Facts About BMW That You Probably Didn't Know

1. Founded almost a century ago BMW which stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke or Bavarian Motor Works was originally billed as Rapp Motorenwerke in 1917. Who would have thought that one of today's top automobile manufacturing company was originally an aircraft production firm! At the end of World War I, Rapp Motorenwerke was forced to stop its aircraft work which later altered it its business to making motorcycles and cars like we know today.  

2. The headquarters of BMW in Munich, Germany resembles an engine's cylinder. Behold the Vierzlinder or four cylinder in English (somehow saying it in ze Germans has a better ring to it). Designed in 1972 by an Austrian architecture professor, Karl Schwanzer, the building was an homage to the BMW's heritage and has since became one of the most iconic structure in Europe.

3. Despite the popular idea that the BMW's logo is a propeller and was inspired after their formal aviation business, the actual story behind the bold blue and white colours of the logo was actually the checkered colours of the Bavarian flag. But the myth was so popular, BMW decided to use the idea to its advertising advantage but it was not intentional.

4. As we now know that cars was not BMW's first production, but do you petrolheads know that the first ever successfully produced on the road car was named Dixi and she's British?. Dixi was based on the Austin 7 which was from the English company Austin Motor in Birmingham, based in England. 

5. With a market cap of 81.4 Bil, it comes to no surprise that the BMW group is currently ranked 16 on the Forbes World Most Valuable Brands. The late Johanna Quandt is rank number 77 with a net worth of 13.9 Bil on the Forbes 2015 World's Billionaire List, while her daughter, Susanne Klatten and son, Stefan Quandt are placed number 54 and 59 on the list respectively. 

6. After aircrafts, the company went into motorcycle production. Making cars came much later in the BMW time line. Following the unsuccessful Helios and Flink production, the first ever motorcycle which was made by the company was the R32 that had a boxer twin engine. 

7. Think you know a lot about cars? Well don't get confuse when you hear the word Beamers and Bimmers. Even though they sound the same they aren't the same thing because BMW called their motorcycles Beamers and the cars are addressed as Bimmers. 

8. The BMW Group subsidiary, BMW Group DesignworksUSA or better known as Designworks has been working with Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd to design the new Siemens metro for Kuala Lumpur. Designworks  will be developing the design for 58 new underground passenger trains that is scheduled to be in service in 2017. BMW press stated: "Under the name “Guiding Light” the design of the Metro Inspiro takes a bow to the rich heritage of Kuala Lumpur and makes a strong statement towards the future". Tik-tok 2017 is only months away, aren't you excited?