The most valuable BMW is the 507. Manufactured—largely by hand, and on a chassis-by-chassis basis—from 1956 until 1959, just 252 examples resulted, and the aluminum-bodied roadster was clearly the pinnacle of what BMW was selling at the time. This was the lead up to the company finding itself on the verge of financial ruin and nearly being acquired by Mercedes-Benz, which was the result of manufacturing low-volume, high-dollar models—known collectively as the Baroque Angels—which rode on perimeter frame underpinnings with BMW’s corporate straight-six (or the new all-aluminum V8) supplying power. The 507 was the most advanced and expensive model to emerge from this often overlooked period of BMW history, so much so that it essentially broke the company, to put things in the most unadulterated sense.
