

A four-cylinder engine gave the tower its nickname, Vierzylinder, and the building played a corporate headquarters in the 1975 film Rollerball.

Which artist painted the first BMW Art Car, a 3.0 CSL raced at Le Mans in 1975?

Alexander Calder painted the first Art Car at the suggestion of racing driver Hervé Poulain, who drove the 3.0 CSL at Le Mans; Lichtenstein, Warhol and Hockney were among those who followed.

Which driver won the 1983 Formula One world championship in a BMW-powered Brabham?

Nelson Piquet overturned Alain Prost's lead at the final race in South Africa, where Prost retired, and won the first drivers' title in a turbocharged car.

Which driver scored the BMW Sauber team's only Formula One win, at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix?

Robert Kubica won in Montreal a year after a huge crash at the same race, and the victory put him in the world championship lead.

BMW designed and built the V12 engine for which legendary 1990s supercar?

The McLaren F1's BMW V12 went on to power a lightly modified racing version to outright victory at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans.

With which Japanese carmaker did BMW co-develop the platform of its 2018 Z4 roadster?

Toyota's tie-up with BMW produced the Z4 and its sister car, the fifth-generation Supra, and both were built by Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria.

Which US state is home to BMW's Spartanburg plant?

The Spartanburg plant in South Carolina opened in 1994 and grew into BMW's largest factory by output, building the company's X-model SUVs for export worldwide.

In which James Bond film does 007 drive a BMW Z8 roadster?

The World Is Not Enough was the third Bond film in a row to put 007 in a BMW, closing the carmaker's three-film product placement deal.

Where is BMW's main motorcycle factory?

Berlin-Spandau took over all of BMW's motorcycle building, a move completed in 1969 when the plant began making engines as well.

What nickname did BMW's 3.0 CSL racing coupes earn in the 1970s?

Batmobile was the nickname for the CSL's full wing package, and the racing coupes went on to win touring car titles.

With which Chinese carmaker did BMW form its Shenyang joint venture?

Brilliance Auto joined BMW in the venture to build BMW cars in China for Chinese buyers, and BMW later took majority control of it.

Which car-sharing service did BMW launch with rental firm Sixt in 2011?

DriveNow later merged with the rival car2go service in 2019 to form Share Now.

Which company bought Husqvarna Motorcycles from BMW in January 2013?

Pierer Industrie (KTM) moved Husqvarna production to KTM's plant at Mattighofen, Austria, where the first new models rolled out in October 2013.

A streamlined BMW 328 coupé won which famous Italian road race outright in 1940?

The Mille Miglia of 1940 was run on a closed loop near Brescia, because a crash that killed spectators in Bologna had halted the open-road race.

BMW's founding aircraft works was started by Gustav Otto, son of the builder of which 1876 engine?

The four-stroke engine made Nicolaus Otto's name, though he later lost a patent on it when Alphonse Beau de Rochas's earlier patent came to light.

Which First World War German fighter was powered by BMW's first engine, the IIIa?

The Fokker D.VII flew and climbed faster high up with the BMW IIIa, because Max Friz gave the engine a carburettor that kept its full power at altitude.

Which 1995 model was BMW's first mass-production two-seat roadster?

The Z3 appeared as Pierce Brosnan's car in GoldenEye months before it went on sale.

BMW's first successful motorcycle in 1923 introduced which distinctive engine layout?

A boxer twin was mounted with its cylinder heads sticking out on each side, so both caught the cooling air.