By Jackie Jouret
Photos courtesy The BMW Archive
When eleven spectators were killed watching the 1938 Mille Miglia, Italy’s Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini ordered the race canceled for 1939. The Axis powers remained eager to demonstrate their superiority through motorsport, however, and the race was back on again for 1940. This time, the Mille Miglia would trade its traditional mountain route from Brescia to Rome and back for a shorter course that triangulated Brescia with Cremona and Mantua. Although it had a few curvy sections, it was primarily held along flat, straight roads that would favor cars with a high top speed over those with agile handling.
If a car could combine those two traits, of course, it would have an additional advantage. As we saw in the first installment of this series, BMW’s 328 roadster had exceptional handling and a fine engine, especially in full-race form, and indeed a 328 with aerodynamic coupe bodywork from Touring of Milan had already won its class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1939 when it lined up for the start of the 1940 Mille Miglia, aka the Gran Premio Brescia delle Mille Miglia.
In Italy, the Touring-bodied 328 coupe defeated a fleet of Touring-bodied Alfa-Romeos, as well as the other cars entered by the BMW factory team. These included another aerodynamic coupe built in-house at BMW, and a trio of custom-bodied BMW roadsters, two of which we’ll examine here.