Driving John Surtees’ BMW 503 Cabriolet

By Charlie Calderwood

| 5 Jun 2023

Classic & Sports Car – Driving John Surtees’ rare BMW 503 Cabriolet

By most quantifiable measures, the BMW 503 was a failure.

The same could be said for all of the ‘50-series’ cars, which sold in lower numbers than hoped and weren’t profitable.

But just take a look at this car and try to call it a failure.

Motorsport legend John Surtees bought this BMW 503 Cabriolet in 1992 and made subtle improvements during his 25-year ownership

There’s the elegant profile, emphasised on ‘our’ example by its two-tone paintwork, with that chrome side strip kicking up at the back to add the lightest touch of flair.

Or the luxurious door cards, with their opening drawers much more akin to a piece of high-end furniture than anything normally found inside a road vehicle.

The glovebox, meanwhile, has an aluminium lid that’s heavier and better built than most cars’ entire dashboards.

The luxurious 503 Cabriolet was a flagship BMW in the 1950s

No, this can’t be a failure; as a pure piece of craftsmanship and design, the 503 is truly uncompromising in its pursuit of perfection.

Focus on the owner’s experience, rather than that of BMW’s shareholders, and it’s a triumph.

An unprofitable product usually means a good deal for the consumer, after all.

The 503 was certainly the former despite its price: the cabriolet was Germany’s most expensive car when new.

Although no photographs exist of Surtees with this 503 Cabriolet, small clues of his custodianship can be found

Yet very few took BMW up on that offer.

It was first available in the UK in left-hand drive via sole concessionaire AFN, to little success, and then as a special order in right-hand drive.

This particular example was commissioned by a wealthy East Anglian doctor, Dr Bee (hence the numberplate), and was one of two 503s displayed at the Earls Court Motor Show in 1957 as BMW tried, largely in vain, to drum up more British interest.

The two-tone paint adds flair to the BMW’s design

Following the general theme of the 503, the re-engineering to right-hand drive was uncompromising.

The aluminium dashboard, designed to strengthen the car laterally, was entirely re-cast for what would turn out to be just five right-hand-drive examples, three of which were cabriolets such as this.

BMW had originally aimed for a much larger export market with both the 503 and its lithe, sportier 507 stablemate: the USA.

The simple wheels complement the BMW 503 Cabriolet’s stylish body

Talks were held with famous European car importer Max Hoffman, who set a target price of $5000.

But BMW wasn’t yet ready for mass production, and its small, labour-intensive factory was much better deployed making fewer, more expensive vehicles than attempting any kind of volume production (aside from the tiny Isetta).

With Hoffman backing out of the venture when the price of the 503 came back at $8000, very few ever made it to the United States, and nearly all of the 412 built were sold in Europe.

‘Although the 503 is built with the same quality as a drophead Bentley or Benz, BMW’s famous driver-focused DNA is detectable’

Naïvely, the BMW board believed that if it built the best car possible, it would attract the required price-tag and sales.

Having lost its main automotive factory behind the Iron Curtain, there was a need to re-establish the marque.

A car that would serve as a beacon of German craftsmanship was the answer, according to BMW’s management, who put off development of the mid-range products that eventually became the company’s speciality.

The BMW V8 struggles at first in cold weather – it took 20 minutes to warm during our test

Most car makers claim to build the best car possible, but you need only look at the BMW close-up to see the stubbornness of its engineers in the face of cost control.

Hand-formed aluminium bodywork envelopes the car, including huge doors attached by bank-vault-style hinges that disappear into the front wing.

The hood, unique in Europe at the time in its powered operation, is hydraulic and folds back in just 15 secs in near silence.

The 503’s toolkit is in the engine bay, not the boot as in later BMWs

And the engineering beauty is more than skin-deep.

The front suspension is an advanced dual-wishbone set-up that sports kingpins lubricated from a feed via the steering box, negating the need for manual greasing.

The steering itself is a pinion-and-segment (also known as vector-and-pinion) design that works much like a modern system, but the straight rack is replaced by a 180º gear.

The BMW 503 Cabriolet is an impressive piece of craftsmanship, even if it didn’t sell well

Early 503s also featured a remote, shaft-driven gearbox separate from the engine, although this was later replaced by a more conventional set-up, including in all of the right-hand-drive cars.

So it wasn’t just marketing spiel when BMW said it was building a car to the highest-possible standard, and while the cost proved too much for most, those who did take the plunge often fell in love.

One such buyer was John Surtees.

The 503 blends ride comfort with a distinctly sporting firmness that enhances driver appeal

While still focused on racing on two wheels, the future Grand Prix ace took delivery of a BMW 507, the two-seater roadster that shares most of its componentry with the 503, in 1957.

Even he, then a world champion motorcycle racer, couldn’t afford the car outright, but Count Agusta (of MV Agusta) part-funded the purchase, the motorcycle supremo having promised a present when Surtees won him the 500cc World Championship.

Surtees owned that car from new until his death in 2017, and its full story, from the man’s own keyboard, featured in C&SC’s August 1996 edition.

This classic BMW’s cabin has a solid, sophisticated feel

Surtees acquired a taste for 50-series BMWs and in 1992 bought BEE 46.

It had been sitting, largely unused but well preserved, in AFN’s private collection for 25 years, Dr Bee having returned to the dealer 10 years after buying the car to trade it in for a Porsche, of which AFN had since become a distributor.

Decades later, when Porsche bought AFN outright, the BMW was up for sale – and Surtees was tipped off.

There’s a self-tuning Telefunken radio in this 503 Cabriolet

A new set of Koni dampers was built for the car by the retired racer, and they still wear a ‘SURTEES’ stamp on their castings today.

Surtees also added his own design of gearshift extension, identical to one long since fitted to his 507.

In both cars, he said, the original stick was a bit of a stretch – a consequence of the 503 being originally designed with a column shift.

Surtees designed his own gearshift extension for his 503 Cabriolet

Later, the 503 received an anti-roll bar of Surtees’ own design, and the front disc brakes – although fitted many decades earlier – also owed their existence to the former F1 champion.

His 507 had been the development vehicle for BMW’s plan to fit its cars with Dunlop discs.

Like many of the 50-series cars, BEE 46 subsequently had vacuum-assisted discs retrofitted by BMW a few years after its manufacture as a result.

As with his 507, Surtees owned the 503 until his death.

Kurt Bredschneider designed the 503 but the styling was finalised by Albrecht Goertz, who later claimed the overall design

It was these BMWs’ ability to combine comfort with sporting appeal that he loved, and this car, peppered with traces of the man, still holds up to that brief remarkably well today.

Although the 503 is built with the same quality as a drophead-coupé Mercedes-Benz or Bentley, BMW’s now famous driver-focused DNA is still detectable.

It’s as comfortable over bumps as you’d expect, but not via pillow-like springs.

There is a degree of firmness in the secondary ride, but the BMW isolates its interior from rough surfaces incredibly well.

This BMW 503 was ordered with a 507-spec speedometer from the factory

The Surtees-modified front suspension allows it to turn in with a real sense of agility: this is a tonne-and-a-half car once there’s some fuel in it, but it is rewarding where a Bentley would be boring, and comfortable where an Alvis would be jarring.

And then there’s the engine…

At start-up it’s a tame-sounding unit, as refined as an unevenly burbling crossplane V8 can ever be, and it’s at this moment the BMW feels most American in influence and intent.

The door cards feature opening drawers

Although benefiting from all-aluminium construction, the V8 is otherwise of a simple pushrod design.

But it’s small by US standards, and once on the move it is reassuringly European in character.

You find yourself holding the car in third while winding through the country lanes, using the engine’s torque from about 2800rpm to its redline, a range in which it is responsive and enjoyable if not truly fast.

The sound builds to a mechanical thrum, but it never becomes raucous.

As well as improving the suspension and brakes, Surtees also added a higher-flow fuel pump

It’s too large a car to really throw around these lanes at ten tenths, but the chassis enjoys being hustled with a bit of pace.

The front suspension is always utterly composed, and while the rear is much simpler in its specification, sheer weight seems to keep it in check – it doesn’t bounce around over poor surfaces like many a live axle.

It’s the inherent stiffness of the car that provides a real sense of confidence, though, as further evidence of its over-engineering.

The 503’s V8 has a European flavour

There is not a trace of scuttle shake, and, while the odd rattle of interior trim never slowed anyone down, the lack of sound and general sense of solidity along a typically poorly surfaced British road give an impression of complete control.

The unassisted steering is unusual in design, and takes a bit of getting used to.

Presumably because of that segment-shaped steering gear – a set-up most commonly seen on ride-on lawnmowers today – it’s reasonably quick and light in the first movement off-centre, but becomes heavier and slower the more extreme the steering angle.

Specially ordered with right-hand drive, BEE 46 was delivered new to a wealthy East Anglian doctor, Dr Bee

It isn’t an issue once up to speed, when steering inputs become smaller.

The promise of the system was to be play-free, and certainly it has less looseness than most contemporary steering boxes, with just the slightest hint detectable.

It’s a precise system overall, if not the most communicative.

‘The Surtees-modified front suspension allows it to turn in with a real sense of agility’

It may simply be because we’re having a bit more fun with this BMW than many 503 owners did.

Not only does ‘our’ car have suspension improved by Surtees and those retrofitted brakes – which, incidentally, are very good by late-’50s standards – but BEE 46 also seems to be making more power than it should.

This time, however, it isn’t the work of the late motorsport hero.

The August 1996 issue of Classic & Sports Car featured Surtees and his much-loved BMW 507

Surtees never modified the unit beyond adding a higher-flow fuel pump, but the compression of the engine is raised, and a rolling road has shown it to produce 155bhp – the power figure of a 507.

It seems this is how the car was ordered from the factory, because the speedometer is also a 507-spec item.

A right-hand-drive 503 Cabriolet was already a special order, so presumably such an alteration was little extra effort.

In terms of road cars, Surtees was most associated with his 507

Today, the BMW is cared for by Michael Grenfell, who purchased the car three years after Surtees’ death at Bonhams, two years after the same sale house sold his 507.

As the road car with which Surtees was associated more than any other, his 507 broke the auction record for the model by a substantial margin, at £3.8m.

Conversely, no photographs survive of him with the 503 – which seems almost fitting for one of BMW’s most forgotten cars.

The 503’s latest owner, Michael Grenfell, appreciates its provenance

“Surtees didn’t seem to care very much for cosmetics,” says Michael, who picked up a car with good bodywork, well-sorted suspension and a healthy engine (once it had been woken from three years of inactivity), but scruffy in some of its details.

With its carpets replaced, the steering wheel and gearknob resurfaced and the chrome refreshed, the BMW now looks as good as when Surtees bought it in 1992.

Astoundingly, the bodywork, paint and all the interior (bar that carpet) remain original.

“Surtees and Dr Bee were both very slight men,” says Michael, “that has probably helped keep the car in such good shape.”

Images: Tony Baker

Thanks to: BMW Car Club GB

Factfile

BMW 503

Sold/number built 1956-’60/412 (all 503s)
Construction aluminium panels over steel perimeter frame and ladder chassis
Engine all-alloy, ohv 3169cc V8, twin Zenith carburettors
Max power 138bhp @ 4800rpm
Max torque 159lb ft @ 4800rpm
Transmission four-speed ZF manual, RWD
Suspension: front independent, by double wishbones rear live axle, A-frame; torsion bars, telescopic dampers f/r
Steering pinion and sector
Brakes discs front, drums rear, with servo
Length 15ft 7in (4750mm)
Width 5ft 7¼in (1710mm)
Height 4ft 8¾in (1440mm)
Wheelbase 9ft 3½in (2835mm)
Weight 3309Ib (1501kg)
0-60mph 13 secs
Top speed 118mph
Mpg 15-20
Price new £4806 17s (1957)
Price now £200-250,000*