Just Cool Cars: 1954 EMW is an Iron Curtain BMW

CARMEL VALLEY, Calif. -- Turns out we weren't the only one who was stumped when we came across this treasured 1954 EMC 327-2.

No, not a BMW. An EMW. Any reasonable car enthusiast would be forgiven for not being able to immediately tell the difference. You'd never know in a quick glance.

The EMC 327-2 was one of 505 cars built between 1951 and 1955 in Eisenach, East Germany, McLaughlin says. The E in EMC stands for Eisenach

The EMW is a dead ringer for a BMW from the 1930s, a BMW 327. The EMW was built behind the Iron Curtain at factory that had been a BMW plant before World War II, says the car's owner, Craig McLaughlin of Encinitas, Calif., who was showing off the silver beauty at the Quail Motorsports Gathering near Carmel, Calif., last month.

 After the war production and the Russians revert back to the East Germans, the factory was able to get hold of the old BMW dies and tooling.

McLaughin says that when he shows up at BMW gatherings, he has do a lot of explaining. No one attending had heard of their cars' obscure Cold War cousin. "I've been to a German show and not one one knew this car. Not one person, "he says.

He became intrigued by the car after seeing one for sale at an auction about eight years ago. "I've been looking every since," he says. Then he came across the car he has now at a museum in the Netherlands and it just happened to be for sale.