Kamm K4 BMW 1940 Black

Kamm K4 BMW 1940 Black by Autocult

Crown of the Quartet

The last of the four prototypes created by Wunibald Irmin Erich Kamm was called K4. With the 90 hp engine of a standard BMW 335 6-cylinder in line engine, the K4 would have belonged in the upper passenger car segment. As a special feature, the four-stroke engine had a leaner fuel-air mixture when the engine ran at a constant speed, so that active fuel economy measures were already being implemented here. Another refinement was a built-in mechanism that allowed the driver to change the tire pressure while driving. This was likely to have been useful for fast driving on the highways, as this measure also made it possible to reduce fuel consumption. However, a major disadvantage was that Kamm’s design was very heavy, giving the K4 a total weight of almost 1,500 kg – the standard 335, on the other hand, weighed only 1,300 kg.Ultimately, these remained only theoretical considerations, as political events following the outbreak of Word War II left very little room for further development of the car. In 1939, Prof. Wunibald Kamm designed his K4, and in 1940, the body was built in full size by the well-known and renowned company Reutter & Co GmbH. As far as we know, road test were also carried out, but the entire project was probably abandoned shortly afterwards due to the war. It is known known what happened to the car during the war years, except for a vague statement form 1945 that it had fallen into hands of French troops. After that, all traces of it were lost.