2019-04-01 BMW Car

APRIL 2019 45

BMW CLASSICS

T

he 1950s was a tough decade

for BMW. The post-war period left

it with a Munich plant that had

been ravaged by the war, while its

Eisenach facility was now located

in East Germany. And its line-up of cars

just didn’t reflect what was needed in cash-

strapped Germany – the big 501/2/3 range

of saloons and coupés might have been

technically impressive, but their design was

rather old-hat, and they were far too expensive

to ever be big sellers.

It was BMW’s motorcycle division that

was keeping the company afloat and, in an

attempt to utilise this technology, a new

prototype small car was penned in the style of

the pre-war 327, but utilising the company’s

successful flat-twin 600cc ‘bike engine. But

it was shelved because BMW didn’t have

the money to develop it and, instead, the

company put its resources into developing the

Isetta bubble car.

However, by the time the Isetta arrived,

BMW had, to a certain extent, missed the

boat – the burgeoning German middle classes

were now looking at bigger cars than the Isetta

• but BMW had nothing to offer.

BIGGER BUBBLE

Cue the arrival of the 600 – effectively a

larger, four-seater version of the Isetta. It was

a good idea at the time, as it was relatively

cheap to develop, but it retained the Isetta’s

door-at-the-front design, and buyers weren’t

especially keen. BMW’s designers knew

the company needed a model with more

conventional styling, so they set about making

it happen. New front and rear suspension

assemblies were designed but, for cost

reasons, the 600’s flat-twin, two-cylinder

engine was retained – with a capacity increase

to 700cc – as was the 600’s four-speed,

manual transmission.

The Neue Klasse saloon is oft credited with being the car

that saved BMW but, as Bob Harper explains, without the

700 the company would have folded before the Neue Klasse

left the drawing board. We celebrate the 700’s 60th birthday

Photos: BMW Archive and Matt Richardson

things come in

Good

packages

small

Above: There was plenty of space inside the 700

for four, and even the coupé version didn’t suffer

from a lack of headroom for rear-seat passengers.

Right: The BMW 700 was a surprisingly influential

car. This is an LS De Luxe model, which was

launched in 1962 and was 32cm longer.