A race car made in the former GRD during the 50's

At the beginning of 1951, the GDR government commissioned a group of vehicle designers, initially under the direction of Ernst Ring, later under the direction of Arthur Rosenhammer, to set up a racing team in the DAMW's testing and testing office in Berlin-Johannisthal and on the basis of the BMW manufactured in Eisenach 328 to construct a competitive racing car in order to prove the efficiency of socialist industry in street racing. The R1 racing car, developed from the BMW model, was a winner at the AVUS in 1952. After the end of the 1952 racing season, the racing collective was relocated to the Eisenach engine works in 1953 and continued as the EMW racing collective, which for the upcoming 1953 racing season took over the vehicles from Johannisthal and the four from 1950 from the Eisenach BMW works based on the BMW 328 and its successor, the BMW 340, had available racing cars. The material brought from Johannisthal was worn out and it was foreseeable that the vehicles would no longer be competitive in the new season. The collective, which had undergone a major change in personnel after the move, began developing a new 1.5-liter racing car as early as possible. The racing team contested the 1953 racing season with further developed vehicles that had been taken over from Johannisthal. Edgar Barth drove one of these cars for the EMW racing collective at the 1953 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. It was the only time that a GDR racing team took part in a race for the automobile world championship. (Source: Wikipedia)