BMW R 47/57 750 ohv 1929 in racing-trim with this bike Karl Stegmann rode 1929 in the 750 cc class of the Klausen-race to a new class record

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BMW, 1916, Germany, This famous German factory, situated at Munich, already built "The fastest motor cycle of the world" since 1929. But in road racing they came to the top not before 1937 with the Schleicher designed supercharged 500 cc works racer. In 1938 ridden by Georg Meier it won the European Championship and in 1939 also ridden by Georg Meier the Senior (500 cc) Tourist Trophy race in the Isle of Man. This was the first Senior-TT win by a foreigner of a non British machine. In the pre-war times the factory also produced "Production Racing" models, the last one having been the R 51 RS in 1939 but these models were before the war never able to match the supercharged works racers. With the RS 54 introduced for the 1954 season BMW offered a new "Production Racer" which was able to compete with the technically nearly equal BMW works racer. In the following years many famous riders such as John Surtees (GB), Gerold Klinger (A) and the Germans Walter Zeller, Ernst Riedelbauch and Ernst Hiller gained numerous successes with this BMW RS 54 model.