BMW Type 255

The BMW Type 255 Kompressor, also known as the 500 Kompressor, RS 255 or Type 255 RS 500, was a supercharged boxer twin race motorcycle from the 1930s. A Zoller sliding vane supercharger was bolted to the front of its double overhead camshaft engine, driven directly by the crankshaft and lubricated by castor oil added to the fuel, and it provided about 15 psi of boost. It set a number of race records, including the first lap over 100 miles per hour at a major event when Georg Meier won the 1939 Belgian Grand Prix, and Ernst Jakob Henne took the motorcycle land-speed record in 1936 on a model with a streamlined fairing. Georg Meier rode one to victory in the 1939 Isle of Man TT, the first win by a non-British competitor in the Senior TT class. An example sold at auction in 2013 for US$480,000, and another is on display at the BMW Museum in Munich.