Great expectations

The hype is justified: the BMW 328, as it reaches 90 years old, is still a fantastic car to drive.

- MARTIN BUCKLEY

There is a forever youthful, Peter Pan-like quality to this image-defining BMW sports car that is truly magical. Robust performance from its famous straight-six is just one element of this roadster's appeal, but to say that it is more than the sum of its parts does not convey how supernaturally capable the 328 still is.

And what looks right is right, as is so often the case: the body ties the car together in a smooth envelope of sympathetic curves and flowing surfaces. Elegant wings sit tight against the long, one-piece, rear-hinged bonnet with its leather straps. There are no bumpers, just a hint of running board and faired-in headlights (strikingly modern in 1936) on either side of those tall, slim grilles with no visible radiator cap. The BMW nieren proudly assert both the identity of a then still young manufacturer and the technological ascendancy of Germany.

The 328's straight-six engine embodied this attitude to the full. For starters it looked the part, with a handsome pair of rocker covers and, rooted in the valley between them, three Solex downdraught carburettors dropping mixture into short, vertical inlet ports.

Small 'sixes' had been part of BMW's lineup since the early 1930s, and they had acquitted themselves well in the pretty 315 and 319 roadsters. However, the 1971cc engine of the 328, its block shared with the 326 saloon, was a technical marvel that focused on gas flow while avoiding the overhead cams that would have meant tooling up for an all-new design.

BMW 328