Legendary engine builder Paul Rosche passed away

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This week, BMW's legendary engine builder Paul Rosche passed away at the age of 82. He was responsible for many brilliant BMW engines, including 'the Mona Lisa among the engines'.

Whoever talks about Paul Rosche will usually talk in the same sense about the Formula 1 engines that he designed for BMW in the 80 years. If you only mention that engine, you do Rosche short: he was an engine builder who could compete with types such as Aurelio Lampredi and Hans Mezger. From 1957 he worked no less than 42 year for the Bavarian brand, until his retirement in 1999.
His first chores consisted of designing camshafts for racing engines, which earned him the nickname Nocken-Paul. He soon became involved with all BMW production engines, while he also kept himself busy with the racing engines. For example, he was responsible for the two-liter turbo engine in the 2002, which won the European touring car championship in 1969. In the 70 he moved to BMW Motorsport GmbH, where he was responsible for both the production and racing engines of the BMW M1. He also signed for the engine of one of our favorite BMWs ever: the 323i from 1978.

"Father of the turbo engine"

In the 80 years, Rosche was the man behind the S14 engine, the four-cylinder engine found in the first M3. The next decade was followed by the higher arts: the S70 / 2, the 627 horsepower V12 that propels the McLaren F1. These engines alone would make him a legendary engine builder. Often, however, they are not even mentioned when it comes to Rosche, because there is always that one engine that is soon about. He is mainly known as 'the father of BMW's turbo engine': the 1,5 liter four-cylinder that could be found in the Brabham BMWs from 1982.
The basis was the 1,5 liter engine that was known from the 1502 and 315. That production engine was transformed by BMW Motorsport into a racing winner with four valves per cylinder, a turbo and an electronic engine management system. The power was considerably more than the 75 hp that the production engine supplied. Rosche a few years ago: "It must have been around the 1.400 horsepower, but we don't know for sure because our dynamometer only went to 1.280 hp."

Underground racing

Until years after his retirement, the BMW motorcycle division discussed whether Paul Rosche would approve of a new engine. The brand even partly owes the sporting image to Rosche, because when it wanted to stop motorsport in the 60 in the 1980s, Rosche rented a garage with a few others and continued with Underground racing - a project that continued racing until BMW came to mind again. In short, a book can be written about the man who died on 15 November at the age of 82. Let's hope someone does that.

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