the BMW CENTURY,

245 Pages·2022·126.953 MB·English

by  TONY LEWIN

THE
2ND EDITION
BMW
TONY LEWIN
CENTURY
FOREWORD BY TOM PURVES

THE
2ND EDITION
BMW
TONY LEWIN
CENTURY
FOREWORD BY TOM PURVES
© 2022 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.
Text © 2016, 2022 Tony Lewin
Second edition published in 2022
First published in 2016 by Motorbooks, an imprint of The Quarto Group,
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ISBN: 978-0-7603-7377-4
Digital edition published in 2022
eISBN: 978-0-7603-7378-1
Originally found under the following Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lewin, Tony.
Title: The BMW century : the ultimate performance machines / Tony Lewin.
Description: Minneapolis, Minnesota : Quarto Publishing Group Inc.,
Motorbooks, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016015442 | ISBN 9780760350171 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: BMW automobiles--History. | BMW motorcycle--History. | BISAC:
TRANSPORTATION / Automotive / History. | TRANSPORTATION / Automotive /
Pictorial. | TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Automotive.
Classification: LCC TL215.B25 L493 2016 | DDC 338.7/629222--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016015442
Acquiring Editor: Zack Miller
Project Manager: Madeleine Vasaly
Art Director: Brad Springer
Cover Design: Cindy Samargia Laun
Interior Design: Brad Norr
Layout: Simon Larkin, Cindy Samargia Laun
All images courtesy BMW AG PressClub and BMW Archive except as noted otherwise.
Cover: BMW’s M2 does much to capture the spirit of the original E30 M3.
Back cover: The 2002 was the original BMW sport coupe.
Front endpaper: The svelte 507 is one of BMW’s most beautiful designs.
Back endpaper: The original M3 faces off with BMW’s latest M car.
Front case: BMW 2002 Turbo.
Back case: 2020 BMW M4.
On the title page: BMW’s Berlin dealership in 1929. Clearly visible are the just-launched 3/15
sedan and the R62 motorcycle, complete with Steib sidecar.
Printed in China
Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1 High Flier from the Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2 The Power to Fly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3 The Power of Six . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4 The Boxer Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5 War and Postwar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6 Thinking Small . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
7 The Quandt Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
8 Flights of Fancy: BMW’s Concept Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
9 The von Kuenheim Years, Part I: Bound for Glory . . . . . . . . . . . 86
10 Power, Performance, and Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
11 The von Kuenheim Years, Part II: A New Style Emerges . . . . 108
12 The Boxer and After . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
13 The M Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
14 Adventure and Misadventure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
15 From Disaster to Dominance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
16 BMW Unlocks the Mini Phenomenon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
17 The Finest Car in the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
18 Powering through the Downturn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
19 BMW Steers Towards a Sustainable New World . . . . . . . . . . . 222
20 Shock of the New: BMW Launches Into the Electric 2020s . . 230
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Bibliography and Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Courtesy Royal Automobile Club
Foreword
By Tom Purves, former Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall, London
For twenty-five years I worked for BMW, first as sales post–Second World War era—BMW was innovative in all areas.
director and then as managing director of BMW (GB) Ltd. The light weight of the 328 sports car in the 1930s, the early use of
in the 1980s and 1990s. Following this I was sales director digital engine management systems in the 1970s, and the clever
of the Rover Group during the period of BMW ownership. front fork design and pioneering ABS for the motorcycles of the
I then spent nearly ten years as president of BMW North 1980s—all these are examples of BMW’s flair for innovation.
America and chairman of BMW US Holding Corporation However, when Tony Lewin asked me to write the
before completing my professional career within the foreword to his book, I reflected on the single most important
group as chief executive of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. element which has given the company its enormous success
at Goodwood. As I had started my life in the automobile in modern times. I worked under the group chairmanship
industry, forty-three years earlier, as a student engineering of Eberhard von Kuenheim, Bernd Pischetsrieder, Joachim
apprentice at Rolls-Royce’s car division at Crewe, it was a Milberg, Helmut Panke, and Norbert Reithofer. The single
fitting and fulfilling conclusion. focus each one gave to the long-term success of the company
BMW is a company run by engineers. As an engineer and their clear insistence that no one, least of all the top man,
turned sales and marketing man, I revelled in never having to was more important than the company, contributed more
justify poor design, poor development, or poor manufacturing: than anything else to the achievements of the organisation.
whilst I was always aware of the relatively low esteem in which The atmosphere in management ranks was never complacent:
sales people were once held at BMW, I considered that a price it was always demanding, and, like the engines powering
worth paying for an exemplary product to sell. the products, it was certainly highly efficient. These strong
At its happiest as an engine maker—think of the power of leaders, who never forgot they were directing a car company,
the early radial aero engines, the torque of the boxer motorcycle all held the belief that if you built the best products, people
engine, or the silky smoothness of the six-cylinder petrol engines would buy them. And this is how BMW has achieved its
that did so much to characterise the sports sedans of the remarkable success.
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Foreword