BMW Classic Coupes, 1965 - 1989 E-Book

James Taylor

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 302

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

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.

Leseprobe

BMW Classic Coupés1965–1989

OTHER TITLES IN THE CROWOOD AUTOCLASSICS SERIES

AC COBRABrian Laban

ALFA ROMEO 916 GTV AND SPIDERRobert Foskett

ALFA ROMEO SPIDERJohn Tipler

ASTON MARTIN DB4, DB5 & DB6Jonathan Wood

ASTON MARTIN DB7Andrew Noakes

ASTON MARTIN V8William Presland

AUDI QUATTRO Laurence Meredith

AUSTIN HEALEYGraham Robson

BMW 3 SERIESJames Taylor

BMW 5 SERIESJames Taylor

BMW M3James Taylor

CITROËN DS SERIESJohn Pressnell

FORD ESCORT RSGraham Robson

FROGEYE SPRITEJohn Baggott

JAGUAR E-TYPEJonathan Wood

JAGUAR XJ-SGraham Robson

JAGUAR XK8Graham Robson

JENSEN INTERCEPTORJohn Tipler

JOWETT JAVELIN AND JUPITERGeoff McAuley & Edmund Nankivell

LAMBORGHINI COUNTACHPeter Dron

LAND ROVER DEFENDER, 90 AND 110 RANGEJames Taylor

LOTUS & CATERHAM SEVENJohn Tipler

LOTUS ELANMatthew Vale

LOTUS ELISEJohn Tipler

MGADavid G. Styles

MGBBrian Laban

MGF AND TFDavid Knowles

MG T-SERIESGraham Robson

MAZDA MX-5Antony Ingram

MERCEDES-BENZ CARS OF THE 1990SJames Taylor

MERCEDES-BENZ ‘FINTAIL’ MODELSBrian Long

MERCEDES-BENZ S CLASSJames Taylor

MERCEDES SL SERIESAndrew Noakes

MERCEDES W113Myles Kornblatt

MORGAN 4/4Michael Palmer

MORGAN THREE-WHEELERPeter Miller

PORSCHE CARRERA – THE AIR-COOLED ERAJohnny Tipler

RELIANT THREE-WHEELERSJohn Wilson-Hall

ROVER 75 AND MG ZTJames Taylor

ROVER P5 & P5BJames Taylor

SAAB 99 & 900Lance Cole

SUBARU IMPREZA WRX AND WRX STIJames Taylor

SUNBEAM ALPINE AND TIGERGraham Robson

TRIUMPH SPITFIRE & GT6Richard Dredge

TRIUMPH TR7David Knowles

VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTIJames Richardson

VOLVO P1800David G. Styles

BMW Classic Coupés1965–1989

2000C and CS, E9 and E24

James Taylor

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2014 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2014

by © James Taylor 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 847 9

CONTENTS

Introduction and Acknowledgements

1

COUPÉ CULTURE

2

2000 C AND 2000 CS

3

THE MAINSTREAM E9 COUPÉS

4

THE CSL AND THE RACING COUPÉS

5

DEVELOPING A SUCCESSOR

6

THE FIRST GENERATION E24s, 1976–1982

7

THE SECOND GENERATION E24s, 1982–1989

8

THE E24 IN COMPETITION

9

TUNED AND MODIFIED COUPÉS

Index

INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

BMW’s big coupés of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s were a major factor in the company’s success in its fight for market share, not only in its native Germany but also in the UK and the USA, two of its major export markets. I have always liked these cars, and the opportunity to write about them was one I had no intention of turning down.

Nevertheless, the cars are quite rare in the UK today, and finding good examples to photograph was much harder than it should have been. I was greatly helped in my search by performance BMW specialists Munich Legends, who found me an excellent 3.0 CSL and a similarly special M635 CSi at short notice. Meanwhile, photographers Simon Clay and Craig Pusey managed to rediscover some long-forgotten shots of E9s and E24s in their archives, and Craig also found some old press and competition pictures from the days when these cars were new. I am grateful to both of them.

Further thanks go to BMW themselves, who over the years have provided a fine array of press and publicity pictures, many of which are also used in this book. Finally, I am extremely grateful to Doug Cain and to Mike Pugh in the USA – BMW enthusiasts both – who specially took some pictures of Doug’s superb 3.0 CS that I saw during a visit to North Carolina in 2010.

James Taylor, OxfordshireApril 2014

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 options, but the coachbuilder Bertone took the bait. During 1961, Nuccio Bertone drew up a new coupé to suit the 3200S chassis, and in September that year BMW displayed the result at the Frankfurt Motor Show. It was called the 3200 CS, and the first production models were available for delivery in February 1962. The bodies were built and trimmed by Bertone in Turin, and then transported by train to BMW in Munich for mounting to the chassis and for final assembly.

Once again, the BMW coupé was formidably expensive. At 29,850 DM, it was priced way above the directly competitive Mercedes-Benz 220 SE coupé, which could be had for 25,500 DM. BMW’s thinking perhaps was that the 3200 CS fitted into the market between that car and the topmodel Mercedes-Benz 300 SE, which was priced at 33,350 DM. The appeal of the BMW lay partly in its exclusivity, partly in the fashionable Italian styling that the Mercedes did not have, and partly in its performance. A 3200 CS took the same 14 seconds to reach 100km/h from rest as did the 220 SE, but it had a much greater top speed. A 220 SE peaked at 172km/h (107mph) and a 300 SE at 180km/h (112mph), while a 3200 CS was claimed to reach 200km/h (124mph).

Alongside the new 1500 saloon, BMW was still building its older V8-engined cars. The 3200 CS coupé turned to the Italian master Bertone for its body styling. This picture caught it in an unusually ungainly pose.

Undeniably, the 3200 CS lacked something in the handling department; its chassis was, after all, essentially the same as that introduced back in 1951 for the 501 saloon. It was also available only as a coupé, although one cabriolet prototype was constructed. The Mercedes came in both open and closed forms. From some angles, the BMW also looked a little awkward, although from others it was extremely attractive.

The 3200 CS was announced at the same Frankfurt Motor Show as the new BMW 1500 saloon, the car that finally gave the Bavarian manufacturer a model capable of selling in large volumes and providing decent profits at the same time. That, too, had Italian influence in its styling, in this case from Michelotti. However, what visitors to that show would have noticed was a common styling element that had not before graced any BMW. It was a reverse curve at the bottom of the rear side window, a feature that would become a BMW styling trademark for the next 30 years or more.

Bertone’s coupé design was also important in establishing a number of other characteristics that would be carried over to subsequent BMW coupés. In marked contrast to the heavy-looking roof design of the contemporary Mercedes coupé, it had a very shallow roof panel supported on thin pillars. It also had deep side windows, which were made to look even deeper by an optical trick: Bertone had added a deep, bright-metal sill panel below the doors, which helped to conceal the depth of the side panels and made the windows look larger by comparison.

If the 3200 CS did not make a massive contribution to BMW’s revival in the early 1960s, it did at least ensure that the company was again represented in the prestige coupé class. It also sold roughly twice as well as its predecessor, with 603 being built before production ended in September 1965 – an average of 150 or so each year. The 503, in its closed coupé form, had been built at a rate of about 70 a year.

There was a pleasing sleekness about the 3200 CS from most angles, and the car would go on to inspire later BMW coupé designs.

The 2000 C and 2000 CS

Anxious to keep their position in the prestige coupé market, BMW had to think creatively in the early 1960s. Although the 3200 CS had its appeal, its positively ancient chassis meant that it could not reasonably attract buyers for very long. Something had to be found to replace it.

At this stage, BMW was committed to a new engine policy that was based on a single basic design: a four-cylinder known internally as the M10. The idea was that the engine should start life as a 1.5-litre, but that it could be progressively upgraded until it reached the 2.0 litres of its design capacity. The thinking was that, with variations of carburation, it could meet all BMW’s foreseeable engine needs until the second half of the 1960s.

This engine was the one that would have to power the replacement for the 3200 CS, and there was no doubt that switching from a 3.2-litre V8 to a 2.0-litre four-cylinder in the prestige coupé class required a considerable stretch of the customer’s imagination. The V8 had boasted 160PS; the four-cylinder, even in its most powerful 2.0-litre twin-carburettor form, could muster no more than 120PS. It was obvious to the designers from the start that the new coupé would not have the performance pretensions of the old.

On the other hand, it would not need to be anywhere near as expensive, and in that respect it would give BMW a credible alternative to the big Mercedes coupés. This time, there was be no outside consultant for the body; it would be designed in-house by BMW’s own styling chief, Wilhelm Hofmeister, who borrowed elements of the Bertone design for the 3200 CS to come up with a light, modern-looking design. Production space was still a problem, but BMW solved that by arranging for the bodies to be built at the Karmann plant in Osnabrück.

Although they had their faults, the E120 models that went into production in 1965 as the 2000 C and 2000 CS were another important stage in the evolution of the big BMW coupés. In terms of sales, they were simply off the scale of previous attempts, selling an average of more than 2700 for each of the five years they were available – eighteen times as many as the 3200 CS had managed. The era of the laboriously hand-built BMW coupé was over. These cars were now mass-produced, even if there was an element of hand-finishing to achieve the quality that the market demanded.

Holding Operation: The BMW-Glas 3000 V8

BMW’s carefully planned engine strategy for the 1960s envisaged the introduction of a six-cylinder companion to the M10 four-cylinder towards the end of the decade. The architecture of the two engines would share a number of characteristics, but the arrival of a six-cylinder would broaden the possibilities for the BMW model range.

In the meantime, the issue of production facilities had to be addressed. It was a problem that not only affected the big coupés, but would also prevent BMW from expanding their range to exploit the new possibilities that a six-cylinder engine would open up. Fortunately, it was solved during 1966, when BMW purchased the ailing Glas company, which had premises not far from Munich, in Dingolfing. Once the Glas site had been redeveloped, BMW’s further expansion could begin.

While the new BMW assembly hall was being constructed at Dingolfing, the Glas workforce had to be retained so that BMW could count on experienced hands for their new factory when it was ready. In order to keep them occupied, BMW maintained two of the old Glas models in production as a short-term measure. One of them was a prestige coupé.

Like the old BMW 3200 CS, the Glas 2600 coupé embodied Italian styling, in this case by Frua of Moncalieri. As a low-volume model, built at a rate of fewer than 300 a year, it had been sold at a much higher price than the BMW 2000 C and 2000 CS, so it presented no threat to the sales of those cars. On the other hand, it did have some notable advantages for BMW. First, it gave the company a prestige coupé further up the market, where it could usefully hurt sales of the rival Mercedes-Benz products. Second, it announced BMW’s intention to stay in that sector of the market, which the company certainly intended to do when the planned new six-cylinder coupés became available.

Newly presented with BMW badges and with the enlarged, 3.0-litre version of their V8 engine, which had been under development at Glas before the BMW takeover, the car became a BMW-Glas 3000 in autumn 1967. BMW had also built the car with Glas badges and the original 2.6-litre V8 engine for the first half of 1967, but production of the revised car lasted less than a year. However, it was important in the story of the big BMW coupés, in that it paved the way for the arrival of the next generation of BMW’s own cars, this time with the new six-cylinder engine.

Italian styling led the world in the 1950s and 1960s, and BMW’s rivals Glas turned to Frua for the design of their big V8 coupé. When BMW bought them out, the car remained in production for a while, now wearing BMW badges and with an enlarged engine. It was called the 3000 V8.

The E9 Coupés

By the time the six-cylinder engine was ready to enter production, in 1968, the 2000 C and 2000 CS four-cylinder coupés had barely been in the showrooms for three years, and still looked fresh. There was no need to design a completely new body yet; Wilhelm Hofmeister’s E120 design would do very well. However, the front end would have to be redesigned to accommodate the longer six-cylinder engine and, while this was being done, the body was also tidied up and modernized, taking on a deliberate family resemblance to the front end of the all-new BMW six-cylinder saloons that were to enter production at the same time. As before, the bodies were made by Karmann in Osnabrück.

Where the 2000 C and 2000 CS had been admired, albeit with reservations, the new six-cylinder coupés – known to BMW by the E9 designation – were immediately seen as masterpieces of design and as excellent value for money, even though they were much more expensive than the four-cylinder cars. They undercut the latest Mercedes coupés on price and out-performed them in every respect too. High cost deterred sales in the USA, but there was no lack of interest.

From 1971, the E9s took on a new 3.0-litre engine, half a litre smaller than the latest Mercedes-Benz V8 but still capable of out-running the coupés from Stuttgart. There was an even more powerful fuel-injected version, too. Coupé sales increased in the USA, even though Federal emissions regulations reduced the power output and the performance of these cars. By now, the 3.0-litre coupés were also making a name for themselves on the race tracks in Europe, and that was a place where their Mercedes rivals would never follow. Gradual development led to lightweight versions, and a 3.0 CSL (CS Lightweight) production derivative as well. Homologated under FIA regulations until 1979, the final racing models boasted 3.5-litre engines that would have an important influence on the next generation of BMW’s prestige coupés.

Once again, sales increased, and over the seven model-years of E9 production they averaged more than 4300 cars a year world-wide – a 63 per cent improvement on their four-cylinder predecessors. Perhaps even more important was the fact that the big BMW coupé was now seen as a fixture in the prestige coupé class and had acquired a semi-legendary status, thanks to that hugely successful racing programme.

This was the way BMW reminded its US buyers of its coupé heritage in the mid-1980s. The 328 roadster was better known in the USA than the 327, and so stood in for the big coupé of the 1930s. In the middle is a 1973 3.0 CS, and at the bottom is a 1984 633 CSi.

The ultimate version of the E9 coupés was the 3.0 CSL, but not ever y car was delivered with the spartan interior and full bodykit of spoilers. This beautiful UK-market car was delivered in 1973, and was ordered with a specification that made it more viable as an everyday road car.

The E24 Coupés

Even though the E9 coupés still looked fresh by the middle of the 1970s, it had been obvious for some time that they would have to be replaced by a very different sort of car. The issue was neither outdated performance nor an outdated appearance; it was the increased emphasis world-wide on crash safety and on control of exhaust emissions. As a result, although many of the powertrain developments pioneered on the E9 coupés were taken forward into the new models, the big coupé range was redesigned from the ground up.

Designed in-house by BMW’s own Paul Bracq, who had earlier been with Mercedes-Benz, these new coupés were known to BMW as E24 types. Once again, BMW declined to find room to build their bodies in their own factories, and sub-contracted the job to Karmann. Early cars for 1976 came with 3.0-litre and 3.2-litre engines, but the 3.0-litre gave way to a more powerful 2.8-litre in 1979 and a new 3.5-litre arrived in 1978. The cars emerged from a major re-engineering programme in late 1982 with lightened bodywork, improved suspension, and engine changes.

These coupés were very different in many ways from the E9s that had preceded them. Their market positioning harked back to that of the 3200 CS in the early 1960s, where prestige and luxury were paramount. BMW regularly used the E24s to showcase new technology, and their image was very different from the more hard-core, performance-oriented one that had been fostered for the E9s. BMW had positioned them as the flagships of the brand, and from the start they were as much about luxury as about speed.

Not that there was any shortage of performance, of course. Not only did the E24s have a successful racing career in Europe (see Chapter 9), but they also gave rise to the ultimate in big coupés from BMW’s Motorsport division: the M635 CSi that was re-named M6 for the US and some other markets. This had a 24-valve version of the 3.5-litre engine that could ultimately trace its ancestry back to the racing E9 coupés of the 1970s, and it took nothing less than a 5.6-litre V8 to produce a credible competitor from Mercedes-Benz.

The ultimate derivative of the later E24 coupé was the M635 CSi, seen here in UK-market guise.

BMW were able to keep these cars in production for far longer than any of their earlier prestige coupés – they remained available for no fewer than 14 years. In that period, they sold 86,216 copies – far more than any of their predecessors – and maintained an average annual figure of more than 6100, which was nearly 50 per cent more than the E9 models had achieved. It was a very long way from the 70 cars a year that the 503 coupé had managed in the late 1950s, and yet these much more numerous cars were still perceived as desirable rarities. That was a marketing triumph of which BMW could justifiably be very proud.

CHAPTER TWO

2000 C AND 2000 CS

When car enthusiasts talk about the classic BMW coupés of the 1960s, they almost invariably limit their discussion to the six-cylinder cars which appeared in 1968 and went on to score some notable victories on the race tracks. But there was another, earlier BMW coupé that actually sired these cars and is just as deserving of the ‘classic’ title. That car had a four-cylinder engine, was introduced in 1965, and is sadly all but forgotten today. Many enthusiasts even call it by the wrong name: even though there was a variant called the 2000 CS, that was not the name for the model. At BMW, it was known as the E120.

The Neue Klasse and Its Variants

To understand where the E120 coupé came from, it is necessary to look first at the BMW product strategy of the early 1960s. Thanks to investment from the Quandt family, the company had been able to effect a remarkable recovery from the doldrums into which it had sunk by the end of the 1950s. The barely coherent model range of big saloons, expensive sports models and economy cars gradually disappeared as those models reached the end of their production life, and in their place BMW staked their future on a new medium-sized saloon.

A subject of earnest discussion! This magnificent example of the 2000 CS now belongs to BMW’s own museum. The bullet shape of the single wing mirror is another typical 1960s touch; it was thought to be more aerodynamic than conventional types and therefore more sporty.

That new medium-sized saloon was called the Neue Klasse (‘New Class’), and it took BMW in a new direction. It created something of a sensation at its launch in 1961, and even though there were problems in getting production under way, by the time the first examples began to reach customers, in the second quarter of 1962, public enthusiasm was undimmed. In many ways, the Neue Klasse – or E14 to the engineers and designers who had created it – represented a new beginning for BMW.

BMW had realized that they were too small to compete against Mercedes-Benz in what would now be called the upper-medium saloon market. They also knew that the market for economy cars had peaked and had begun to dwindle. So they had determined to pitch their new car right in the middle of the market. Their thinking was that, if it succeeded, it could serve as a base for expansion into other market sectors. For the moment, though, it was right to be cautious.

Introduced as a BMW 1500, with the 1.5-litre engine that that name implied, the new four-door saloon was a revelation. It had fashionable Italianate looks that had originated in the design studio of Michelotti in Turin; it boasted sharp handling and excellent brakes, thanks to the use of discs on the front wheels; and its engine was a gem. Known internally as the M10 type, it was a modern overhead-camshaft four-cylinder that had been designed under the leadership of Alex von Falkenhausen, BMW’s long-serving engine design chief. Most importantly, von Falkenhausen had designed his new engine to be stretchable: the design allowed for both bigger bores and a longer stroke if these should be required in the future.

The M10 four-cylinder engine was a quite remarkable design that went on to form the basis of the legendary BMW six-cylinder of the late 1960s. It was designed by the company’s Alex von Falkenhausen. All the carburettor versions looked the same, regardless of actual capacity.

It was not long before bigger bores and a longer stroke were indeed required. BMW’s timing had been fortuitous – at the very time when the 1500 saloon was introduced, the Borgward company that produced its most obvious domestic rival was going under. By 1962, when the 1500 became generally available, Borgward was no longer a player in the car market and BMW in effect had a clear run. As the profits rolled in, so they risked enlarging the engine to produce additional models – first to 1.8 litres, to make the BMW 1800 in 1963, and then to 1.6 litres, to make the BMW 1600 as a replacement for the original model in 1964. A more potent twin-carburettor version of the 1.8-litre powered the 1800 TI of 1964, and this was quickly followed by a special competition version called the 1800 TI/SA, which earned BMW a well-deserved reputation on the race tracks.

Von Falkenhausen had one more trick up his sleeve, and that was to enlarge the bore diameter one last time to produce an engine with a full 2-litre capacity. Although that engine would arrive in the Neue Klasse saloons in 1966, where it would create the new BMW 2000 model, BMW had other plans to implement first.

BMW had been building small-volume, rather expensive grand touring coupés since the early 1950s. The latest of these had entered production in 1962, a year after the Neue Klasse saloons, but it was really something of a place-holder model. Essentially, it married a new coupé body by the Italian styling house of Bertone to the platform and running-gear of the ageing 503. Although a fine car in its own right, it was old-style BMW and could not last in production for long against Mercedes’ advanced new 220 SE coupé, which had set a new benchmark for the type in 1961. It was built laboriously and lovingly by hand, too, and in the new BMW company of the 1960s there was no place for such costly methods of manufacture.

Its replacement was planned as yet another variant of the Neue Klasse, although this time the saloon body would be discarded and there would be a completely new two-door coupé superstructure. The new coupé would also be the first BMW to have the 2-litre version of the M10 four-cylinder engine.To observers at the time, replacing a 3.2-litre V8-powered hand-built coupé with a 2-litre four-cylinder volume-built car might have seemed like madness, but there was method in that madness. First, taking the old V8 engine and the old 503 platform out of production would create valuable manufacturing space; second, the new coupé would use a large proportion of existing production components, which would reduce manufacturing costs; and third, by reducing the showroom cost BMW hoped to be able to sell their new car in larger quantities.

This was one of the very earliest concept sketches for the new four-cylinder coupé. Its lines are already assured, and the sill panel is already shown as being trimmed in bright metal, as on the 3200 CS. The reverse-sloped nose is already in place.