BMW 326 Roadster Special

brand

bmw

mileage

88.582 kms

year

1936

engine

2000 cc

Herman Roosdorp, a Belgian with Dutch roots who raced against the Coturas in his Ferrari 166, bought the project after Van Der Tuyn’s death. He brought the project to Antwerp where Roosdorp had a thriving garage of Standard-Vanguard cars and he was a racing car addict. Before the war Roosdorp raced in his Bugatti. After the war he raced in his Ferrari 166, later a Jaguar C type, then again a Ferrari 500 Spyder and a Veritas rs. He gave up racing in 1955 and somehow lost interest in the BMW project which remained hidden in his garage. In all these years he was friends with Dolf De Ridder form a near village in the Antwerp region. After his death in 1965 the BMW project in rolling chassis form, was bought by another garage keeper in the Antwerp region.

As stated by the BMW Zertifikat dd 16. 04. 2003 the 326 was build in August 1936 and delivered to their dealer in Hamburg in August 1936. This 326 is one of the earlier cars confirmed by the chassis number 75663 and the matching motor number 75663, indicating the car was the 663the of the new series 326.In the early fifties, this car belonged to Dutchman Jacobus Van Der Tuyn, a gifted mechanic and tuner. He has rebuilt 2 BMWs 328 with his company COTURA. Cotura stands for Coos van der Tuyn Racing Automobiles. This 326 was the last project of Coos Van Der Tuyn before his death in 1954. The project was left behind unfinished and remained in rolling chassis form. The 328s of Coos that was used for Coturas were so popular, so he started to focus on the chassis of the 326. The sturdy 326 chassis was shortened from the front, creating a wheelbase of 256 cm. This idea was later considered by BMW for the new 328 which was going to be the 318. However Fritz Fiedler plans were rejected as being too expensive. In 1949 Frazer Nash came with their Le Mans replica, a man for whom Van Der Tuyn had enormous respect for. In the 326 Coos found the same layout as in the Frazer Nash, notable the rear torsion bar suspension and independant suspension up front.