BMW K1 (experimental car)

The BMW K1 was an innovative experimental car that BMW had built in 1938 and 1939 on the basis of the BMW 335, also written K-1 or called the Kamm-Wagen K1. It was a four-door upper-class saloon with comfortable equipment and five full seats, a streamlined pontoon body with a cut-off Kamm tail and the 3.5 litre inline six of the 335, designed for high cruising speeds and low fuel consumption. It was not developed in the BMW home plant in Munich or at Eisenach but by Professor Wunibald Kamm at the research institute for motor vehicles and vehicle engines in Stuttgart, and the body was built by Walter Vetter of Fellbach. Its very low drag came from a full pontoon body with a wing profile, a round low front, fully covered wheel cutouts and a smooth underbody, and it had a tyre pressure control system, a lean mixture at constant speed and an overdrive gear. With the same 66 kW (90 PS) as the 335 it reached 183 km/h against 145 km/h, and used 7.6 litres per 100 km at a steady 100 km/h. Test drives ran in 1939 and 1940, public reaction to its looks was harsh, and the K1 stayed a one-off.