MASS MOVEMENTS

Two of Germany’s finest and heaviest, but not in the usual context. It’s Car Vs Bike, after all

- Kartik Ware

If the combined momentum in this image were to escape the page, it’d drag you straight to Germany. And you wouldn’t complain, would you? After all, these are two of the finest pieces of German engineering supremacy. Actually, referring to these two- and four-wheeled mammoths as ‘pieces’ immediately feels rather inadequate. BMW and Mercedes-Benz are traditional and respectful rivals, almost what recent vocabulary would call ‘frenemies’. But you’re less likely to find BMW Motorrad poking the three-pointed star in the eye, except perhaps in the Car Vs Bike stories we do; last year it was the R 1250 GS against the G-Class in a contest of who could kick the most dust in the other’s face. And if this unlikely rivalry is on its way to become a tradition, I’m not one to stop it.

BMW’s two-wheeled division rumbled to life in 1923 with the R32, though it was Mercedes-Benz’s forerunners, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, who invented the motorcycle in 1885. What’s more, the third founding father of Mercedes-Benz invented the boxer motor layout in 1897, and it was then called the ‘contra engine’. That’s quite a hefty inspiration that BMW Motorrad owes its star-grilled compatriot, and you might think there was nothing left for the former to do but come up with the famous white pinstripes on the R32. But there’s way more to it than that. To begin with, most importantly, BMW made motorcycles and does so to this day. Mercedes-Benz invented the motorcycle and never looked at it again.