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PressClub Asia · Article.

BMW 02 Series - a cult car turns 35

The BMW Group Mobile Tradition department is placing the 02 Series at the centre of its activities for 2002.

Vintage & Heritage Events

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Cindy Chia
BMW Group

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Munich. Before being designated the 02, the BMW 1600 made its first
public appearance in front of Munich's opera house in March 1966 on the
occasion of BMW's 50th birthday. Delivering 85 bhp, 12.6 mkp of torque
at 3000 rpm, a zero to 100 km/h (62 mph) acceleration time of 13.3 sec
and a top speed of 160 km/h (99 mph), the BMW 1600 was right on the
pulse of the time. After the difficult years of reconstruction
following World War II and the threatened sale of the company at the
end of the 1950s, it was initially the BMW 700 and then, above all, the
BMW 1500 - launched in 1962 as the first car of the so-called "New
Class" - which pointed the way forward for the company. Market
research suggested there was considerable growth potential in compact,
sporty, medium-range saloons. The four-door BMW 1500 saloon fitted the
bill. When the BMW 700 Series was discontinued in 1965, it left a gap
to be filled by a two-door car. The 1600 wasn't merely a successor
model - it utterly redefined this market segment. As the advertisements
of the time put it, this was a car that was "modern, compact,
dynamic, sporty, offering a wide range of features, and striking for
its consistency of style and technology". Clearly, then, this was a
car which drew on values that had already crucially defined BMW's image
before the war. At DM 8,650 the BMW 1600 was priced well below the
level of the New Class and thus had its appeal for a broad category of
buyers. The BMW 1600 was a typical driver's car, "a sports car in a
Sunday suit", as one journalist aptly described it. Its low
waistline and large windows gave it an airy, transparent appearance,
while the engine and chassis proved hard to match in this class. It
came as no surprise that the 1600 was not only voted best compact
saloon of the year, but saw over 13,000 units manufactured in its debut
year. It was the dawn of a new era. The Beatles were at the height of
their career, Cassius "I am the greatest" Clay had mesmerized
the sporting world, and the race between the Americans and Russians to
land on the moon was on. It was the perfect time for a car with the
agility and dynamism of the BMW 1600 to come onto the scene. But it was
also a car to whet the appetite for more. No sooner had the commercial
tuners begun souping up the latest model when the BMW manufacturers
took matters in hand again and, in 1967, launched a version which had
been boosted to 105 bhp: the 1600 ti. Weighing just 960 kg, it delivered
true sports car performance. Naturally enough, it also provided the
perfect prerequisites for motor racing. And so it was no great surprise
when the 02 Series frequently proved unbeatable in virtually all the
car racing disciplines during the '60s and '70s. This is borne out by
numerous German and European titles in saloon car racing, as well as
victories in airfield events, classic circuit races, endurance events
and rally racing, achieved by both BMW works teams and customer teams.
Helping the BMW 02 to win these racing laurels were such legendary
drivers as Hubert Hahne, Dieter Quester, Klaus Ludwig, Harald Ertl and
Hans-Joachim Stuck. The designation 02 Series accompanied the launch of
the BMW 2002 in 1968 to distinguish it from the four-door models of the
New Class, the last digit indicating the number of doors. The model
names of subsequent cars were to follow this example. A wide range of
engine and chassis variants -from the 1502 to the 2002 turbo, from
two-door saloons and convertibles with or without rollover hoops, all
the way to the first Touring model - complemented the range of this
highly popular series which, by 1977, was to notch up a total
production run of 825,000 units. Ultimately, the resounding success of
subsequent generations of the 3 Series was thus also rooted in the
virtues of the 02 Series, which played such a key role in defining the
BMW brand image and became a cult car for a large body of fans. This
was reason enough for BMW Group Mobile Tradition to place the 02 Series
at the centre of its activities for 2002. This model range will be the
focus of the BMW Group stand at the world's biggest classic car fair,
the Techno Classica in Essen, which takes place from 4 to 7 April 2002.
The 02 will also be making its appearance in a number of motoring
events, such as the "Silvretta Classic" and the "2000 km
through Germany", both to be staged in July 2002. In this
connection, we would like to draw your attention once more to the
publication "The BMW 02 Series - The Cult Car" from the
"Profiles" series, which is due to be reissued next year. We
will be informing you of this in a separate mailing in due course.
Photos to accompany this press release can be found at the German BMW
PressClub on the Internet under www.press.bmwgroup.com, heading
"Historie, Mobile Tradition -> Unternehmens- und BMW
Markenhistorie".

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