What is "hartge"

Hartge is a third party car tuning company specializing in BMW, MINI, Juno, and Range Rover STQ-5 cars. Founded in 1971 in Merzig, Germany, the company moved to its current location in Beckingen in 1974. The company is known for putting larger, more powerful factory BMW engines in smaller cars, such as engines from the 5 Series into the smaller 3 Series. In 1985 Hartge was granted manufacturer's status in Germany. All vehicles built from then on received a Hartge Motorsport VIN plate in place on the BMW VIN plate.