Originally a builder of small, reliable family cars, the Bayerische Motoren Werke unveiled their first actual “performance car” at the Berlin Motor Show in May 1934. The 15/1 Sport was a 40-horsepower, two-passenger roadster, capable of a top speed well in excess of 60 mph. It was the first BMW to achieve success in motorsport, when the factory team entered five of the cars in the 1934 Alpine Rally; they were the only cars in their class to score maximum points.

During 1935 the 315/1 was succeeded by the 319/1, which had an engine bored out to 1,900 cubic centimeters to suit the 2-liter racing class; it now offered 55 horsepower, and could achieve about 80 mph. While attractive and quick on its feet, it was a fairly expensive automobile and only 102 copies were sold, very few of which have survived the decades and fewer still have made it to the United States, where BMW largely remained an unknown novelty until the early post-war era.

The 319/1 offered here is one of the scarce examples in North America. It was acquired by the current owners from the Blackhawk Collection in 2008, largely in the same restoration that it retains today, in rich black and red with black leather interior and red wheels shod in blackwall tires. It should be noted that a number is not present in the expected location on the engine block. Accompanying are a handful of service invoices and other documentation from the current ownership.

In many ways this can be considered one of the original lightweight, peppy BMWs—the ancestor of the exciting driver’s cars that would come, with its own special, appealing charm that is sure to win it hearts every time the owner takes it out for a spin. One might consider it the original M3!