The 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed in Goodwood, England, starts in just over ten days. Like most international automotive gatherings this year, Goodwood will pay its respects to BMW on the occasion of its 100th anniversary as a company by making BMW the featured marque.
The homage to BMW will actually kick off the Goodwood Festival, as Lord March, takes the wheel of a 1957 BMW 507 roadster for the first lap around the 1.16-mile course. Lord March, or more completely, Charles Gordon-Lennox, Earl of March and Kinrara DL is owner of Goodwood Estate in West Sussex, England, and founded both the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival. His is also President of the British Automobile Racing Club.
“I'm delighted that BMW has chosen to mark its centenary with us,” said Lord March. “Our magnificent central feature sculpture outside Goodwood House will celebrate BMW's sporting success and I will be honored to drive one of the rarest, and most beautiful, BMWs ever built to open what promises to be a terrific show.”
That's the BMW 507, all right: Rare, beautiful, and quite valuable. Pristine examples have recently sold at auction for over $2,300,000; quite a bump from their original price of around $10,500. Even ordinary examples can command prices up to $1,500,000.
Only 252 BMW 507s were built from 1956 to 1959. The most famous is probably the one leased by Elvis Presley and formerly driven by Hans Stuck the elder. That 507 is currently in the possession of BMW Classic to be restored.
The 155 horsepower, 3.2-liter V8-powered 507 could hit speeds of up to 122 miles per hour. The body was hand built from aluminum.
The 507 came along during a time when BMW was struggling to stay financially afloat. The 507 didn’t help much. Motorcycles, the Isetta bubble car, and the little BMW 700 were able to keep the company going until Herbert Quandt infused it with cash and the New Class arrived in the early 1960s. But there is no denying that the 507 was one of the most beautifully styled BMWs ever to hit the street. Later BMW designers thought so, too, as they incorporated elements of the 507 into another limited–production roadster, the BMW Z8.
BMW’s celebration at the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed is not limited to the 507. This year’s commemorative central display sculpture will feature the BMW 328 Mille Miglia Roadster, the Brabham-BMW Bt52, and the BMW V12 LMR.
The 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed starts on June 23.—Scott Blazey
[Photos courtesy of the Goodwood Festival
