For many years, the BMW tower has been a landmark building, located on the Petuelring in Munich, close by the site of the 1972 Olympics. In recent years, BMW has recognised the power of its brand image in the market, and has added buildings to their site which welcome the visitor, enthusiast and purchaser. The BMW museum is the longest established of these, but was closed some years ago, for a complete rethink. The newly redesigned museum opened to the public this past weekend, and I was lucky enough to have timed my first ever visit to Munich for the very same weekend.Even better, along with the glorious summer weather, I had arranged to meet up with fellow motoring enthusiast, Christian Wimmer. A stalwart of both GermanCarZone, and also the US-centric CarSpin forum, his passion for things automotive (not limited to Mercedes-Benz, especially after his sister’s acquisition last year of a BMW 118i!) and his excellent photography all made for promising ingredients for an excellent day. I was not disappointed! Even before we entered the museum, we came across a mouth-watering array of cars basking in the Bavarian sunshine. Feast your eyes on these:
The next great discovery was that, as an opening offer, admission to the museum was completely free of charge. What a bargain, especially, as the contents then entertained and informed us, and kept the cameras busy for many hours! There are three main floors, but the design is carefully constructed so that there are all sorts of separate rooms, walkways and display areas, so we kept finding another treasure, or another room full of delights. What follows is a summary of the exhibits more or less as we came across them, as we started at the entrance level of the museum, and then meandered down to the ground floor. The first room we discovered had three cars representing the history of the “affordable” BMW. An early E21 3 series was complemented with a 1602 and its 1930s antecedent:
It was at this point that we looked down to the ground floor and could see part of what turned out to be a larger display of some of the more special sports roadsters from BMW’s history. I’d already seen two Z8s on the streets of the city in the preceding 24 hours, but was delighted to see another example in here. It was one of the cars that had almost continuous throngs of people around it, even though the museum itself was not that busy.
Moving slightly, we could see rather more of this display area, and the feast that were going to get to, some hours later!
As well as the cars, BMW is of course known for its motorcycles, and there were many of these on display. This particular example is of the very first type produced:
The next little hall area concentrated on some of the technology aspects, with a puzzling display item which turned out to be a recreation of the structure of the 1930s 328 streamlined Coupe, and up on the wall behind was this, the bodyshell for a brand new 6 Series:
The back of this room contained one of the most elegant cars of the 1930s – the original 328 Mille Miglia Coupe. Apparently the car was lost for many years, but, as often happens, was rediscovered, recognised for its historical significance, restored and presented for everyone to enjoy.
More motorcycles in the next hall:
This streamlined bike looked a very scary contraption indeed. It had no lights, so was for daytime use only, and despite the light aluminium body, I suspect that stability was a bit of a challenge!
BMW’s foray into motorsport featured, unsurprisingly in a number of the displays, too. This Formula 1 car dates from the first appearance of BMW in the sport in the early 1980s:
Moving on, we came to a most incredible construction. Representatives of the entire range from the 1970s were stacked up, one above another, giving us more than a few photography challenges. E21, E12, E24 and E23 – all so elegant, and so clearly related with that timeless style that BMW introduced with the 1972 5 series.
This construction was no easier to photograph from the ground floor, either!
A tantalising glimpse through an open doorway……….
………. turned out to be a hall dedicated to the most prestige models from over the years. A 337 model from the 1930s, a 502 “Baroque Angel” from the 1950s, a 3.3Li from 1974 and three successive generations of 7 series, E23, E32 and E38. Each of these last was a landmark car, with the first being a 745i, the first turbo-charged large BMW, the E32 model being a 750i, so the first 12 cylinder car, and the E38 being a 730d, the first diesel engined 7 series. What really appealed was the simple display: no barriers, good lighting and plenty of space around the cars. How museums should do, but so few do!
Throughout the museum, great imagination had been applied in the displays. This montage of badges from a wider variety of models was just one example of this:
The museum also makes maximum use of the height and dividing walls in place, allowing for great shots for the photographer. I liked this one!
Continuing with the theme of variety, we found this clay styling buck for the 1 series Coupe:
In the next room, there was a display of engines from over the years. With the exception of the very earliest, which was a 1200cc 6 cylinder engine from the 315, all the engines were 2 litres, and yet the physical size of the complete engine had massively increased from something quite simple that even I would be able to understand, to an example of toda’ys electronically controlled marvel of modern engineering:
By this time, we had reached the ground floor, and could get close to the Z8, and the other cars that had tantalised from up above. What a show!
The main hall of this area was dedicated to the M Cars. Again – and we kept saying this to ourselves, and to each other! – just “wow”!!
A small display area adjoining this had just 2 cars in it – a 1960 2002Ti and a 1955 Isetta, but what made the display really impressive was that surrounding each were whole series of contemporary photos of each model, from all over Europe, showing proud owners with their BMW pride and joy on vacation. These shots were just fabulous. Made me think that some of my pictures might have this sort of interest in 30 years time!
Another hall for motorsport. This time, celebrating BMW’s activities in Touring Car championships around the world. I was intrigued to learn that the rather ungainly looking “Neue Klasse” was the first production car to lap the ‘Ring in under 10 minutes!
We paused to look at the H2R concept car. Dating from 2004, this is a hydrogen powered vehicle. Hmm!
A room all to itself for the 327 Coupe.
The next hall was a celebration of “design”, and at various points in the room, you could (in German or English) hear various designers talking, including Chris Bangle.
The 1999 Z9 concept car was shown in here, and it showed very clear influences on the current 6 Series:
There was also another example of the 328 Mille Miglia – the roadster this time:
At this point, we concluded we had probably found everything, but then we remember that we had not got close to one of the famous 1975 “Art Cars”. So we found our way upstairs to that:
In so doing, we got another look at the sports cars from up above. There were big crowds around here, so patience was called for in getting the shots we wanted!
A long escalator then took us up above the entry level floor, to an area reserved for “temporary exhibitions”. At present, it contains a show of some of BMW’s notable concept cars: The 1970 Turbo – inspiration for the M1. Sadly challenged by the lighting!
The Z22 – a sort of BMW precursor to the Mercedes R Class, you could say.
The Coupe Concept that shocked us all with its flame surfacing, but which hinted strongly at the Z4
The concept Mille Miglia:
A concept that now looks awfully like the 1 Series Cabrio:
And finally, the Gina! Revealed 2 weeks ago:
And that, sadly was it. Probably all our brains and our memory cards could take in. But what a display. Everything is bi-lingual in German and English, and there were loads of staff on hand, who were not pushy, but very friendly and there to talk to if you wanted to do so. Munich is a great city. The sights are impressive, and with a lot of affluence in the area, the streets were great for spotting luxury and supercars…. but this museum topped it all. One of the best I have ever visited. Highly recommended, even to those who are not true PropellorHead fans (like Christian and me!)
If you enjoyed reading this, you might also like to look at:Alfa Museo Storico – Arese (I)Audi Museum – Ingolstadt (D)Porsche Museum – Zuffenhausen (D)Mercedes Museum – Stuttgart, (D)2010-01-08 20:01:22
