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- Herausgeber: The Crowood Press
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
The E30 3 Series was the car that defined BMW more than any other during the 1980s, and it has gone on to become a much-loved modern classic. This book tells the full story of the cars from the time in 1976 when work first began on the successor to the original E21 3 Series. This new book features the story of how and why BMW designed their new compact E30 saloon for the 1980s; the styling, engineering and specification changes introduced over the lifetime of the model. There are full technical specifications, including paint and interior trim choices given along with a chapter on the special US variants. Details of the M3 and the cars produced by the leading German tuners and finally, there is a chapter on buying and owning a BMW E30.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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BMW E30
THE COMPLETE STORY
JAMES TAYLOR
First published in 2021 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR
www.crowood.com
This e-book first published in 2021
© James Taylor 2021
All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 78500 873 3
Cover design by Maggie Mellett
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The E30 3 Series was the car that defined BMW more than any other during the 1980s and it has gone on to become a much-loved modern classic. There are owners who enjoy it in pristine original form and owners who see it as a car on which to try out their own modifications.
BMW’s small six-cylinder engines were a stand-out success in the E30 3 Series.
The car is capable of pleasing both types – it always was good at pleasing a variety of customers. From those who settled for a base model 316 all the way up to customers for a 325i, from two-door to four-door to convertible and Touring estate, it was a range that spread its appeal as widely as possible. It inevitably attracted the top tuners of its day, too, and at the other end of the scale it became a base for BMW’s experiments with battery power. Most successfully, this was one of the models that demonstrated how diesel power did not have to mean poor performance.
Of course, the most glamorous version of the E30 was the M3, which was the first BMW to bear that name. In this book, I have deliberately covered only the road-going versions of that remarkable machine and have set it in the context of the rest of the E30 range. However, if the M3’s competition history is of particular interest, allow me to put in an unashamed plug here for my book BMW M3, The Complete Story, which, like this one, is published by The Crowood Press.
Finding the photographs for this book gave me the excuse for an enjoyable sift through my picture archive and reminded me of how helpful BMW GB were to me when I first starting writing about these cars many years ago. The BMW Classic Archiv in Germany has provided a good selection of interesting pictures to help tell the story and I am grateful to Magic Car Pics and to my friend Nick Dimbleby for many of the others in this book. Special thanks also go to those people who have made their pictures freely available through WikiMedia Commons; they are acknowledged individually in the captions.
James TaylorOxfordshireSeptember 2020
TIMELINE
1982
Initial availability as 316Two-door and Baur convertible
19831983 (spring)
Availability of 318i, 320i, 323iFour-door saloon introduced
1984
325e with 2.7-litre ‘eta’ engine for USA
1985 (Sep)
M3 previewed at Frankfurt Motor ShowFull convertible previewed at Frankfurt2.5-litre engine replaces 2.3-litre325iX with four-wheel drive324d becomes first diesel E30
1986
Production of M3 and convertibles begins KAT models go on sale in Germany
1987 (Jun)1987 (Sep)
First experimental battery-powered E30sMid-life faceliftTouring estate introducedNew M40 engine for 316i and 318i324td introduced
1989
New 318iS model with four-valve M42 engine
1991 (Apr)
Final E30 saloons built
1992
Electric E30s participate in Rügen island trials
1993 (Apr)
Final convertibles built
1994 (Feb)
Final Touring models built
The Cabriolet models were strong sellers after their 1986 introduction – and in M3 guise were highly sought-after.
CHAPTER ONE
THE E30 RANGE IN CONTEXT
The BMW product strategy that came together during the 1970s has since become a model for the rest of the car industry. It was beautifully simple and at its heart was a philosophy that aimed to foster lifelong marque loyalty. The three-tier product range – which has since been considerably expanded to tackle ‘niche’ sectors of the market – consisted of basic designs with three clear and easily understood names. These names were 3 Series, 5 Series and 7 Series (a 6 Series was added later), and within each series there would be a range of models, so organized that the top ones merged almost seamlessly with the next series up in the hierarchy.
The first of the 3 Series ranges was the E21 – this 316 model was the entry-level type for most of its production run. The E21 was a very neat design that had a strong influence on the E30.
The strategy was deliberately and strongly hierarchical. The 3 Series cars were compact saloons designed primarily to appeal to younger buyers, but within that range there were also models that would appeal to older buyers who wanted to downsize their cars without sacrificing too much comfort or performance. Next up was the 5 Series, a range of medium-sized family saloons that were aimed at an older group of buyers, whose requirements of a car were rather different from those of the 3 Series buyers. Then at the top of the tree, and aimed at top managers and company directors, were the large and luxurious 7 Series saloons. All these ranges were distinctly BMW in character and all of them were designed with a family resemblance so that there could be no mistaking them for any other maker’s products.
By the time BMW started work on the E30 3 Series models in the mid-1970s, that core range of three hierarchical ‘series’ was firmly established. BMW had gone through some lean times between 1945 and 1960, but with a new product philosophy for the new decade it gradually established itself as a major player among the German car makers. The 1960s range grew up piecemeal, beginning with a medium-sized four-door saloon and gradually developing to include a cut-down two-door version of it, a big saloon and a closely related big coupé. But the rationalization that occurred as these cars fell due for renewal in the following decade was hugely impressive.
Next in the BMW hierarchy was the 5 Series medium-sized family saloon. This one is a first-generation E12 model, with the original specification that was introduced in 1972.
The top of the BMW saloon range was the 7 Series. This one is an E32 model; despite the deliberate big-car look, it shares many design cues with the 3 Series and 5 Series saloons of its time.
The first model to embody the new philosophy was the replacement for the medium-sized saloon, launched in 1972 as the 5 Series range. Three years later, the two-door models were replaced by a new 3 Series range. Two years after that, the 7 Series was announced as the top range of luxury saloons. In the meantime, BMW had also found the resources to replace its big coupés with a 6 Series range in 1976. So it was into this well-structured world of strong-selling cars, all with the vital ingredient of sporting appeal that was a BMW hallmark, that the new E30 3 Series range was born in 1982.
With hindsight, it is easy to see that the E30 3 Series was pivotal in establishing the BMW company of today. It sold very strongly all around the world, setting a standard for compact saloons to which other makers aspired. It was not always the best car in its class; its premium pricing often raised questions about the value it offered for the money, yet it was always in demand. Bolstered by a very strong image, the E30 3 Series always seemed to offer something that rivals did not, with even Mercedes-Benz coming off second best when it introduced a rival range in 1982.
Sometimes, the image associated with the E30 range was not entirely positive. The cars were carefully designed and specified to appeal to an emerging group of consumers that became known as ‘Yuppies’ – the name was an abbreviation of Young and Upwardly-mobile – and in some quarters that consumer group’s attitudes were strongly disliked. Being a Yuppie involved being pushy, successful and following the latest fashion trends, and there was a strong suspicion that many E30s were sold to such buyers simply because they were the latest fashion trend. Perhaps that was true, but BMW laughed all the way to the bank.
Most importantly, the E30 range actually had the credentials to support its popularity. The cars were very well built by the standards of the time. They were also supported by an excellent warranty and by a very high level of dealer service. Dealer support was expensive, but buyers generally accepted the cost because they knew that they were getting what they paid for; there were several other car makers whose dealers did not enjoy such a good reputation. On the whole, the E30s were very reliable, too – and reliability is the one criterion that appeals to every buyer of a new car.
BMW’s aim with the E30 range was obviously to establish a strong following from customers who would later move on to buy a 5 Series, and so on. So right from the start, the company knew that it had to make this series of cars quite literally the foundation of its range. The wider the appeal, the more customers who would potentially become BMW owners for life, with the result that the E30 3 Series was broadened far beyond the scope of the 3 Series that had preceded it in the 1970s. That range had consisted of two-door saloons (and approved ‘targa-top’ conversions). The new range certainly started with two-door saloons and similar conversions, but it expanded over the years to include four-door saloons, convertibles and estate cars as well. Its range of engines may have started with a small 4-cylinder petrol type, but it soon expanded to include 6-cylinder petrols and 6-cylinder diesels as well.
US regulations required extended bumpers before the E30 models were introduced and BMW wanted to avoid the over-bumpered look that this 1980 US-model E21 presented.
A very important element right from the start was for the E30 range to give BMW a secure footing in the USA. By the end of the 1970s, American buyers recognized the sporting appeal of BMW models, but the company was still something of a niche player in the market. The E30 had the job of changing perceptions of its manufacturer so that the BMW name became part of the automotive mainstream in the USA. It simply had to meet not only the unique legal requirements about exhaust emissions and safety in the USA, but also the aspirations of a largely (but not exclusively)Yuppie target audience in a country where wealth generally seemed to be on the increase.
So BMW put an enormous amount of effort into keeping the E30 abreast of US requirements and, despite the performance-sapping effects of some of the relevant legislation, its efforts were amply rewarded. Total sales of 350,000 E30 models across the Atlantic were a cause for jubilation as production of the cars ended in the 1990s – but they were just a stepping stone to the greater things expected of its replacement.
BMW AND NUMBERS
There are multiple numbers associated with the BMW marque and seasoned enthusiasts reel them off without a second thought. For anybody new to the marque, however, they can initially be very confusing. So, for the benefit of readers new to the world of BMW, here is a brief explanation of some of the key number codes.
Model Codes (Badges)
In the early 1970s, BMW established a model naming system that was the height of clarity and which has been the envy of most other car manufacturers ever since. The company used codes that were based on a hierarchy of different ranges: the smallest models were the 3 Series; the medium-sized saloons were the 5 Series; and the luxury flagship saloons were the 7 Series.
These numbers were then combined with an engine size (sometimes approximate) to produce a three-figure combination. Thus, a 318 was a 3 Series with a 1.8-litre engine, a 520 was a 5 Series with a 2.0-litre engine, and a 735 was a 7 Series with a 3.5-litre engine. Suffix codes were added to indicate further variations, including ‘i’ for injection, ‘d’ for diesel, ‘s’ for sport and ‘e’ for economy. Inevitably, there were exceptions and anomalies: the E30 316, for example, had a 1.8-litre engine, but in less powerful guise than the 318i with the same size of engine.
Design Codes (Types)
In this period, BMW gave its designs a number code prefixed by the letter E, which is generally agreed to have stood for Entwicklung (development). So the models covered in this book were E30 types, and they were preceded by the E21 3 Series range and were followed by the E36 3 Series range. Their contemporaries of the 5 Series range were E28 types, and so on.
These number codes were not always allocated sequentially and there are several gaps in the sequence, which are probably accounted for by projects that did not become production models. Much later, having allocated the numbers up to 100, BMW started a new sequence with an F prefix, moving on to G codes after that.
Engine Codes
By the 1980s, all engine types were identified by a three-digit code beginning with M – which stood for the German word Motor, or engine. So, for example, some of the engine types that figure in this book are the M10, M20 and M42.
BMW produced several of its basic engine designs in multiple sizes. The M20 6-cylinder, for example, came in 2.0-litre, 2.3-litre, 2.5-litre and 2.7-litre sizes. Beginning in 1980, a new and more precise coding system came into use that combined the basic engine type with the size of the individual variant and with a letter to indicate the fuel type. These letters were either B (Benzin, or petrol) or D (Diesel). Typical full type codes were therefore M20B25, which is the 2.5-litre variant of the M20 petrol engine; M21D24 is a 2.4-litre M21 diesel engine; and M42B18 is a 1.8-litre M42 petrol type.
When the Motorsport division began to design its own engines, these were given an S prefix code. The one relevant to this book is the S14 type used in the M3, which in original guise was coded as S14B23 – a 2.3-litre version of the S14 petrol engine.
LOOKING BACK
BMW was by no means always so well respected as it had become by the start of the 1980s. Only a decade and a half before the first 3 Series was introduced in 1975, the company had been in very bad shape indeed.
BMW had established a well-deserved reputation for sporting machinery by the time World War II began in 1939, but that war was not kind to the company. Its main factories ended up in the Soviet-occupied sector of the country after 1945, with the result that everything within them was seized in the name of war reparations. So although BMW still had headquarters in Munich, the company had a long way to go to build up to its pre-war state. Motorcycle production began hesitantly in 1948 and several prototype cars were built in the late 1940s, but it was 1951 before the company was satisfied that it had the right design and although the 501 was displayed in public that year it did not enter volume production until 1952.
A DISPARATE RANGE
The 501 was the first of a family of big, sturdy middle-class saloons that kept BMW in the car market right through until 1964. These cars are now affectionately known as ‘Baroque Angels’, but that nickname was first applied when they were current as a rather disdainful reference to their styling, which dated very quickly. Deliberately drawn up to suggest continuity with the BMWs of the 1930s, whose styling was quite advanced for its time, they were soon out of step with developments in the 1950s. So Baroque Angels they became, because their flowing and bulbous lines reminded German observers of the carved wooden figures in south German and Austrian churches of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Baroque period.
In the 1930s, BMW had made its name with elegant sporting machines like this 327 model, which was built towards the end of the decade.
Starting off with an updated version of the pre-war 2-litre 6-cylinder engine, the Baroque Angels were supplemented from 1954 by a 2.6-litre V8 of advanced design that added around 50 per cent more power, and the range was broadened with coupé and convertible bodies. Extra equipment produced the 502 range in 1955, now with the option of a 3.2-litre V8 as well. By the early 1960s the renamed 3200 Super model with this engine boasted 160PS and had become the fastest saloon then made in Germany and amongst the fastest in the world.
Unfortunately, sales were largely confined to West Germany and were never large. BMW tried to crack the American market with a 503 coupé and convertible, configured as sleek grand touring cars and using the Baroque Angels’ chassis and running gear; it also tried to get a foothold in the USA with the 507 roadster, which used that superb V8 engine again. But there were production delays and the cars were formidably expensive, with the result that better-organized Mercedes-Benz made hay in the US market while BMW struggled.
The styling of the post-war 501 saloon deliberately recalled the pre-war models and as a result dated quite quickly. This ambulance, with body by Heidemann, is actually based on the later, but very similar, 502 model.
All of these models were intended for a fairly wealthy clientele who wanted large, powerful and prestigious cars, so their sales were inevitably limited as a result. In order to achieve volume sales, BMW decided that it needed a small car. The one it settled on was right at the other end of the scale and was not one of its own design, but rather an Italian ‘bubble-car’ called the Isetta.
The Isetta was made by Iso S.p.a., which was primarily a manufacturer of motor scooters and three-wheeler utility vehicles. The company had introduced the Isetta in 1953 as cheap city transport, using one of its own motor scooter engines to power the closely spaced twin rear wheels. BMW, of course, already had a thriving motorcycle business and chose to use one of its own engines instead, building the rest of the car in Germany under licence from Iso. Production began in 1955 and the car was pitched at buyers who were only just embracing motorized transport in Germany – and there were many of them in the years before the German Economic Miracle got under way. In the mid-1950s, a BMW Isetta cost just one-fifth as much as the cheapest of the company’s 501 Baroque Angel saloons. It sold quite well, but not well enough to offset the losses that BMW sustained when motorcycle sales nosedived in the later 1950s.
The Baroque Angels were favoured as official cars into the early 1960s. This turnout in BMW’s home state of Bavaria was for an official visit from the Vice-President of Cyprus in 1963.
This elegant 503 convertible used the running gear of the Baroque Angels. There was a coupé version, too, and both were designed to appeal to US customers.
Once again using the V8 engine, this was the 507 roadster. An excellent car in its own right, it lost out on sales to the contemporary Mercedes-Benz 300SL – although Elvis Presley famously had one.
By the mid-1950s, the range looked like this. The picture shows BMW’s stand at the 1955 Frankfurt Motor Show, with Baroque Angels, 503s and a 507 on display. Also shown is a 505 limousine, a model that was cancelled after just two had been made.
Even so, BMW used the Isetta as a stepping stone to designing its own small and affordable car. This was called the BMW 600 and was introduced in mid-1957. It was unashamedly intended as an enlarged Isetta with more power (this time from BMW’s 582cc motorcycle ‘twin’) and a more conventional four-wheel configuration. Although its front end was barely changed from the Isetta’s, it had a longer wheelbase to accommodate four seats, as well as a conventional full-width rear axle. The independent suspension that BMW drew up for this was a semi-trailing arm type that would later be scaled up and would be seen on almost every new BMW car for the next four decades.
The little Isetta bubble car was something of a contrast and represented a desperate attempt to get a big-volume seller into the showrooms. This is an early model, with the rather awkward side glazing.
Later versions of the Isetta had a (slightly) bigger engine and also a redesigned glass area.
Almost a ‘proper’ car – but not quite! This was the BMW 600, essentially an enlarged Isetta with a more orthodox wheel plan.
Unfortunately, the 600 did not sell well and certainly never matched BMW’s expectations. One reason was its cost: the 600 was not much cheaper than an entry-level VW Beetle. The other reason was that buyers in the late 1950s wanted cars that looked like cars and were losing interest in the small cars associated with post-war austerity. So the next stage was for BMW to stretch the 600 to make a more conventional-looking small car called the 700. This appeared in 1959, was BMW’s first unitary-construction car, and was again powered by an engine that had started life as a BMW motorcycle unit. Even though the 700 was more expensive than a VW Beetle, it had the advantage of slick Italian styling by Giovanni Michelotti and in six years of production it sold more than 188,000 examples, which made it the company’s bestselling car since 1945.
That was all very well, but the 700 had arrived too late to prevent a financial crisis. In December 1959, just as the first 700 saloons were reaching customers, BMW called a general meeting of shareholders. The company’s accounts for the year were showing a loss of 15 million Deutschmarks on a turnover of 150 million Deutschmarks and the meeting showed strong support for a proposal from the bank, which was BMW’s chief creditor, that the company should sell out. The most likely buyer was Daimler-Benz, parent company of the Mercedes-Benz marque.
However, this proposal was blocked by a substantial minority of shareholders. They voted for a counter-proposal to find another source of funding that would allow BMW to remain independent and, to cut a long story short, two businessmen who already owned a substantial proportion of BMW shares began to increase their holdings. By the autumn of 1960, some two-thirds of BMW shares belonged to the brothers Harald and Herbert Quandt and BMW once again had funds.
Another step towards a mid-range volume car was the 700, with attractive styling by Michelotti. This is the coupé version; there were saloon and convertible versions as well.
SLOW REVIVAL
The obvious next step for the marque was to reduce its dependence on such a widely disparate product range, with economy cars at one end and expensive luxury models at the other. What BMW needed was a medium-sized family saloon that better met the needs of a majority of car buyers, and the result of some fairly frenzied but tightly focused design work appeared in prototype form at the Frankfurt Motor Show in autumn 1961. Sales of the BMW 1500, or Neue Klasse (New Class), began a year later and despite some initial teething troubles the car soon gained its advocates. It had distinctive Italianate looks, a gutsy 1.5-litre engine and good handling. Its arrival was also perfectly timed to suit buyers in the class where Borgward had reigned supreme in Germany until its demise a year earlier.
The engine was one of the 1500’s most outstanding features, a brand-new 4-cylinder drawn up especially for the car. The company’s Alex von Falkenhausen had designed it to be stretchable up to 2.0 litres in size in order to allow for a long production life; the first enlargement was an 1800 in 1964. A 1600 then replaced the 1500 and from 1966 there was a 2.0-litre 2000 as well. This used a variant of the engine originally prepared for the 2000 and 2000CS coupés of 1965, which used the Neue Klasse’s floorpan.
The Neue Klasse was also the car that ultimately fathered the 3 Series range. In 1966, it was cleverly developed into a short-wheelbase two-door model, which was keenly priced and more sporting in nature. It allowed BMW to move the four-door saloons a little further upmarket and also to gain a foothold in a new market. By sheer good fortune, the short-wheelbase two-door model – familiarly known as the ‘02’ type – caught on in a big way in the USA and BMW was able to build on this. Its replacement was the first of the 3 Series, the E21 range. Meanwhile, the original four-door saloons had been replaced by the first of the 5 Series models. So by the mid-1970s, the modern BMW range was finally taking shape.
Success came at last via the BMW 1500 medium-sized saloon. The original cars had round headlamps, as seen here, while the raked ‘shark’ nose would remain a BMW characteristic for many years.
With the 2-litre engine, the car that had started life as the 1500 took on different headlights. This is a 2000TI model, which went on to become a formidable track racer.
Shortening the medium-sized saloons to produce a sporty compact two-door was a stroke of genius. This is a 1600-2 model from the later 1960s.
The Baur cabriolet was first seen on the 02 models and was successful enough to be repeated for the E21 3 Series. This UK model shows the attractions of the design, with a folding rear roof section and removable panels over the front seats, but fixed sides and a rigid rollover bar. The attractive spoked wheels were not an original fitment.
CHAPTER TWO
DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
When BMW started work on the design of the E30 3 Series in July 1976, the E21 3 Series that it was destined to replace had been on sale for less than a year. Coincidentally, 1976 was also the year when Mercedes-Benz started work on its W201 190 Series that would be a direct challenge for the new BMW when the two cars were released in 1982.
It was no real surprise that BMW should have begun thinking so early about the eventual replacement for its latest model. Car designers always have a fund of bright ideas that become apparent during the development of a new model, but arrive too late to be incorporated in it. These ideas are held over for future use, influencing the next generation of products; and so the cycle is repeated. This ensures continuity of approach, which is usually a good thing, and there was no doubt that the design of the E21 models had prompted a lot of the thinking that went into the E30 project.
MAIN AIMS
The E30 3 Series would nevertheless have a bigger part to play in BMW’s overall product strategy than its predecessor. The E21 had been designed to exploit and to build on the company’s success with the 02 range of compact two-door cars that had been introduced in the mid-1960s as deliberately sporting machines. But by 1976, developments in the wider world were obliging BMW to plan for a larger proportion of its products to be compact cars.
The E21 3 Series that was due for replacement embraced both 4-cylinder and small-capacity 6-cylinder engines. One of each is seen here, the twin-headlamp car being the 6-cylinder type.
The driving factor behind this planning was the need for improved fuel economy. After the 1973 Oil Crisis had caused major increases in the cost of petrol, fuel economy became a very important factor in most buyers’ thinking when choosing a new car. Compact cars with small engines used less fuel than larger cars with large engines and the E21 3 Series was the only range that BMW had in production that fitted the bill. As it stood, however, it had a quite limited appeal: family buyers were on the whole not very enthused by a two-door saloon with limited legroom in the rear that had been designed to suit buyers who prized its sporty handling and performance.
It was fairly obvious, then, that the next generation of 3 Series cars should be expanded to incorporate a family-oriented model, which implied four doors and an increase in size to deal with that poor rear legroom. Yet it would have been entirely wrong to abandon the loyal customers who were buying the existing two-door E21s, so the new range would have to include a two-door model as well, and at least some of its models would need to offer similarly sporting performance and handling.
Fuel economy would figure high on the priorities list. The company had already begun work on a diesel engine (seeChapter 6) that was initially intended to reduce the fuel consumption of its medium-sized saloons. Fine-tuning of existing petrol engine designs in the 3 Series would certainly improve their performance, if not dramatically, and careful work on gearing would make a further contribution. There would have to be weight reduction as well, as weight has a negative effect on fuel consumption.
Yet there were some highly desirable features of the existing 3 Series that should not be lost. BMW therefore planned that the new E30 should not deviate too far from the existing models. It could be a little larger, but not too much. It should offer better handling (the engineers already knew of the E21’s tendency to sudden oversteer, which did not endear it to family buyers). But the E21 also had an undeniable style that many similarly sized saloons did not, so that would have to be retained. The new range might have to cater for customers turning away from the larger and more expensive 5 Series models, which would affect such things as equipment levels and engine sizes and types.
As a result, the E30 had to be drawn up partly as a continuation of what the E21 range stood for, but also to broaden its scope considerably. It had to be partly conservative, but also fresh and new at the same time, in order both to retain existing customers and to attract new ones. It would also need to have the reassurance of familiar BMW characteristics. The brief, as so often in the automotive world, must have sounded impossible at the time – but in meeting it, the BMW designers and engineers created a car that would be an extremely important one in the evolution of their company.
APPEARANCE
It was in 1976 that Claus Luthe joined BMW to replace Paul Bracq as the head of its styling department. Luthe had earlier been with NSU, for whom he had designed the striking Ro80, but when he started work on designs for the E30 a year later he must have been constrained by the need for the car to look a lot like the existing E21 models. Rounded profiles and a more conscious use of aerodynamic shapes were beginning to influence designers by this time, not least because better aerodynamics promised better fuel economy at higher speeds, and some aerodynamic studies were done for the E30 project. However, Luthe decided against pursuing this latest trend too slavishly and no doubt conservatism within BMW supported him in this: ‘It would not be a BMW if we went too far’, commented one of the presenters at the press launch in 1982, when asked why the production car did not exhibit more obvious aerodynamic characteristics.
The E28 5 Series that was introduced in 1981 was a stylistic bridge between the E21 and the E30 ranges. It was Claus Luthe’s first major design for BMW.
Within BMW, Luthe clearly wanted a new approach, so to take charge of exterior design for the E30 he recruited Boyke Boyer from Ford of Germany. Another senior member of the exterior design team was Ercole Spada, who had joined BMW in 1976 after brief periods at Ford and Audi, but who had for many years before that been the chief designer at Zagato in his native Italy. No doubt the first stage, as usual, was the review of sketched proposals from several more junior designers, but Luthe also decided to call for suggestions from outside the company and in 1978 he asked Giorgetto Giugiaro’s ItalDesign company to put forward ideas on a full-size model.
Styling chief Claus Luthe is seen here early in his career at BMW with a scale model of one of the company’s saloons.
Luthe had earlier been at NSU, joining BMW in 1976. This picture shows him in his earlier job, with a scale model that looks quite radical for its time.
The NSU Ro80 that Luthe designed was certainly radical, but its shape has stood the test of time. So has the one that Luthe designed for the E30, even though it was criticized for its conservatism when new.
