BMW Group Classic in celebratory mood at the Goodwood Revival 2013. BMW Group Classic spotlights two landmark occasions at the legendary classic car and motorcycle event in England: “90 years of BMW Motorrad” and “50 years of the Mini Cooper S”.

Munich. In September each year, the Earl of March opens the gates to his estate outside Chichester in West Sussex, southern England for the Goodwood Revival Meeting, bringing back to life an era when motor sport was still an adventure. Since 1998 racing fans have flooded to the event to pay homage to racing cars and motorcycles from the 1940s to 1960s. Drivers, riders, team members and visitors don the attire of the times, helping to create a quite unique atmosphere. Today the Goodwood Revival is among the best-known classic motor sport events around the world and one of the highlights of the BMW Group Classic calendar.

The BMW Group Classic line-up.

BMW Group Classic is once again presenting models from the BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad brands in the March Motor Works area. The Bauhaus-style garages provide an attractive showcase for the exhibits in their historical context. Backdrops such as a reconstructed paddock for three BMW 1800TI/SA touring cars and a scene from “The Yellow Rolls-Royce” – a British movie from 1964 in which Ingrid Bergman and Jeanne Moreau share top billing with the title car – transport visitors back into the automotive past. MINI fans can admire advertising and promotional films from the brand’s history while Jock West’s Motorrad Shop, complete with workshop scene, provides an authentic setting for BMW Motorrad’s display of historic motorcycles.

Historic BMW highlights on two wheels.

The celebrations for BMW Motorrad’s 90th birthday make 2013 a very special year. And so it is quite appropriate that a selection of extraordinary BMW motorcycles should join the field for the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy – two Kaczor BMWs, a BMW RS 54 and a BMW RS 500 factory racing machine. In the 1960s, racer and later BMW engineer Ferdinand Kaczor built a 500cc racing boxer machine, whose 50 hp made it roughly twice as powerful as its standard production sibling. And thanks to a self-constructed and extremely lightweight double-cradle frame, it weighed under 150 kilograms. Kaczor rode the bike to a new lap record of the Nürburgring-Nordschleife circuit in 1969. The two Kaczor BMWs are piloted by Mike Farrell and Sebastian Gutsch and the winners of last year’s FIM Superstock 1000 title Sylvain Barrier and Lothar Singer. 

In 1954 the BMW RS 54, manned by Wolfgang Meier and Claus Clausen, was the first racing machine for solo and sidecar competition to go on general sale. Its legendary flat-twin boxer engine with vertical shaft drive powered BMW machines to 19 riders’ and 20 manufacturers’ titles in the sidecar world championship in the years up to 1974. The BMW RS 500 of 1956, meanwhile, was a factory version of the RS 54, which Walter Zeller rode to second place in the solo world championship the same year. This machine offered the public an early demonstration of the groundbreaking torque support on the rear wheel which preceded BMW’s Paralever construction, and is piloted at Goodwood by the all-female pairing of Maria Costello and Fabienne Hoffmann.

St. Mary’s Trophy stars Stephane Peterhansel and Johnny Cecotto.

BMW Group Classic lines up with two cars in the St. Mary’s Trophy, one of the headline races on the Goodwood Revival programme. The Austin Mini-Cooper S Competition, driven by multiple Dakar Rally winner Stephane Peterhansel and Max Partl, celebrates the 50th birthday of the MINI Cooper S. The racing version of the car was built from 1964 and in that year John Fitzpatrick drove it to multiple 1300cc class victories and second place in the British Saloon Car Championship. The car was completely rebuilt with races such as the St. Mary’s Trophy in mind. 

The Austin Mini-Cooper S Competition is joined by the BMW 1800 TI/SA racing touring car, steered by former motorcycle world champion and multiple touring car champion Johnny Cecotto, together with Jörg Weidinger. BMW built the 1800 TI/SA from 1965. With its pair of twin carburettors, 130 hp output, five-speed gearbox, wooden steering wheel and adjustable bucket seats, it was a serious contender in touring car racing and notched up an impressive list of victories in international competition. Only 200 units of the BMW TI/SA were built, making it a genuine rarity.