Bavarian specialties under the hammer

The more than 20 auctions of valuable collector cars that the auction house RM Sotheby’s from Canada organizes every year in the New World and the Old World between Monterey, Monaco and Milan are now being joined for the first time by another place with the initial letter “M”, namely Munich. “The city is undoubtedly one of the most important centers of automotive culture in Europe and therefore the ideal place to expand our annual auction calendar,” the company said in a statement.

The auctioneers have chosen the Munich Motorworld as the venue, where the hammer is to fall on November 26 from 10 a.m. A spectacular venue with a range of exclusive car brands, workshops, shops, restaurants and a hotel was created on the site of the former Deutsche Bahn repair shop in Munich-Freimann. More than 70 vehicles, including seven motorcycles, are said to find new owners there, with the usual suspects naturally making up a considerable proportion, but not the largest.

In addition to 15 models from Ferrari, six from Mercedes and five from Porsche, 32 – i.e. almost half of the entire range – come from a complete collection of Bavarian treasures called “The Bavarian Legends Collection”. This is how Sotheby’s draws a bow to the Bavarian white sausage metropolis. The range extends from a 1958 BMW 507 Roadster at an estimated price of between 1.6 and 2 million euros to a BMW 328 Roadster from 1938 (350,000 to 600,000 euros) and a 1959 BMW 502 3.2 Super (30,000 to 50,000 euros). a BMW Isetta for the same estimate and from the same year.

The two-seater BMW 507 Roadster – the car is still considered an icon of automotive design today – came onto the market in the second half of the 1950s as direct competition to the Mercedes 300 SL, which from spring 1957 was no longer available with gullwing doors, but only as a convertible was available. The model designed by Albrecht Graf von Goertz, of which only 252 examples rolled off the assembly line, was priced at around 26,500 marks at the level of the Stuttgart competitor, which corresponded to five and a half times the average annual income of an employee. Hans Stuck successfully took part in mountain races with the car. Prominent customers included, for example, Alain Delon, Ursula Andress, Toni Sailer, Elvis Presley and the British racing driver John Surtees.

From the mid-1930s, BMW also presented the 328 Roadster as a flawless sports car. The two-seater built in Eisenach was first seen in 1936 at the Eifel race on the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife, where it won the class for sports cars up to 2000 cc without supercharger under Ernst Jakob Henne with an average speed of 101.6 km/h. Later it caused a sensation in numerous legendary motorsport competitions such as the Mille Miglia in Italy (with an aluminum body), the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France or on the Avus in Berlin.

At the beginning of the Second World War, a tuned BMW 328 managed to sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in 8.8 seconds, which was considered a sensational dream value at the time. The “normal version” was equipped with a six-cylinder in-line engine, which with its two-liter displacement made 58 hp and reached a top speed of 150 km/h.

Because of its curved lines, the BMW 502 was given the nickname “Baroque Angel”. It was the first eight-cylinder engine built by BMW and also the first eight-cylinder passenger car to be produced in Germany following the Second World War. The luxury vehicle had a 3.2 liter engine under the hood, which produced 160 hp and might ensure a top speed of 190 km/h. At high speeds, it made itself known from afar on the autobahn with a typical whistle caused by the shape of the body. Its price at that time: 21,240 marks.

At the same time as the baroque angel, BMW also had the Isetta in its range, equipped with a single-cylinder engine from BMW’s motorcycle range, which had an output of 12 hp and was able to give the little car a top speed of 85 km/h. The consumption was modest, namely 3.3 liters per 100 kilometers, the price: 2,650 marks plus 45 marks for the heater. The trade journal “Auto, Motor & Sport” later scoffed that BMW had built “cars for general directors and day laborers” at the same time, which was the reason for the subsequent near-bankruptcy. It is more than doubtful whether henchmen might afford the tiny Isetta back then.

The Isetta offered at RM Sotheby’s in Munich was last seriously moved in 1967 and therefore needs a thorough technical overhaul by its future owner. Therefore, its estimated price, which is between 30,000 and 50,000 euros, should be quite optimistic. On the Internet – for example at mobile.de – the “smooch ball of the economic miracle”, as it is called, is considerably cheaper.

Other vehicles from the Bavarian Legends Collection, but also from the rest of the range, are quite interesting – also for car enthusiasts who prefer to save their euros for their electricity and heating costs and just take a look into the world of car collectors want. There is, for example, a 1938 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Special Roadster (estimate between €1.2 and 1.6 million), a 1991 Ferrari F40 (€2.3-2.6 million) and a 2008 Lamborghini Reventón ( 1.1 to 1.6 million euros).

Most of the vehicles that will go under the hammer can be viewed on Friday, November 25 between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. and on Saturday, November 26 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. at Motorworld Munich, Am Ausbesserungswerk 8 . Admission is free. (Hans-Robert Richarz/cen)