A labour of love
IT WAS THE BIKE THAT TURNED HIM ON TO RACING, and if it wasn’t for the late, great John Surtees, this most historic BMW might well have been lost forever. After being ridden to victory in the 1939 Senior TT by Georg Meier, the bike disappeared during the war, was later raced (and crashed) in postwar France, was then bought by an Englishman and later shipped to the US before Surtees tracked it down, restored it and, finally, returned it to the BMW factory.
This is the incredible story of the supercharged RS 255/1 Kompressor – the bike that beat the Brits.
You’re looking at a very important motorcycle. The RS 255/1 Kompressor was the technologically-advanced weapon used by BMW to win its first TT in 1939.
When Germany’s Georg Meier won the 1939 Senior he became the first non-British rider to win the race since its inauguration in 1907. This is the bike that ended 37 years of British domination, so it’s somewhat ironic that it was a Brit who proved to be the bike’s saviour – who tracked it down, authenticated it, restored it and preserved it for posterity.
John Surtees
