BMW congratulates Prince Leopold von Bayern. A racing legend celebrates his 70th birthday today.

Munich. The BMW Group and Leopold, Prince of Bavaria, are bound together by a long-standing friendship. During his racing career, “Poldi” achieved more than 120 victories, since1986 exclusively with BMW automobiles. For 35 years, he raced on many famous racetracks and mountain roads. He was behind the wheel of touring cars, sports cars and vintage cars, participated in Formula 3 racing and was a BMW works driver. Only the Formula 1 is missing from his career. Today, His Royal Highness, an heir to the 800-year-old Wittelsbach dynasty, travels all over the world as a brand ambassador for BMW.

His success with the BMW M1 Procar in Le Mans wrote automotive history. The "Wirtshausauto”, as it was later known, attracted a great deal of attention owing to its unusual paintwork. Instead of logos or names of sponsors, motives of traditional Munich taverns and places of interest hand-painted by the artist Walter Maurer adorned the BMW M1 Procar. His participation in the German Touring Car Championships between 1988 and 1992 driving a BMW M3, Group A, remain unforgotten. Prince Leopold von Bayern was not only tremendously successful in the ADAC Super Touring Car Cup in 1996 and 1997 driving a BMW 320i, but also in the 1998 German Super Touring Championship.

Leopold von Bayern discovered his passion for cars and everything associated with speed when he was still a child. Together with his brother he marked out a cycle racing circuit around the palace in South Germany where he was born. As a twelve-year old he was given a Goggomobil as a present, though not yet old enough to drive it on public roads. Instead, he honed his driving skills in the palace gardens – to the great distress of the gardener.

In the 1960s, his father, Prince Konstantin von Bayern, sent him to the USA to study mechanical engineering. In that country too, His Royal Highness indulged in his passion for racing and won the North American Ice Championship in Alaska, a competition he still loves to recall. Back in Germany, he acquired his first racing car – an Opel. Later he had a Mini Cooper and with it recorded a notable series of victories.

The triumphs during his racing career are legion; he has been awarded over 200 trophies. “My life has always taken place on the fast lane. I always wanted to be the first man home!” Leopold von Bayern declares. He is still very proud of having achieved success by his own efforts. “In car racing it is not the names that count, but the seconds”, explains the passionate collector of clocks and watches who can call several hundred his own.

He is still to be found behind the wheel at vintage car races. The cars parked in the garage of his house, once a tavern owned by King Ludwig II, echo his passion. In addition to his company car, a BMW Isetta, built in1963 and finished in beige with a blue stripe over the centre of the roof, is also parked there.

To this very day, “Poldi” and the BMW Group share an unbridled passion – driving pleasure.

The BMW Group wishes him all the very best and looks forward to many more years of excitement.