10 Things You Should Know About BMW

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1. BMW built the airplane engine the Red Baron wished he had.

During WWI, there was an immense need for airplane engines, especially on the German side. So a little company called Rapp Motor merged with Otto Werke, an airplane maker just up the street in Munich, combining forces to satisfy the war effort's needs. Otto Werke was run by the son of the guy who made four-cycle engines useable -- which ultimately contributed to just about every car engine on the road. That same technology went directly into the engine that legendary fighter pilot the Red Baron called the greatest engine in WWI.

2. BMW's headquarters is a giant homage to its four-cylinder heritage

While the highest-performing BMWs from the past few decades tend to rely on six cylinders, so much of BMW's legacy revolves around outstanding four-cylinder engines that in the 1960s, an Austrian architecture professor designed BMW's global HQ to pay tribute to the four.

3. Those early airplane engines rewrote the record book

Aside from plenty of records for speed, and even helping an airboat circumnavigate the globe in 1932, this BMW-powered biplane hit 32,000ft in 1919. It was easily a record back then, and that's roughly the altitude you cruise at today while you're cursing your decision to fly Spirit.

4. Everyone thinks the iconic logo represents a spinning propeller. Everyone is wrong.

Contrary to popular belief, the logo existed before it ever graced a propeller. Call it a bloody-brilliant piece of marketing, call it a badass design that tricks the eyes, but don't call it the origin of the BMW roundel. In reality, the roundel is a tribute to both Rapp Motor and Bavaria

That blue and white? Those are the national colors of the German state of Bavaria, not white propellers on a blue sky or whatever you've heard. I'm not saying saying it doesn't look incredible when affixed to the nose cone of a propeller, but, again, that's pure marketing fantasy. Rapp Motor* was one of the key companies on which Bayerische Flugzeugwerke was founded and when BFW became BMW in 1917, the roundel was a natural combination of Rapp's logo and the Bavarian colors.*Interesting side note: the founder of Rapp Motor, Karl Friedrich Rapp, left the company when it became BMW but stayed in Germany until 1934, when he suddenly realized that living out the rest of his days in Switzerland was a pretty good idea. Draw your own conclusions.

5. You can thank the Treaty of Versailles for getting BMW into carsAfter its second-place finish in WWI, Germany was prohibited from producing warplanes and warplane engines, as mandated by the Treaty of Versailles. With its business interests slashed almost all the way down to motorcycles, the company sought to diversify. Enter the BMW Dixi 3/15. It was a hit. But the Dixi was actually an English Austin. In America, Bantam built the same car. In Japan it was a Datsun. Austin designed and built the chassis to be used under license around the world, and several companies jumped at the chance to avoid the inherent development costs associated with making a car. That said, BMW's first dealership in Berlin was much, much nicer than its global competitors'.

6. In 1937, the world record for fastest motorcycle went to BMW

Yes, this motorcycle is essentially a death trap -- really, how do you dismount in an emergency without decapitating yourself in the process -- but it was aerodynamically slick, and supercharged. In 1937, this thing was capable of 173.7mph. But again, the bodywork covered the rider. Go big or don't go home, I guess?

7. In the late '50s, BMW almost became part of the same corporate family as Mercedes

By 1959, BMW was nearing bankruptcy due to myriad factors (here's a hint: Cold War). Smelling blood, Mercedes' parent company Daimler-Benz mounted a Gordon Gekko-style hostile takeover attempt. It got... spicy.Collectively, BMW shareholders said "f*ck that noise" (an approximate translation from the German) and mounted a counter attack. Even the lowliest mechanics helped buy back shares. Eventually, a man by the name of Quandt took control; his family still owns a large chunk of the company today. This remains the major skirmish of the intense rivalry between Mercedes and BMW.

8. BMW's storied M1 supercar was supposed to be built by Lamborghini

BMW and Lambo agreed in the 1970s to build a race car. The Germans were supposed to provide the engine and some suspension bits, and the Italians were slated for the rest of the mid-engined beauty, penned by the incomparable Giugiaro.

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