1956 BMW 503
Getting it right doesn't automatically mean you didn't get it all wrong.
BMW discovered this in the mid-1950s when it introduced the elegantly up-market 503 coupe and cabriolet and followed them up with the even more sensational and exotic 507 sports car.
Powered by a light-alloy V-8, both models easily met the criteria of technological advancement, with the high performance and styling sophistication demanded by the "high society" buyers BMW envisioned queuing up for them. But the opportunistic business plan that led to their creation was primarily premised on success in the land of opportunity on the other side of the Atlantic. And unfortunately for BMW's fortunes, it turned out all but a handful of wealthy Americans could care less about these pretty but overpriced exotics from Bavaria.
They didn't find many European buyers either, although the Belgian royal family and Yugoslavian leader Josip Broz Tito were among those who bought a 503.
Back in 1956 |
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Prince Rainier of Monaco marries American actress Grace Kelly and Stirling Moss wins the Monaco Grand Prix in a Maserati, followed home by a charging-from-behind Juan Manuel Fangio. |
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Elvis Presley tops Billboard's Top 100 music chart for the first time with Heartbreak Hotel. |
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Heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano, considered one of the greatest fighters of all time, retires after 49 victories, the first champ to retire undefeated. |
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Norma Jeanne Baker changes here name to Marilyn Monroe and, after a decade of appearing in lightweight roles, wins a Golden Globe for a dramatic role in the movie Bus Stop. |
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General Electric-Telechron changes the way we wake up with the introduction of the "Snooz-Alarm" bedside clock and our breakfast fry-up is made easier with the introduction of the Tefal non-stick frying pan. |
Of the 507 - which finished up costing $10,500 (U.S.) or 29,500 marks, about the same as a decent house or seven or so Volkswagens - one company exec realistically and presciently noted: "The BMW 507 is not a car that will earn any money. Its main purpose is to represent BMW's tradition of sporty, high-quality vehicles." He wasn't counting on it driving the company to the brink, however.
Noteworthy 507 owners included then-motorcycle racing champion John Surtees (who still owns his), actress Ursula Andress, the Aga Khan, Prince Rainier of Monaco and the kings of Greece and Morocco. Also, The King of Rock-'N'-Roll, Elvis Presley, then serving with the American army in Germany, who was apparently gently conned - he couldn't read the contract, of course - into leasing, not buying as he thought, a used one gently broken in by racer Hans Stuck in a couple of weekend outings. He later swapped it for another one.
When production, which began in 1956, was finally, and as far as BMW's bottom line was concerned, mercifully ended in 1959, only 412 of the 503 and just 251 of the 507 had been built, with just 39 of the latter sold in North America.
About all that was keeping BMW from running completely out of fiscal fuel and coasting to the curb were its motorcycles and the tiny Isetta bubble-car. But after fending off takeover bids from American Motors and Britain's Rootes Group, the neat little 700 series cars were introduced and by 1960, the successful brothers Quandt had become major shareholders. In 1961, the "New Class" of larger cars that was to re-establish BMW's reputation was launched and, well, BMW hasn't been too shabby ever since.
After digging itself out of the rubble of the Second World War, by making bicycles and various items of kitchen kit until resuming motorcycle production in 1948, Bayerische Moteren Werke began producing cars in its Munich plant once again with the big 501 sedan launched in 1951. And it was busy working behind the scenes on the design of an all-aluminum V-8 engine (first used in the 502 sedan of 1954) to eventually power models it believed would leverage the cache created by its pre-war 328 sports cars, some of which had made it to America after being "souvenired" by homeward-bound GIs.
Dual development tracks, one for the four-seater 503 coupe and cab and the other for the two-seat 507 roadster, were laid down in 1954 after prodding from American importer and German marque promoter Max Hoffman.
The first prototypes of the 507 were shown in New York's Waldorf Astoria hotel in 1955, sporting a then-new but now-familiar styling motif. The once vertical twin-kidney grillwork was horizontal, stretching across the sleek nose of the car. It caused a sensation and Hoffman knew he could sell a bunch of them if they went as good as they looked - and if the price was right.
Later that year, the 507 was joined under the spotlights at the Frankfurt auto show by the 503 with its grille taking a more conservative upright stance in front of smoothly attractive coupe and convertible bodywork.
But the cars proved expensive to build, in large part due to bodies hand-formed from aluminum and anticipated volumes never materialized.
Both were based on the chassis of the 502 sedan (the 507 being shortened considerably) and employed its independent front and live axle rear suspension. Aluminum-finned drum brakes were fitted all round initially, later updated to discs. Weight was 1,220 kg for the 507 and 1,500 kg for the 503.
Under their hoods was the latest version of the aluminum V-8, a 3.2-litre, overhead-valve unit with twin carbs rated at 150 hp at 5,000 rpm in the 507 and 140 hp at 4,800 rpm in the 503, and equipped with a four-speed gearbox with a rather un-sporty column shifter. A floor-mounted shifter was added later along with other improvements. The 507 could get to 100 km/h in about 10 seconds and had a top speed of 200 km/h.
About 250 of the 503 models survive to this day and some 240 of the 507s. If you want one of the latter, you might find an owner willing to part with it for $1-million.
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