Gordon Wilkins covers the world of motoring with Judith Jackson.

The rise and fall of the Bavarian motor works occupies over half a century in the history of the motor car.
Before the Second World War a BMW was the first foreign motorbike to win the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy and a BMW 328 sports car won the world's greatest road race, the Mille Miglia. But by 1960 the factory in Munich was reduced to making bubble cars. Its finances were poor and Mercedes made a takeover bid.
Then Paul Hahnemann moved in and stamped his personality on a complete range of high performance family saloons which for the first time offered the middle-class German motorist sports car handling and styling. In 10 years Hahnemann's original ideas and management have boosted BMW output to 660 cars a day and increased sales seven-fold. What kind of a man is this 58-year-old salesman from Strasbourg who has turned BMW into Europe's fastest-growing car firm?