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The 500-series cars may not have been BMW’s most glamorous products, but these big and sturdy middle-class machines were the mainstays of the company’s car division from 1951 up until 1964. They were nicknamed Barockengel (Baroque Angels) because their bulbous and flowing lines reminded people of the carved wooden figures in South German and Austrian […]

One of Germany’s well-known car makers, BMW began building engines for airplanes. Forbidden to continue making airplane engines after WWI, BMW turned to engines for motorcycles and heavy trucks. In 1923 they built their first motorcycle and in 1928 they bought Dixi-Werke for about one million marks. BMW discontinued two larger models but continued with

Gebráder Ihle Karosserie und Apparatebau was a body shop and engineering company in Germany. After the First World War, it supplied vehicles for fairground operators. In 1934, they designed a sports-car body to be mounted on a BMW Dixi chassis. The first advertisements for the special bodywork appeared in 1935. Ihle built a body closely

Driven by the need for post-war affordable transportation, BMW decided to supplement slow sales of their larger models with an inexpensive car. In 1955, BMW acquired the license from ISO (an Italian refrigerator company) to make this “bubble car.” As many as 3,925 Isettas were sold in the US. during 1958. But U.S. sales slowed

The Göbel brothers of the Netherlands established Duckhunt Company in 1993. Dimitri Göbel is the engineering genius, and Iwan Göbel has the business expertise. This company specialized in servicing Citroën 2CVs. With their passion for car design and technology, combined with their love of the 2CV, Dimitri designed the car of his dreams – the

The Caterham 7 Blackbird was launched in front of the world’s automotive press on July 8, 1999, at the F1 Circuit in Portugal, and the performance from this 1000cc sports car was amazing. Under the hood is a Honda Blackbird cbr 1000 motorcycle engine. Borrowing many styles from its predecessor (the Caterham r500), the Blackbird’s

In June 1973, Caterham cars took over production of the Lotus Seven. The move was a historic one and secured Caterham’s long-term future. Three decades, and ten thousand sales later, Caterham has spawned an incredible forty different interpretations or limited editions of the Seven. This 1981 model is extremely rare as it was built at

Citroën wanted to create a four wheel drive car for use in Africa to take the rugged terrain encountered during oil and mineral exploration. Instead of going with a standard configuration, Citroën mounted one engine in the front and one engine in the rear to create four wheel drive. Separate ignition switches control the engines.

The 2CV “Fourgonnette” (or Truckette) played as important a part of the 2CV story as the car. Ultimately, over a million examples were built, which accounted for nearly a third of the total 2CV production. It was first shown to the public at the 1950 Paris Motor Show and was available the following year. The