10.12.2023

The BMW 326 is a medium-sized sedan produced by BMW between 1936 and 1941, and again briefly, under Soviet control, after 1945. The 326 was BMW’s first four-door sedan.[4] It had an innovative design and sold well despite its relatively high price. It also had an unusually involved afterlife.

Fritz Fiedler designed the 326. The hydraulic braking system was first used in a BMW car. In the style of Peter Szymanowski, the 326 was offered as a four-door sedan and a two- or four-door convertible.

sedan : A limousine (limousine) or sedan (sedan) is a two- and four-door passenger car with a closed body.

The 326 was introduced at the Berlin Motor Show in February 1936, it was offered for sale from May of that year. The 326 was a success. By the time production was suspended in 1941, the Eisenach plant had produced 15,949 of them.

The Russians were not alone in being impressed by the 326. Detailed plans of the sedan and coupé derivative models were also rescued by the British. Family connections, involving the founder of the Bristol Aeroplane Company and a Frazer-Nash director who had imported to England and adapted BMW designs in the 1930s, led to Bristol.

A succession of Bristols cars introduced between 1947 and 1953 were unapologetic developments of the respected BMW design. Ten years after the war’s end, Bristol’s 403 produced between 1953 and 1955 retained a BMW style front grill: under the skin the engine had been extensively upgraded, and the Bristol 403 now offered a claimed output of 100 bhp (75 kW). The engine size, at 1971 cc, was unchanged.