BMW 321 Classic Cars for Sale

The BMW 321 is a classic luxury German-made car first introduced in 1939. It was designed and manufactured by the iconic BMW company, although due to the onset of World War II during the time of its production, very few of these cars made it onto the Western market.

Technical Specifications of the BMW 321

The BMW 321 was available as both a 2-door sedan and a 2-door cabriolet, and boasted six cylinders, a 1,971 cc engine, a 4-speed manual gear box transmission, and a top speed of 115 km/h. It was largely similar to its predecessor, the BMW 320, but borrowed the chassis and front suspension of the BMW 326 (albeit with some modifications to optimize utility), and opted for larger tyres and a different, more modern styling. The result was a promising new car that was expected to be well-liked and sell well, a hypothesis that was never fully tested due to unforeseen difficulties.

History of the BMW 321

After its introduction in 1939, the BMW 321 was in production until 1941, at which point it was temporarily discontinued so that BMW could repurpose its manufacturing capabilities to help meet the demand for aircraft engines driven by World War II. At this point, only 3,814 of these vehicles had been built. Once the war concluded in 1945, production of the BMW 321 resumed at the Eisenach plant and continued for five more years. However, the car continued to have a troubled production history due to the uncertainty as to whether the plant’s equipment would be included in post-war reparations to the Soviet Union. In spite of the fact that the work could be terminated at any time, BMW carried on making the BMW 321 with a small group of workers whose first batch numbered only 15 cars. Eventually the BMW 321’s production was taken control of by the Sowjetische AG Maschinenbau Awtowelo, a Soviet firm, and increased considerably in scope. Throughout the entirety of this second manufacturing run, 8996 BMW 321 cars were produced, bringing the total number to just under 13,000. Most of these cars stayed within the Soviet Union, making the BMW 321 hard to find in the modern resale market.