Anyone following my work will have seen a couple of months ago a few images of a rather sexy, rather red Alfa Romeo 8C Spider and a rather wide, rather menacing Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series. Those cars were shot for the auction house RM Sotheby’s, and today I bring you another car shot for them: A rather old, rather classy 1938 BMW 328 Roadster.
I’ve a shot a fair amount of classics in my life, having worked for many years with Classic Car Africa, as well as having daily driven a classic BMW 2002 for several years. This, however, was a different level of classic. I cannot recall having ever shot any pre-war cars, and if so, none of them as beautiful or as memorable as this 328 Roadster. I did not, and still don’t, know much about this car, so for a more in-depth look, you might want to check out the Wikipedia Page, or just do some good old-fashioned internet surfing.
All I know is that I received an email from my contact at Sotheby’s asking me if I was available fairly short notice for a shoot in Brno, Czech Republic. Sure thing, I said, what car are we shooting? I was not expecting to shoot something this old and at the same time this pristine. But I guess those are the kinds of cars that end up being sold through RM Sotheby’s. For those of you interested in prices, this car is expected to fetch between €375 000 and €450 000. Not bad for an 85-year-old German, ey?
As is so often the case, the location cannot be chosen so much as it is chosen for you by the circumstances. That means that sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Even though this site of an old, torn down building is not necessarily the most ideal spot to shoot a car of this calibre, things could have been much worse. Due to the value, and rarity of so many of these cars, the owners frequently aren’t willing to drive them very far, if at all. Luckily, the owner of this particular rarity had this old municipal lot right next to his garage, so the location was basically picked for us. I must say, I do kind of like it, but I feel that this car is deserving of something a little more high-status. When life hands you lemons though, right?
Either way, this was a fun shoot, where the owner, as well as the contact were both really wonderful gentlemen and did what they could to ensure the smooth flow of our shoot.
We spent about 3 hours shooting the car with all its intricacies and details, in order to show how remarkable it is, but also to give any potential auction clients plenty of picture material to sift through and see how well-kept this car really is. I’m not going to put all the pictures up here, as there are far too many. A little selection is available for you to look through below.
I’ll leave it there. There’s not much more to say, so I will simply let you enjoy the beauty that is this 1938 BMW 328 Roadster.
