BMW 3200 CS

BMW
BMW 3200 CS
532
Sales designation:	3200 CS
Production period:	1962-1965
Class :	Upper class
Body versions :	Coupe
Engines:	Otto engine : 3.2 liters (118 kW)
Length:	4850 mm
Width:	1760 mm
Height:	1470 mm
Wheelbase :	2835 mm
Empty weight :	1450 kg
Previous model	BMW 503

The BMW 3200 CS (internal type 532), also called "Bertone" is a superclass - automobile , which at the 1961 IAA presented and February 1962 to September 1965 at BMW in Munich in collaboration with Bertone was built.

history

It is the later successor of the BMW 503 Coupé to the BMW 501/502 "Baroque Gel" series and is technically based on this, but the body structure is not made of aluminum as in the 503, but conventionally made of sheet steel, and was not made for the Body manufacturer Baur, but produced at Bertone in Turin. The bodies were then transported by rail to Munich and completed at BMW.

The design of the car is one of the first by Giugiaro , who spent his apprenticeship at Bertone and gave the car a restrained Italian-looking sports car line with panoramic windows and frameless side windows. Two prototypes were made as early as 1960, but since BMW was in a severe sales crisis at the time, it was not possible to decide whether to build it, because despite the high price of almost 30,000 DM, the high-quality and handcrafted large BMW cars were considered loss-making. The 3200 CS was luxuriously equipped, among other things it was one of the first German cars with electric window regulators . It offered a generous amount of space and trunk for the car class, but was hardly noticed when it was presented at the IAA 1961, as the long-awaited “New Class” ( BMW 1500 ) that was presented at the same time attracted everyone's attention. Marketing by BMW was also weak. During the entire production time, it was not subjected to any test by the leading German automobile magazine, in contrast to competing models from Mercedes or even Alfa Romeo .

The BMW 3200 CS was the last BMW with a traditional frame construction without a self-supporting body. The gearbox (as in the 501/502, 503 and 507) was not attached directly to the engine, but rather attached to the frame at the level of the front seats and connected to the engine by a short cardan shaft. There were no seat belts as standard. With front double wishbones and torsion bars, the chassis was very complex. Different rear axle ratios could be ordered, but no 5-speed gearbox. Unlike the Mercedes Coupé, there was no power steering, and disc brakes only on the front wheels. Characteristic stylistic elements of the BMW 3200 CS such as the typical BMW C-pillar with the so-called Hofmeister kink were repeatedly adopted and continued by BMW in subsequent coupés such as the "slit eye coupé " 2000 C / CS or the six-cylinder coupé (E9) .

Front view

The 3.2 liter V8 aluminum engine with double carburetors develops 160 hp and allows a top speed of 200 km / h.

Around 600 BMW 3200 CS were built by 1965 (some sources speak of 532, others of 603). Of these, about 1/3 should still be ready to drive or to be put into a ready-to-drive state.

A facelift was carried out with chassis number 76.176: changes from the sheet metal dashboard to a wooden version, standard leather seats, a fan with viscous coupling and the gearbox flanged directly to the engine are the main changes.

BMW 3200 CS Cabriolet by Herbert Quandt

BMW 3200 CS rear view

inner space

A convertible was built as a one-off for BMW main shareholder Herbert Quandt , as a thank you for his financial and personal commitment in the renovation of BMW in the early 1960s.

In order to have sufficient capacity for the new BMW 02, which was offered in addition to the four-door models from 1966, BMW stopped manufacturing the V8 Coupé in 1965. This marked the end of the era of BMW luxury vehicles. After the takeover of the Glas company in Dingolfing at the end of 1966, the Glas V8 continued to be built with slight changes as the BMW V8 until 1968.

The next eight-cylinder coupe developed by BMW itself was the BMW 8 Series from July 1993 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ BMW - Not broken . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , February 24, 1960, ISSN  0038-7452 , p. 32–33 ( spiegel.de [accessed on January 11, 2013]).
2. ↑ BMW 503, BMW 507 and BMW 3200 CS Bertone model overview. (No longer available online.) BMW V8 Club, formerly the original ; Retrieved January 11, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
3. ↑ BMW V8 Club - registration numbers. BMW V8 Club, accessed January 11, 2013 . 
4. ↑ BMW 3200 CS Cabriolet - the one-off . In: BMW Group Mobile Tradition (Ed.): Mobile Tradition live . No. 1 , March 2003, p. 19 .

Web links

Commons : BMW 3200 CS  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files