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In 1880, Heinrich Kleyer founded a bicycle business and by 1900 he moved to automobiles. During World War I, Adler built trucks, transmissions for tanks, and airplane engines. By 1928 Adler, employed 6,000 and was making 60 cars a day in addition to commercial vehicles and bicycles. They were Germany’s third largest car maker after […]

Birmingham Small Arms was started in 1861. Its main products were machine guns, shotguns, and rifles. In 1880 B.S.A. also started to build bicycles. B.S.A.’s first cars were produced in 1907, and cars made from 1907 to 1915 were of the conventional 4-wheel type. B.S.A. also began producing motorcycles in 1910 and by the late

Berkeley was Britain’s leading caravan maker in the 1950s. In 1956, Lawrie Bond approached Charles Panter of Berkeley Caravans with his new design. It was an ideal project for Berkeley who had developed considerable skills in the use of fiberglass and was looking for something to fill the gaps in the very seasonal caravan market.

In the 1950s to 1960s, three wheel cars were very popular in Great Britain. For drivers with a motorcycle license, these cars did not require a separate car license. Berkeley redesigned the rear of their 328 model to fit a single rear wheel. The result was a three wheel sports car which filled a gap

A short-lived classic! The BMW 320 was built for just one year. First presented in July 1937, the 320 showed a close resemblance to the transitional 329. The 320 was smaller, lighter, and less expensive than its predecessor. The 320 was a high-performance car with many admirers. It offered easy handling, a good power to

The 500-series cars may not have been BMW’s most glamorous products, but these big and sturdy middle-class machines were the mainstays of the company’s car division from 1951 up until 1964. They were nicknamed Barockengel (Baroque Angels) because their bulbous and flowing lines reminded people of the carved wooden figures in South German and Austrian

One of Germany’s well-known car makers, BMW began building engines for airplanes. Forbidden to continue making airplane engines after WWI, BMW turned to engines for motorcycles and heavy trucks. In 1923 they built their first motorcycle and in 1928 they bought Dixi-Werke for about one million marks. BMW discontinued two larger models but continued with

Gebráder Ihle Karosserie und Apparatebau was a body shop and engineering company in Germany. After the First World War, it supplied vehicles for fairground operators. In 1934, they designed a sports-car body to be mounted on a BMW Dixi chassis. The first advertisements for the special bodywork appeared in 1935. Ihle built a body closely

Driven by the need for post-war affordable transportation, BMW decided to supplement slow sales of their larger models with an inexpensive car. In 1955, BMW acquired the license from ISO (an Italian refrigerator company) to make this “bubble car.” As many as 3,925 Isettas were sold in the US. during 1958. But U.S. sales slowed