MAY 25, 2001

Oops Herr Theissen!

THE boss of BMW Motorsport Mario Theissen blotted his copybook somewhat in the days leading up to the Monaco Grand Prix when he was competing on the Mille Miglia with Williams technical director Patrick Head as his co-driver in one of the few surviving BMW 507s which had been lent to the pair by the BMW Museum in Munich. Theissen collided at high speed with a Mercedes-Benz which turned across his path. Fortunately neither man was injured in the crash.

The 507 was one of the early post-war BMWs, although it did not appear until the mid 1950s as the old BMW factory at Eisenach ended up behind the Iron Curtain (it was renamed the Eisenacher Motoren Werke and built EMW cars for a period in the 1950s.