March Motor Works celebrates Rolls-Royce and BMW at Revival

What better way to encapsulate the legacy of this great marque than with the presence of a Silver Cloud III, which would have been right at home at Goodwood when it was first introduced to the public in 1963.

It sits quite serenely on its own inside the quaint Rolls-Royce showroom, quietly lording over this little corner of the Motor Circuit infield.

Head next door, and you’ll find yourself in a workshop preparing a gorgeous BMW 1800 TiSA, a homologation special from 1964 with dual carburettors that bumped the power of the 1.8-litre engine to 130PS (97kW). So focused were they on chasing performance that the 200 TiSAs built were all sold to licensed racing drivers.

Outside the workshop, there’s also a wonderful little 300 Isetta apparently parked illegally according to the ticket tucked under the windscreen wiper. The version built by BMW was broadly reengineered compared to Isettas found elsewhere in the world. It had a one-cylinder, four-stroke 247cc motorcycle engine developed by BMW that produced 12PS (8.8kW), and 161,728 were built between 1955 and 1962.

BMW’s presence continues with a big celebration of the illustrious Motorrad brand, which celebrated its own 100^th anniversary in 2023. The Motor Works tell the story of BMW’s motorcycle division as it immediately found success in competition. On display are the R37 that Franz Bieber rode to 500cc class victory in the German Road Championships in 1924, and the RS255 ‘Kompressor’ that carried Georg Meier to Senior TT glory in 1939. There’s also a gold medal winner from the 1953 International Six Days Trial and the 1964 FIM Sidecar World Championship-winning RS54.

It's well worth spending a moment to appreciate the attention to detail inside the March Motor Works, not just when it comes to the pristine cars and bikes on display, but their surroundings as well, and imagine yourself wandering through a bustling high street some 60 years ago.

The 2024 Goodwood Revival takes place on 6^th-8^th September. You can watch every moment of the historic motorsport action right here on our live stream!

Photography by Jordan Butters.