BMW Classic Coupes, 1965 - 1989

2000C and CS, E9 and E24

James Taylor

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781847978479
• Topic: Tecnologia e ingegneria
• Subtopic: Trasporti e ingegneria automobilistica

A definitive guide to BMW's high-performance classic coupes, tracking their rising success from 1965 to 1989. After the doldrums of the post-war years, BMW had felt the need for a flagship grand touring coupe. The 507 of the late 1950s and the 3200 CS that replaced it in the early 1960s may not have made much money for the company, but they were a reminder of its aspirations. Then in 1964, a striking new coupe emerged from the building blocks of the latest saloon car range. The 2000 and 2000 CS, with their feisty 2-litre 4-cylinder engines, were the affordable foundation on which BMW was able to build its next generation of coupes - and what formidable machines those were! This definitive guide covers BMW's high-performance classic coupes, tracking their rising success from 1965 to 1989 and includes full specification guides, production histories and original photography. Topics covered include: BMW's hand-built coupes of the 1950s and the first volume-built models; the mainstream E9 range, with new engines and revised front-end styling; racing success for the 'Batmobile' CSLs, including six wins at the European Touring Car Championship from 1973 to 1979; engineering and development of the luxury E24 range; tuned and modified coupes, including the rare custom convertibles. Fully illustrated with 234 colour photographs.

CHAPTER ONE

COUPÉ CULTURE

Between the 1960s and 1980s, any car manufacturer with ambitions to become a player in the prestige market in Germany had to include a big luxury coupé in its range. It is tempting to trace the tradition all the way back to the 1930s and the beginnings of Germany’s Autobahn network, which allowed such cars to be enjoyed to the full. It is equally tempting to trace the style back to the elegant and luxurious French coachwork designs of the 1930s, which set the style for the whole of European high society. However, for the purposes of this book, there is no need to go back further than 1951 and the International Automobile Exhibition held at Frankfurt that April.

The Frankfurt show was a very important event for the German automotive industry. A significant number of companies had been put out of action by the six years of war that had ended in 1945. Many never recovered, but a handful did claw their way back to viability during the later 1940s. The country had been divided in two and even the average German in the West was unable to afford a car of any kind in those years. However, between 1947 and 1949 the car makers and accessory manufacturers did show their wares at the annual trade fair in Hanover, highlighting what Germany could offer overseas buyers. Even though the cars on show were mainly out of their reach, the event was always a major attraction for local visitors, who would visit to dream.

The BMW 327 Coupé of the 1930s was a strikingly beautiful car, and is seen today as an ancestor of the big coupés from the 1960s and 1970s.

By the end of the 1940s, some semblance of order was beginning to return to the West German car market. Mercedes-Benz was building some extremely credible middle-class machines and was poised to re-enter the sports-car and prestige markets. BMW, by contrast, was still working on new designs, and by 1950 was testing prototypes of a little rear-engined two-seater, known as the BMW 331 and clearly inspired by the Fiat 500. By that stage, however, West Germany was preparing to move on. Planned for April 1951 was a brand-new event – a car show to be held in the halls of the trade-fair site in Frankfurt. Berlin, traditional host of the major annual motor show in Germany, also planned a revival of that event for that September. Although the Berlin event would be a last gasp and Frankfurt would take over as the major German show, it was clear that 1951 was going to be an important year.

For the German motor industry, Frankfurt 1951 acted as a call to arms. This was going to be an opportunity to show that it had left behind the problems of the war years and their aftermath. Here, they could show their latest wares – or, at least, the models they hoped to get into production soon – and demonstrate to the world that German engineering had undergone a renaissance.

The 1952 prototype coupé by Autenrieth on the 501 chassis was strangely bulbous, in the fashion of the times.

Mercedes-Benz went all out to get its new six-cylinder 220 model ready for the show. BMW, meanwhile, had been looking at the possibility of producing other makers’ designs under licence. Their fallback option was the little 331 model, but this was apparently vetoed by Sales Director Hanns Grewenig. His view was that BMW’s limited production capacity was better suited to a small-volume car with high profit margins than to a small car that would have to be built in high numbers in order to generate good profits. He must also have realized that, if Mercedes-Benz did launch a new prestige model at Frankfurt in 1951, it was going to make a fundamental difference to the German car market and to the way German cars were perceived abroad. BMW needed to develop a prestige model, and quickly.

BMW abandoned work on the 331 and threw all their resources into developing a prestige saloon. Time and development resources were saved by using a further development of the pre-war BMW 2-litre engine. Although the new 501 that was announced at the Frankfurt Show in April 1951 was too heavy to equal the performance of the Mercedes-Benz 220, introduced at the same time, its 2-litre engine nevertheless made it a credible entrant in West Germany’s prestige saloon class.

More commonly seen was the later Baur coupé body, seen here on a 502 chassis.

The importance of announcing the new model at Frankfurt was obvious: this was BMW’s first post-war car. In practice, it would not be available for purchase for another 18 months – deliveries began in October 1952 – but BMW had laid claim to a slice of the prestige coupé market. Like Mercedes-Benz, BMW knew that that market would return. Lacking the resources to build their own coupé bodies, they turned to coachbuilder Autenrieth in Darmstadt and were looking at that company’s prototype coupé for the 501 chassis during 1952. This coupé, and from 1955 one by Baur, became available for special order alongside the saloons. As the original 501 chassis developed into a V8-engined 502 in 1954, so these coupés and their cabriolet derivatives presented an attractive alternative to the established Mercedes-Benz six-cylinders.

The 503 Coupé

Hanns Grewenig, still BMW’s Sales Director, could see the potential of developing a distinctive grand tourer on the 501 and 502 chassis, and in 1954 he gained approval for such a car. Designed by Albrecht Goertz, with the encouragement of European car importer Max Hoffmann in the USA, the styling made deliberate reference to Italian coachwork, but remained determinedly Teutonic. It was ready to be shown at the 1955 Frankfurt Motor Show, which now occupied the autumn slot that had originally been reserved for the Berlin event.

Based on a wide-track 502 chassis and featuring the most powerful 3.2-litre version of the V8 engine, with 160PS, the new model came as either coupé or cabriolet. Despite aluminium panels, it was no lighter than the rather over-bodied saloons, but a top speed of 190km/h (118mph) made it faster than the rival Mercedes-Benz 220S coupé – and that gave it a special prestige of its own. Unfortunately, it was also nearly 40 per cent more expensive than the Mercedes, at 29,500 DM versus 21,200 DM, and that price premium proved a big hindrance to sales both at home and abroad. The 503 went on sale in May 1956, and production ended in March 1960. Just 412 cars – 273 coupés and 139 cabriolets – had been built, and BMW had lost money on every one of them. The cost of building these cars by hand at a rate of around two a week was really more than BMW could absorb at a time when it did not have a big-selling volume car in production.

Nevertheless, the 503 had staked BMW’s claim to a place in the prestige coupé market at home in Germany and also in the wider European market and in the USA. In that sense, it was a vitally important model for the company’s future. Although it was not immediately replaced – BMW was going through a tricky period around 1960, and could not finance such loss-leading products – the idea of a new big coupé was never far from the thoughts of BMW management.

Neither of the earlier 1950s coupé designs had much appeal outside Germany, so a special and more modern-looking body was drawn up for the 503 coupé, with which BMW hoped to capture a slice of the big US market. This example has an interesting spoked style of wheel trim.

More common on the 503 was a plain hubcap, as seen here. The lady is Sonja Ziemann, a German actress of the period whose presence in the picture would have enhanced the car’s appeal to wealthier buyers.

Tiny numbers of 503 coupés were built with right-hand drive. This was one of just three for the UK, delivered new to the Frazer-Nash family who were then BMW importers.

There was a cabriolet version of the 503, too. The ladies in this contemporary picture are clearly not only wealthy, but also stunned by the smartly dressed gentleman and his shiny new car!

The dashboard of the 503 was very much of its time, with a thick-rimmed white steering wheel and an under-dash handbrake that was probably intended to appeal to US buyers.

The glamorous coupés and cabriolets were all very well, but BMW had to make money somehow. This is one way they tried to do it, with the little Isetta bubble car. This one was a UK-market example – the revolving beacon on the roof was definitely not a standard fit!

Quandt money financed the BMW recovery in the 1960s, which was led by the 1500 saloon introduced in 1961. It was a clear statement of BMW’s abilities.

The 3200 CS Coupé

Italian stylists were seen as the world leaders during the 1950s and had undeniably influenced the shape that Goertz had drawn up for the 503 coupé. It had certainly caught the eye of Helmut Werner Bönsch, who had joined BMW in 1958 to take charge of what would now be called product planning, alongside multiple other responsibilities, such as marketing, quality control, and analysis of competitors’ vehicles. It was in this role that he came to examine a Lancia Flaminia coupé, the Italian manufacturer’s obvious rival for the 503 and any car that might follow it. He was pleased to observe that its elegant Pininfarina body would fit on to the chassis of BMW’s current 3200L and 3200S saloons, the latest derivatives of the V8-engined 502.

Looking for cost-effective solutions to the company’s product needs, Bönsch put together a proposal to create a new coupé by buying in the Pininfarina design, adding a BMW front end, and fitting the modified body on to the big saloon chassis. The proposal did not meet with the approval of the Board, but one outcome was that Technical Director Fritz Fiedler was asked to find an Italian coachbuilder who would be able to design a new coupé body specially for BMW on the existing saloon chassis. As BMW still did not have large production facilities, any deal would have to include body production as well.

That limited the opt...