through the 4-speed gearbox. Yes, the steering wheel feels heavy by contemporary standards, and maybe the clutch is a bit stiff, but most septuagenarians suffer worse for wear. The two-year model run of the 319 makes it challenging to find one, and if you do, its auction price might exceed the cost of a modern Ferrari with 10 times as much power.

In the sequence of our drive–and in history–the 319 preceded the 328. The first time the world laid eyes on the 328 was on July 14, 1936, at the Eifelrennen race on the Nürburgring. Ernst Henne, a motorcycle racing legend—turned—racecar driver, won the race in the BMW prototype. Victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Mille Miglia, and other events would follow. After we convoyedwith the other drivers and their BMWs up the eastern shore of Lago di Como, through Bellagio, and down the western shore of Lago di Lecco, it was time to switch rides. The 328 represented an astonishing leap forward from the 319. Even by today’s standards, the 328 was easy to aim through the turns we encountered up and down northern Italy’s hairpin-packed mountain passes.

Until 1936, sports cars were a rough lot. They were poor-handling, hard-riding, minimalist machines. Then BMW–which until the early part of the ’30s had built only motorcycles and airplane engines–reinvented the sports car with the 328 roadster. The 328’s aerodynamic frame and integrated headlights slipped through the wind, while its independent front suspension smoothed the bumps, even when the car, powered by an 80