BMW 337

BMW
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337
Production period:	1940 (single piece)
Class :	Upper class
Body versions :	Pullman limousine
Engines:	Otto engine : 3.5 liters (66 kW)
Length:	approx. 5000 mm
Width:	approx. 1700 mm
Height:	approx. 1500 mm
Wheelbase :	3120 mm
Empty weight :	approx. 1400 kg
Previous model	BMW 335
successor	BMW 505

The BMW 337 was a passenger car developed by Bayerische Motoren Werke AG ( BMW ) between 1938 and 1941 . It was the largest BMW model ever intended for series production from the Eisenach automobile plant .

The plan was a four-door Pullman limousine of luxury and upper class with advanced body - Design , hatchback , elegant einmodellierten fenders and 3.5-liter six-cylinder - inline engine (link to the image :). Other body styles were also planned. Because of the Second World War , BMW could no longer start the planned series production . In 1940, only a roadworthy pre-series chassis was built for testing purposes .

background

In the 1930s, BMW gradually ventured into ever higher vehicle classes. From 1936 onwards, the BMW 326 was built , which had a 2.0-liter six-cylinder in-line engine and, for the first time, a spacious four-door instead of two-door sedan body as standard . The BMW 335 , presented in 1938 and built in series from 1939, had the newly designed 3.5-liter six-cylinder in-line engine with 66 kW / 90 hp , also with a four-door sedan body from Ambi-Budd in Berlin or a convertible body (two or four-door) by Autenrieth . However, the 335 was a compromise for reasons of time and costs: The new engine was combined with an extended, modified chassis of the 326 . The passenger cells were also largely identical, only the front end of the 335 was extended due to the larger engine.

With the even larger and more modern body 337 , BMW wanted to finally establish itself in the upper and luxury class in the 1940s and against competitors such as the Audi 920 (3.3-liter six-cylinder, wheelbase 3100 mm) and the Horch 930 V. (3.8-l V8, wheelbase 3200 mm) or the Mercedes-Benz 320 (3.4-l six-cylinder, wheelbase 3300 mm).

History of origin

The BMW "Artistic Design" department, responsible for the BMW design at the time, developed various body variants for the planned luxury-class BMW 337 from 1938 to 1941 . Wilhelm Meyerhuber was in charge. In addition to a Pullman limousine, the plans also included a normal limousine, a convertible and a coupé .

Experience with other models was incorporated into the body design: the test car BMW K1 (1938/39) and BMW K4 (1939/40), each based on the BMW 335 , the racing sedan based on the sporty BMW 328 , developed for the Mille Miglia 1940, as well as the BMW 332 , the planned successor to the BMW 326 for 1940 .

In 1940 only a single drivable pre-series chassis was realized. This was intended for Professor Wunibald Kamm and his Research Institute for Automotive Engineering and Vehicle Engines ( FKFS ) in Stuttgart in order to build another Kamm car with a streamlined body after the test cars K1 and K4 . The body designs intended for series production from 1941, however, were less futuristic and more modern, sporty and elegant with clear echoes of contemporary American design.

Series production ceased after the effects of the Second World War had intensified. Without this turning point, BMW might have managed to catch up with the then premium brands Audi , Horch and Mercedes-Benz with the 337 before 1945 .

Typology

The BMW 337 , like all new pre-war BMW cars planned for series production , had a model designation with three digits and a "3" at the beginning , starting with the 303 model (1933–1934). There is no connection with the designation BMW 3 series, which was only introduced in 1975, for relatively compact, sporty BMW models in the middle class. The model name also does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the displacement, as was possible for a long time with the current typology.

The BMW model 337 is not to be confused with the BMW engine 337 or 337/1 ; The latter refers to the six-cylinder in-line engine with a displacement of 2.0 liters, as it was used in the BMW 501 in the 1950s and as an industrial and built-in engine .

Vehicle model details

The BMW 335 (here four-door convertible), the basis for the planned larger BMW 337

The BMW 3200 S , here as a representative limousine, a one-off from 1963 with a raised roof, extended rear, doors hinged in the front and modified front - as a Pullman limousine, an intellectual descendant of the BMW 337 planned for 1941

Body and equipment

A new body design was planned for the 337 , which - similar to the 332 - would have differed significantly from the typical BMW lines. It would have been more modern, sporty and elegant, but in contrast to the 332, it would still have indicated curved fenders instead of a pure pontoon body . Features were the headlights elegantly incorporated into the front, relatively close together , the significantly rounder front compared to the 335 (partly without the brand-typical BMW kidney grille ) and large windows with a split windshield . On the sidelines of the sedan, the hatchback, the large third side window, the fully covered rear wheels and - similar to the 332 - a striking chrome trim strip on the lower edge of the body were noticeable (continuous from the rear edge of the front wheel opening to the rear).

With the 337 , influences of American automotive design could be recognized for the first time at BMW , such as the Chrysler Airflow , the Lincoln Zephyr or the early Mercury of the pre-war period, which in turn were influenced by the German aerodynamics pioneer Paul Jaray with their rounded shape .

When arranging the doors of the 337 sedan, BMW relied on the tried and tested principle of the 326 and 335 models , ie front doors hinged at the back (so-called " suicide doors ") and rear doors hinged at the front. The doors were hinged in opposite directions on the B-pillar .

Chassis and running gear

The 337 had the reinforced chassis and running gear of the 335 , whose wheelbase was lengthened by 136 millimeters to 3120 millimeters. The chassis of the 335 was based on that of the 326 . The latter had already been extended by 234 millimeters to 2984 millimeters for the 335 . The 337 thus also had a drop-center box frame with a front suspension consisting of upper wishbones and a transverse spring at the bottom and a track width of 1306 millimeters. At the rear, the 337 had a rigid axle with two longitudinal spring bars and a track width of 1,404 millimeters. This was considered to be more comfortable, but less sporty than the rigid axle with semi-elliptical leaf springs of the 327 and 328 , which better met the demands of the 337 as a luxury vehicle. It had rack and pinion steering and hydraulically operated inner-shoe drum brakes on all four wheels with a cable-operated handbrake on the rear wheels.

engine and gears

The 337 was to receive the newly designed engine of the 335 , i.e. the water-cooled six - cylinder four-stroke in-line engine with 3485 cm³ displacement and long-stroke design ( bore 82 millimeters, stroke 110 millimeters). Like the smaller 2.0-liter version, it had a crankshaft with only four bearings and a side camshaft with overhead valves ( OHV valve control ) that were operated via bumpers and rocker arms . In contrast to the 2.0-liter version, the camshaft of the 3.5-liter version was not driven by a duplex chain , but by Novotex spur gears. With a compression of 1: 5.8, the engine equipped with two double register carburetors developed 66 kW / 90 PS at 3500 revolutions per minute. The power was transmitted in the usual way via a single-plate dry clutch to a manual four-speed gearbox with rear-wheel drive .

Influence on subsequent models

The only pre-series chassis of the BMW 337 has been considered lost since the Second World War.

Individual design features of the planned BMW 337, such as the striking front design in the area of ​​the headlights and the transition to the bonnet, were found in the BMW 501/502 in the 1950s , as well as the principle of the modeled-in front and rear fenders.

BMW took up the idea of ​​a Pullman limousine twice in the 1950s and 1960s: on the one hand, in 1955 with the BMW 505 , a prototype based on the 502 , which was only built twice , and on the other hand, a one-off from 1963, a representative limousine based on the BMW 3200 S for the Bavarian Prime Minister Goppel .

To date (as of February 2010), no efforts by BMW have become known to have a replica of the 337 made, as happened, for example, with individual prestigious 328 racing versions.

literature

• Halwart Schrader : BMW automobiles . tape 1 : From the Wartburg and Dixi to the BMW 3200 CS Bertone 1898–1962 . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-613-02343-1 , p. 225 .
• Werner Oswald , Eberhard Kittler: All BMW automobiles since 1928 . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-613-02080-7 , p. 61 .
• Horst Mönnich: BMW, a German story . Zsolnay-Verlag, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-552-04124-9 , p. 258, 261 .
• Princeton Institute for Historic Research (Ed.): Automobile quarterly. Volume 40, Issue 4, 2000, p. 49 (English).

Web links

• Wilhelm Meyerhuber: Design drawing, BMW 337 convertible. In: BMW history. BMW AG, July 28, 1939, accessed on March 21, 2018 (drawing in the BMW Group Archive): "With the roof closed, woman standing behind the car" 

References and comments

1. ^ Image of the BMW 337 as a Pullman sedan (model) , accessed on March 16, 2010.
2. ↑ Design drawing of a BMW 337 Cabriolet on the BMW-classic.de website  ( 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. , accessed March 16, 2010.  
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Werner Oswald, Eberhard Kittler: All BMW automobiles since 1928. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, p. 61.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Description of the BMW 337 on a BMW Power website , accessed on March 16, 2010.
5. ^ Werner Oswald, Eberhard Kittler: All BMW automobiles since 1928. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, p. 124/125.