For the past few decades, BMW has been one of the world’s most successful motor manufacturers and one of the best-known brands on the planet. However, they almost didn’t make it into the 1960’s – in fact, in 1959, they were in serious financial difficulty.
Despite its high profile and famous owners such as John Surtees, Elvis Presley and Fred Astaire, the stunning 507, one of my all-time favourite classics, almost dragged the company into bankruptcy – only 252 were built, and at a considerable loss to BMW. It wasn’t just the 507, though – the almost as glamorous 503 hadn’t been much better, with only 413 built and it, too, was discontinued in 1959.
Besides these two very high-end Grand Tourers, BMW offered a pair of premium saloons, the 501 and its V8-engined sibling the 502, or Baroque Angels, which were also only bult in moderate numbers, with only 21,807 examples of all derivatives (excluding the 503 and 507) built over a decade.
The rest of the model range in the ‘50s was made up of the three-wheeled Isetta and four-wheeled – but still very small – 600…so we have a model range of extremes, with nothing for the average family motorist.
As a result, BMW found themselves in dire financial straits, with the Bavarians having to fight off a take-over bid from their Stuttgart based rivals Mercedes Benz in December 1959. Indeed, that gap wouldn’t be filled until the launch of the Neue Klasse range in 1961, the car that is often cited as being the one that rescued the company and there is no doubt that the NK models created the foundation for BMW’s recovery through the 1960’s to emerge over the following decades as one of the world’s greatest – and most profitable – motor manufacturers.
However, the real beginning of BMW’s recovery was started in 1959 by a small rear-engined car with a 2-cylinder 697cc motor bike engine that pumped out just 30bhp – the BMW 700 series.
Designed by Italian genius Giovanni Michelotti (making him arguably responsible for rescuing BMW), the 700 series was launched as a saloon and a coupé at the Frankfurt Motor Show in the summer of 1959. 25,000 orders were taken at the show, providing BMW with an immediate financial fillip, and the first coupés rolled out of the Munich factory gates in August that year, with the saloon following in December.
Both saloon and coupé utilised an enlarged version of the engine from the 600, as well as a lengthened version of that car’s chassis – itself based on the Isetta – but on top of this Michelotti created a very modern-looking small car, with subtle fins and a large glasshouse, giving at least the illusion of spaciousness even if the reality was not quite so roomy, especially in the case of the coupé with its lowered roof line. In many ways it resembled nothing less than a small version of a contemporary American car.
It was the first BMW to be built using a monocoque body, saving some 30kg in weight, In fact, the car weighed less than 600kg dry, so that 30kg represented a 5% weight saving, important when your engine was only producing 30bhp.The monocoque construction also reduced building costs, vital to BMW at the time.
As a result, this little BMW was able to reach a maximum speed of 125km/h, could hit 100km/h in c.30 seconds and returned fuel consumption figures of 6 litres per 100km, equivalent to 47mpg.
In common with the Isetta and 600, the engine was mounted at the back, and was air-cooled, the last time BMW would build a car with this configuration.
Contemporary adverts courtesy of BMW700.net
Journalists praised the car’s performance and relative spaciousness, as well as its handling, and the 700’s initial success continued, and by April 1960 BMW were building 155 examples a day (it took them three years to build 252 507’s), with sales that year totalling 35,000, despite strong competition from the long-established VW Beetle in it’s home market, as well as the likes of the similarly-configured Renault Dauphine and Floride/Caravelle range; the latter in particular is also stylistically similar to the 700.
The 700 was also a motor-sport success, competing in and winning its class in rallies and hill-climb competitions, sometimes with Hans Stuck at the wheel, and this influenced the development of a faster version of the 700, the 700 Sport. Launched in 1960, the Sport boasted a 33% increase in power output to 40bhp, and a higher top speed of 135km/h. It also took a full 10 seconds off the 0-100km/h time, so while in absolute terms these might seem like minor gains, they were in fact proportionately considerable. BMW also campaigned a special-bodied sports version of the 700, the 700RS, which Hans Stuck also raced with some success.
Further upgrades were made to the range with the introduction in early 1961 of the more luxurious 700 De Luxe and the 700 Convertible, built by Baur of Stuttgart, with the latter having the Sport engine as standard. The soft-top was the pinnacle of the 700 range, and only 2,576 were built, and it is the most sought-after version today.
In 1962, a major change was made with the lengthening of the 700’s wheelbase, by over 30cm, making the previous illusion of space more of a reality, especially for rear-seat passengers. Power was also increased marginally, to 32bhp, and the model names now were 700LS and 700LS De Luxe, with the LS standing for (lange), and in 1964, the Coupé also received the longer wheelbase and became the 700LS Coupé – just 1730 of these were built.
By 1965, BMW had sold 188,211 700s of all variations, of which 41,554, or 22%, were Coupés and by this time the NK range was well established and the company’s focus moved to these larger and more profitable cars – the rest, as they say, is history. However, the 700 had done its job, and can legitimately lay claim to being the car that saved BMW.
This brief run through the model’s history brings us to our Prime Find for this week, for it is of course a BMW 700, but not just any 700. What we have is a 1960 Coupé in a fetching colour combination of pale blue body and darker blue roof, with pale grey/cream striped upholstery, sitting on plain steel wheels. This very smart-looking little car is on sale with a dealer in Belgium, and by 700 standards is pretty expensive – indeed, at current exchange rates it comes in at just over our usual £20k limit (it’s on at €22,500, which equates to £20,245 at the time of writing). While this might seem a lot for a small BMW, a 1964 LS saloon is on the market for £21,250, and restoration projects are available for £6-7,000, so these little but important parts of BMW’s history are clearly in demand.
There isn’t a great deal of information on the dealer website other than to say that the car has been the subject of a full restoration, that the car is in “perfect condition” and based on the photographs, they may well be right. Mileage is a very modest 97,583km or less than 60,000 miles, not much over a 60-year period if it’s accurate.
I have to say that I think these cheerful and charming small BMW’s look great, especially the coupés, and although I’ve never driven one, I wouldn’t mind betting that they’re enormous fun. This lovely-looking example would certainly attract attention in the UK, where only nineteen 700s of all types are on the road. Of course, this one is LHD, but as the number of RHD examples is probably in low single figures, if you really want a 700 in the UK, you’ll almost certainly have to accept LHD; in most other countries, of course, it makes no difference at all.
As per our usual practice, we have borrowed a few photos from the dealer’s website – you can see the full advert here. Also as per usual, we advise arranging an inspection before buying, if possible.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co