The significance of motor sports for sales figures as well as for progress in the design of corporate products was realized by BMW in the course of the first years already. Accordingly, a sport-version developed from the R 32 was built in 1927, equipped with a transmission brake instead of the wedge block rear-wheel brake and with a better front-wheel brake.

The 494-ccm-motor with enlarged cooling fins generated 18 hp which made the soloversion of the R 47 reach a speed of approx. 110 km/h. Altogether 1,720 units were built of this model.