I have a reasonable collection of vintage BMW books, and a quick perusal
suggests that BMW did not design/build a V-8 for automobile use until
the 1954 era, when an aluminum block/head engine of 2560ccs was put into
the BMW 502 after the continuing version of the pre-war 2 litre six was
not putting out enough power for the weight involved. I could find no
record of this engine being licensed for production elsewhere.
Bristol did get the rights to the pre-war BMW 328 2-litre hemi head six
engine. They developed it further using better materials and technique,
and managed to eventually more than double the output from the initial
80HP. They fitted their version of this engine in several models of
Bristol cars, and sold the engine for use in other vehicles...AC, Arnolt
etc.
John Slade
Manotick, ON
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