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BMW motorcycles were the real beneficiaries of BMW’s exit from Formula One. The developers of Bavarian two-wheelers have become the owners of the most exclusive testing facility in the entire motorcycle world. There were many long faces on the 29th of July 2009: The day BMW announced their withdrawal from the Formula One factory involvement for the upcoming season. Five years ago it was unforeseeable that this decision of the Executive Committee would benefit BMW Motorrad. But an analysis performed in 2010 showed that the best utilization of “Plant 1.6 on the Anton-Ditt-Bogen in Munich,” where Formula One resided, would be BMW Motorrad. Not only did BMW Motorrad end up with new company headquarters but almost all of the testing facilities that were installed for Formula One went straight into the hands of BMW Motorrad. This was an incredible advantage, especially for the developers of these motorcycles for whom the technically advanced facilities had virtually fallen into their laps as they would have never been able to finance this kind of quality and on this scale for BMW Motorrad. Five years have passed and BMW Motorrad has vastly expanded its model range and strongly upgraded its technology. With theK1600GT/GTL came the first six-cylinder’s history and with the S1000RR and HP4 came the first supersport machines. The end of 2012 brought the R1200GS (K50) and the first water-cooled boxer engine. And production lines for the first scooters, the C600 Sport and C650GT, were started at this time. Engineer Rudolf Kragl is clearly pleased to name a few remarkable figures, “Since the move of BMW Motorrad into the new facilities previously occupied by Formula One we were able to double their testing stand capabilities for the engines from 10 to 20.” The previous three test rollers have been turned into six and the number of aggregate test stands went from two to nine. “The BMW Motorrad department would have never been able to finance such equipment,” says the 51-year-old Kragl. But a thorough analysis inside the group resulted in showing that the takeover of these testing facilities by BMW Motorrad was also economically the best solution. Another positive aspect was that most of the technical staff could be kept and even some former Formula One developers have switched to BMW Motorrad. The “Holy Grail” of the BMW Motorrad HQ is a kind of security wing—numerous electronic door locks make it almost impossible for unauthorized persons to gain access to this two-story building. “This is basically a historic building because it was once the office of BMW Marine GmbH,” tells Kragl during a tour. Based on the passenger cars four-and six-cylinder motors, here they produced fine boat engines, Carbon fiber helmets ,some gasoline, some diesel powered. But the Bavarian boat motor manufacturer, despite some excellent drive solutions, never could come up with “green” answers, so in 1987 the Executive Board decided to pull the plug out of the tub and took BMW Marine GmbH out to sit on dry land. The boat motor business was then sold to the US manufacturer Mercury. Obviously, BMW Motorrad use the latest technically advanced vehicle development including the use of engine test benches. No one outside of this development department really knows what at this point the engineers in Munich can draw from unlimited resources. In this case, Hendrik von Kuenheim, former director of BMW Motorrad, got lucky.—Ulf BÖhringer
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