Old school New England 92 - Scanorama

AUTOBAHN
Joyride: The futuristic BMW
Welt, BMW museum and HQ
opened in 1973. But when the other German car giants started
planning their monuments at the turn of this century, BMW re -
stored and extended the museum.
BMW has succeeded in making an entire Munich neighborhood
its own. Beside the headquarters, factory and museum, it
has BMW Welt – technically a car showroom, but unlike any
other in the world.
The Vienna-based architecture firm Coop Himmelb(l)au has
stretched the boundaries of what you can do with materials such
as glass and steel, and created a screw turning on its own axle.
When you pick up a brand-new BMW, you take the elevator
to the penthouse level, where the cars ready for delivery
are waiting on the polished wooden floor. Once you have paid
and got the keys, you drive a lap of the top floor and then down
the “indoor street” – practically a full-scale racetrack – before
emerging onto the road outside. It’s a new way to pick up your
car, but also a little nerve-wracking because you have to drive
past a row of curious spectators.
Our guide for the day, Florian Moser, has lost his voice following
the Oktoberfest celebrations. So he gives us a whispered
tour of the BMW Museum.
He tells us of the Hofmeister-Knick, the bend in the rear side
window of all BMWs, and the double headlights, another BMW
signature. The Hofmeister-Knick took its name from a former
BMW design chief, Wilhelm Hofmeister, and has been a feature
ever since the introduction of the BMW 1500 in 1961.
Moser notes that I don’t have much time for the 1940s and
One-track mind: Astrid Böttinger,
PR manager at the Porsche Museum
1950s models, but linger by some better-looking ones from the
early 1970s.
“Yep, it’s sad that we don’t make orange and bright green cars
anymore. But everyone wants silver and black.”
The BMW Museum, which together with the BMW Welt
center is said to have cost close to $700 million, is built around
themes such as the environment, design and racing. Walking
past the hundreds of cars, the words that spring to mind are well
thought-through and executed. If a car from 1968 is on show,
there will be vintage furnishings – lights, carpets and walls – to
match. Pretty soon you forget that you’re really just looking at
tin cans.
The aggressive but slim-line BMW 507 roadster from the late
1950s is the showstopper for sports-car enthusiasts and nostalgia
buffs, but an orange M1 from 1978 defies belief by looking
at least 20 years more modern than it really is. The 1980s and
1990s are just as uninspiring design decades at BMW as at other
manufacturers.
JUST TWO HOURS NORTH of Munich is the sleepy little city of
Ingolstadt, not really known for much more than being Audi’s
hometown.
Kraftwerk’s 22-minute-long Autobahn is the perfect sound
track when you are driving between German car museums. At
least in theory. But all the horn tooting, overtaking and burned
rubber make me a little nervous, so we quickly switch back to
commercial radio instead. With a Porsche doing 200kmh, flash-
46 DECEMBER 2011/JANUARY 2012 SCANORAMA
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