The BMW motorcycle division is celebrating, its famous boxer motor turns 100

First part

With the announcement of the arrival of the BMW R 18, the new and powerful also arrived engine boxer of the firm, but it is not the same as we already know, this is larger but with the same philosophy of the two facing cylinders, which has been the hallmark of a engine who was born in 1920.

The person in charge of it engine boxer was the engineer of BMW Martin Stolle, who at the age of 34 achieved something that he surely did not imagine would go as far with a halo of mysticism, and that to this day remains a mandatory reference for enthusiasts of the motorcycling.

As is well known, after the First World War, German manufacturers were prohibited from building motors by plane, among other agreements reached with the Treaty of Versailles. This situation led to BMW and other manufacturers to develop inline four-cylinder blocks for various vehicles, however Stolle’s genius thought of a engine two-cylinder air-cooled with a cubic capacity of 494 cc with the difference that the combustion chambers were facing horizontally.

BMW’s flagship engine

It was in 1920 that BMW started manufacturing the engine boxer massively with an initial power of 6.5 hp at 4,500 revolutions, although initially it was to be sold to other brands of motorcycles like Helios, Bison, SMW, Corona and Hoco.

The engine Martin Stolle’s designed M2B15 was commercially called “Bayern-Kleinmotor“or small engine from Bavaria, which was the heart of the legendary KR 1 of the manufacturer Nürnberger Victoria-Werke, which it acquired from BMW more than a thousand motors.

The first motorcycle official of BMW with the engine boxer It was the R 32 which generated 8.5 hp at 3,200 rpm complemented by a cardan transmission and a gearbox anchored directly to the side of the engine, same configuration that the motorcycles modern.

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The R 32 was presented in September 1923 under the concept of “The Motorcycle Touring of BMW“, the manufacturer who was better known as Bayerische Motoren Werke, giving way to the future of the brand with the BMW R 37 with 16 hp, with the commercial name of “Sportmodell” and which reached a top speed of 115 km / h.