BMW is celebrating 75 years of automobiles this summer and in fitting celebration the company will be marking this important birthday in exciting style at this year's Goodwood Revival meeting over the weekend of September 3-5.

It was on the morning of July 9, 1929, that BMW announced in full-page advertisements that it had started business as an automobile manufacturer. A small car - the 3/15 - made its debut in Berlin.

Within seven years BMW had progressed from these humble roots to offering a fully-fledged sporting roadster, the BMW 328. Having won all the major races of the late 1930s, the 328's innovative engine was recreated by Bristol after the war. The 328 and many Bristol-powered sports cars achieved tremendous success right up to the late 1950s.

Staged at Goodwood's historic and beautifully restored motor circuit, the Revival is the world's most popular historic motor racing event and the only sporting event in the world set entirely to a period theme. The meeting will draw over 100,000 people, many in period, costume to watch an action packed weekend of racing, air shows and theatre. Not least among the races will be a race devoted only to BMW history.

The Madgwick Cup will see more than 30 exciting yet rarely seen BMW or BMW-powered sports racing cars battling it out around the picturesque West Sussex track. Even the great Sir Stirling Moss will take part, in a 1950 Frazer-Nash BMW.