The BMW 328 itself was a sports car produced by BMW from 1936 to 1940, designed by Fritz Fiedler and with body styling credited to Peter Szymanowski, who later became BMW's chief of design after World War II. The base 328 was introduced competitively at the Eifelrennen race at the Nürburgring in 1936, where Ernst Henne drove it to class victory on its debut.
The 328 accumulated over 100 class wins in 1937 alone, including victories at the RAC Tourist Trophy, the Österreichische Alpenfahrt, and the La Turbie hillclimb. In 1938 it won its class at the Mille Miglia, the RAC Tourist Trophy, and the Alpine Rally. The following year it won the RAC Rally outright and finished fifth overall and first in class at the 1939 24 Hours of Le Mans.
For the 1940 Mille Miglia — the final running of the classic road race before World War II suspended competition — BMW prepared a streamlined closed coupé version in collaboration with coachbuilder Touring of Milan. The aerodynamic Touring Coupé body drastically reduced drag compared to the standard 328 roadster, enabling the car to sustain higher average speeds over the long road race distance.
The 328 Mille Miglia Touring Coupé won the 1940 race outright at an average of 166.7 km/h (103.6 mph), an exceptional result for the era on open public roads. The victory gave the 328 a combined record it would later extend: in 2004, the BMW 328 Mille Miglia Touring Coupé became the first car to win both the original Mille Miglia (1940) and the modern-day Mille Miglia Storica classic retrospective version of the race.
The 328 had a profound effect on the British motor industry after World War II. One of the Mille Miglia 328s, along with BMW's technical documentation for the car, was acquired from the bombed BMW factory by representatives of the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Frazer Nash. Fritz Fiedler, the BMW engineer behind the 328, was persuaded to move to England as well. Bristol Cars was subsequently established to build complete cars using BMW-derived engineering, producing the Bristol 400 as its first model. The Bristol engine derived from the 328 was also supplied to Frazer Nash and later became an option in AC cars — a lineage that connects indirectly to the eventual AC Cobra.
The BMW 328 manufacturing plant in Eisenach found itself in the Soviet occupation zone after the war, placing it outside BMW's control and channelling post-war production in that region along a state-directed path until German Reunification in 1989.
In 1999, the BMW 328 was named one of 25 finalists for Car of the Century by a worldwide panel of automotive journalists, reflecting its lasting significance across road and track. The Mille Miglia variant in particular stands as a high-water mark of 1930s aerodynamic thinking applied to racing, and its 1940 outright win remains a benchmark result for a car of its displacement.