BBS Manufacturing Company

If you happen to stumble upon Mazda MX 5 Miata Rims in the parking lot or in your garage, notice the wheel. Do you see how it’s silver and cross-spoked? It’s most likely a BBS Wheel.. because those wheels always have their emblem on the center cap; regardless of the wheel or its manufacturer. So, there you go.

I’m here to share some history on this lovely Aluminum Wheel producer. So, once upon a time in 1970, in the small town of Schiltach, Germany, there were two men: one named Heinrich Baumgartner (no, he didn’t invent Heineken so let’s not get any crazy ideas) and another named Klaus Brand. They decided to own their own manufacturing company, so they started off making plastic auto body parts for different cars at the time. They couldn’t think of a name so they decided to make it into an acronym: BaumgartnerBrandSchiltach. How convenient, right?

At any rate, for the first two years, they kept producing plastic chassis elements; but in 1972, they eventually started designing three-piece wheels that were going to be used for racing. This was just an idea that they had on paper and just decided to do it; and it turned out to be a break through in the Motorsport World. It’s all cheesy, but I guess dreams do come true! Four years later, their company expanded to France since they were doing so well and in 1979, they hired a third manager: Martin Braungart. It’s like the letter “B” is super popular over there.. oh well.

So of course they weren’t going to perfect the three-piece wheel the first time they made it; in 1983, when it was finally flawless, they made it available for use on vehicles that travel on “normal roads”. This wheel was called the RS Wheel. As you can probably guess, this Factory Original BBS Rim was a hit with everyone. It flew off the shelves and just pleased everyone that bought it. Since the company was doing so well, they opened more stores; this time in the great countries of America and Japan. In 1987, they had some managerial movement where Klaus Brand eventually became part of the Supervisory Board, Heinrich Baumgartner was appointed as Chairman of the Management Board, Martin Braungart became in charge of the Technical Management Department, and Klaus Bukenberger became accountable for the Business’ Operations and Sales.

The 1990s finally rolled around, which was a great decade for BBS. In 1990, BBS was known to be the vital producer of OEM Alloy Wheels for Audi, BMW, Volkswagen, and many other professional victorious racing teams all around the world. Four years later, BBS had made wheels for Formula One, the IndyCar Series, DTM, and ADAC; all of those racing teams won Championships with BBS Wheels. When they celebrated their 25th year anniversary in 1995, they invented the RSII Wheel which was lighter, had more quality, and eventually set a trend for its remarkable innovation. By 1998, they had supplied IndyCar with BBS wheels for twelve racing vehicles! When 1999 rolled around, BBS gained more customers to make wheels for like DaimerlChrysler, Porsche, Ferrari, and Jaguar.

When the new millennium finally came; this meant a whole new transition for BBS Manufacturing Company. They had been so successful from 2000-2008 that it’s only fair for me to acknowledge all of their achievements. Ready? In March of 2000, they opened a logistics / storage center in Herbolzheim; which meant drastic growth in profit and turnover for the company. In 2001, they won another Formula One Racing Championship. When 2002 finally came, they won what’s called a “Podio Award” for its new innovated solutions when it came to Ferrari Models. The dry processing of Factory Alloy Wheels was invented in 2003 and was recognized in not only the Motorsport World, but also by the Environmental society. They designed Air Inside Technology that improved the stability of the wheel in 2004. In 2005, they completed their third expansion in Herbolzheim and had all of the vehicles that had fitted BBS wheels compete in the Dakar Rally. 2006 meant that this manufacturing company had won a grand total of 6 international and national awards including Best Brand, Best Quality, two Innovation Awards, and Best Wheel of the year. When the new year brought 2007, Punch International NV took over BBS International; when this happened, it employed over 3,000 people worldwide! Which is great for our economy, don’t ya think? Anyway, in 2008, BBS had the extreme pleasure of saying that they had won the Best Brand Award for the third time in a row.

What an accomplishment, right?



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