The fledgling company was already actively campaigning in motor sport with models like the BMW 315/1 and BMW 319/1 but BMW found itself increasingly sidelined by the competition. Finally, the company's very modest motor-sport department developed a sports car from the mid-1930s onwards which was soon to notch up sensational successes: the BMW 328. From mid-1936, spectators were able to see the sports car on the race track and series production started up in spring of 1937. This speedster rapidly developed into a racing legend. Hardly a race went by in the late 1930s when podium places were not taken by the BMW 328.