BMW WR 500

The BMW WR 500 was a pair of BMW racing motorcycles built for speed records, based on the supercharged BMW 500 Kompressor racer. The solo machine had a 493 cubic centimetre boxer twin with shaft-driven overhead camshafts and a Zoller supercharger, reported at 105 to 108 PS, in a hand-beaten aluminium streamlined fairing. Ernst Jakob Henne set a motorcycle world speed record with it on the Frankfurt to Darmstadt autobahn on 12 October 1936 at 272.006 kilometres an hour, and after the fairing was reworked with advice from Ferdinand Porsche to tame the weaving at speed he reached 279.503 kilometres an hour on 28 November 1937. A streamlined 500 cubic centimetre sidecar outfit followed: Wilhelm Noll set a sidecar record of 280.20 kilometres an hour on 4 October 1955 on the Munich to Ingolstadt autobahn. Both machines are displayed in Munich.