My moring with a 1937 328 under construction

[BillWilliams]

Belongs to Grant Randall.

[dubois]

that smile on the first picture, says it all! Absolutely... beautiful!

[mtriple]

Bill,

Thanks for taking the time to post this. Absolutely amazing and beyond. Please keep us posted.

hamada

[jgerock]

Hey Bill -

Thanks for all the beautiful pics and information. Looks like the distributor has a oiling port we have discussed some time ago.

[brad_c-ville_VA]

I met Lothar a few years ago at the Hoosier BMW car corral for the F1 race in Indianapolis. He gave me some really nice glass beer mugs and a shot glass. A very fine Gentleman.

-=Ben

yep, we had some beers with him that year too, ben!

when i saw the title of your post, bill, i said to myself "self, i'm gonna bet lothar is the owner of that 328."

[Guest Anonymous]

As others have said - Thanks. I love seeing stuff like this, not often that you get to see such a rare car being working on like this - truly it is automotive art work. Seeing stuff like this keeps me motivated to keep working on my car.

[bmw_jeff]

Thanks for the awesome post Bill! That guy is living the dream. Must be nice to have big money. I'd be doing the smae thing if I were wealthy. Just awesome. I met a guy locally at a concour show in 2005 who had just finished restoring his black 328 with red leather. It was a beauty. he said he bought the shell in England from a barn, rusted and missing a fender (race accident) and still had to pay $100,000 with freight costs included. He had another $200,000 in resto costs butthe car was (at the time) worth about $500k so he was happy.

[yeewiz]

Lothar finally got ownership credit for the December Roundel "Baroque Angel" 502 cover car in the March Roundel Letters-to-the-editor

[c.d.iesel]

Bill and fans of this work of Auto Art-

there is an excellent BMW published book:

Profile 7

BMW Coupes

A Tradition Of Elegance

Pre & Post War 328 Roadster

BMW Part Number 01.09.0.032.021

list price $54

this book is as breath taking as the car seen here

a must for any serious library

tells history of design

stories of the racers

stories of rare custom racing varients

stories of some chassis numbers and tracing them over the decades

just a great great book

don't hesitate buying a copy as BMW publications have a habit

of going out-of-print quickly - some times

[Guest Anonymous]

Where can I order one of those wall pegboards for the 2002?? Do they arrive all rolled up like a rug with all the parts?

[BillWilliams]

I have to admit, when I walked into this room, the first picture I took was of his workbench and the second, the tool board.

Lothar bought this car in boxes and had many conversations with Germany, he knows all the folks in the back warehouse of the BMW museum, you know the guys who make the museum cars look great, and they would send him pictures of various parts so he would know where they would go.

As Lothar told me, "I painted it with the parrot" paint and mixed the clear with the base so touch ups would be easier! How is that?

Some of us are going to his open house at his new personal garage mahal in May. Can't wait to see that.

How is this for a tool kit?

Lothar had his Bauer at this event in Germany in 2004

My 82 year old German friend and neighbor, Mr Erich, went with me. Mr Erich sort of just stood in the back, Lothar turns to Mr Erich, in German asked him if spoke German. Oh my gosh, it two great German fellows going at in German for 10 minutes, it was great!

[MikeG]

Lothar and his wife Gretchen are great people.I spent 14 days with them and others on the 2008 BMW Marathon.His 56 502 Cab was my favorite car on the Rally.I followed him many miles.

Myself and Jim Smith spent about 7 hours at night parked in back of Harrahs Casino in Lake Tahoe helping him repair his clutch on the 502.We couldn't stand to see him not complete the whole 2000 miles.You wouldn't believe the extra parts he brought on the rally.The whole rear of the X5 chase car was filled with extra parts for the 502.

Here are a few pics from the Rally

[jgerock]

Flip up turn signals = trafficators or semaphores

Commonly used on German cars. VW's version had a large selector switch in the middle of the dashboard that you turned to raise the arm up to "signal" your turn. Later cars featured a bulb that illuminated when the arm was raised (as seen in your photo).

Very early Beetles had them mounted (externally I think) to the front quarter panel. Later changed to the B pillar. Convertible (cabriolet)Beetle semaphores were mounted just behind the door handle in the rear quarter panel.

[adamm]

The 328 is just stunning. I see them here at the vintage sports car clubs meets at Prescott hill climb and Silverstone often, they are just magical. I have also seen a couple of Mille Miglia coupe 328s at Goodwood before now and they are breath-taking.

I believe it to be correct that Jaguar based the XK120 on the 328 - anybody else heard that? You can certainly see the similarities...

[ColinK]

Too sweet!!

Those curves are soooo sexy.

i just love that copper hammer for the knock offs.