International success in series

In the thirties, BMW provided the German national team for the international Six Days championships, the unofficial European Championship for off-road racers. In 1933 in Wales, the world record motorcyclist Ernst Henne won the title for Germany for the first time, together with Josef Stelzer and the sidecar combination Josef Jauermayer/ Ludwig Kraus on 33 bhp flat twin R 16 machines. The team repeated its success in the following year and in 1935 the title went to Germany and BMW too, this time on the legendary BMW compressor models. Even at that time, off-road racing was used for testing innovations. For example, the first telescopic fork and the first BMW rear wheel suspension underwent their baptism of fire in Six Day races before being used in serial production models.