BMW 1500: a different klasse

| 21 Aug 2024

You might not think it now, with a late-model BMW 3 or 5 Series found on almost every street corner across the UK, yet things havenʼt always been rosy for Bayerische Motoren Werke.

In the late ʼ50s, BMW was building beautifully engineered but ferociously expensive V8 cars that few could afford, and the revenue from making Isetta bubble cars under licence barely kept the wolf in interest payments.

In 1959 BMW lost DM15m – a tenth of its turnover – and later that year narrowly avoided being taken over by arch-rival Mercedes-Benz, just up the autobahn in Stuttgart.

The BMW 1500 has a roomy cabin with stylish chequered cloth

Prospects looked bleak.

But thanks to an injection of funds from Harald and Herbert Quandt, who by autumn 1960 owned two-thirds of the company, BMW could afford to develop a bigger model to sell alongside the cute, rear-engined 700 that had started its recovery.

With typical German logic, it was called the Neue Klasse.

Marketing-savvy head of sales Paul Hahnemann saw a gap for a quality family saloon a cut above the lacklustre offerings from Ford and GM.

Had it not been for this understated but stylish saloon, the famous roundel might be just a memory today.

The 1500, shown as a prototype at the 1961 Frankfurt show, courted buyers with a veneer of sophistication rather than the olde-worlde charm favoured by Rover and Triumph.

BMW desperately needed a volume seller in the early 1960s, and its inspired answer set the template for all that followed

Key to getting the message across was aspirational marketing, linking the brand with innovation and achievement – but the car needed to be a looker, too.

Styling was overseen in-house by Wilhelm Hofmeister with collaboration from Giovanni Michelotti: it carried over the crisp, airy look from the Italianʼs 700, itself a kissing cousin of his Triumph Herald.

With twin front grilles separated by the familiar nieren, or kidneys, it was the first BMW to sport what became the trademark ʻsharknoseʼ – later sidelined in favour of Bangle-era cubism.

Beneath the clean-cut exterior, the Neue Klasse set the technical template for most BMWs of the ensuing 40 years: all-independent suspension by MacPherson struts at the front and semi-trailing arms, coil springs and telescopic dampers at the back.

The semi-trailing arms and diff were supported by a subframe, isolated from the monocoque by substantial bushes.

The BMW 1500’s angular design was penned by Wilhelm Hofmeister and Giovanni Michelotti

Up front was a new in-line, overhead-camshaft engine with an iron block and aluminium head, and canted over at 30°.

In the show prototype, the short-stroke ʻfourʼ developed 75bhp, but when the car went on sale in September ʼ62, Alex von Falkenhausenʼs engineering team had raised the unitʼs compression ratio from 8.2 to 8.8:1 for another 5bhp – enough to take the 1050kg saloon to 60mph in about 15 secs and 94mph flat-out.

If youʼd pitched up for a test drive in your 1.5-litre, 55bhp Taunus in 1962, the BMW must have been a revelation – with 25bhp more than the Ford in a car weighing about the same.

As BMWʼs engine guru, Paul Rosche, said: “It might not feel so quick now, but back then it was bloody fast.”

True, you need to work the motor to keep up with modern traffic, yet thatʼs no hardship because the sweet-revving 1499cc engine never feels strained; itʼs a little noisy under load, but quiet when cruising.

The BMW 1500’s eager overhead-camshaft ‘four’ makes 80bhp

Itʼs easy to keep up its enthusiasm, too, with a long-throw yet slick Getrag four-speed gearbox.

Pressing on through bends reveals sporty handling at odds with the understated image.

Youʼd swear the steering is via rack and pinion, so light and precise is the ZF-Gemmer worm-and-roller mechanism that was designed for the least play at the straight-ahead.

It helps that this lovely, mostly original Caribe blue 1963 example has only done just over 64,000km: the steering box has probably never needed adjustment.

Even on 165-section Toyo radials, it grips deceptively well.

The BMW’s neat VDO dials sit in the painted dashboard

The car rolls more than an Alfa Romeo Giulia, yet it feels just as composed and rides better with its well-damped, long-travel suspension.

The disc/drum brakes need a good prod – thereʼs no servo – but respond well once you’ve adapted to the firm approach.

Inside, thereʼs colour, style and flair – all of which went AWOL in BMWʼs late-ʼ60s all-black cabins.

Broad, comfortable seats are faced with herringbone-patterned cloth, with matching flashes in the doors.

The chic painted dash could be a French take on Americana, with a chromed horn push in the huge wheel and a small clock between the two large VDO dials – one the speedo, the other including water temperature and fuel plus warning lights; all three have neat metallic-grey centres.

Thereʼs even a hazard flasher switch: a big, translucent red knob to the left of the dials.

The BMW Neue Klasse was the first to wear the trademark sharknose

All-round vision is exceptional – the scenery perfectly framed by narrow pillars front and rear.

The only detail it lacks is the elegant, knurled quarterlight knobs of later models.

The massive boot has more than enough room for the average Bavarian family outing to the Alps, too.

Did the public go for it? Not half.

With a launch price of DM9000, demand for the new model easily outstripped the initial 50 per day build rate, which was tripled within a year.

It took BMW back into the black, and in ʼ63 shareholders received a dividend for the first time in two decades.

The stylish BMW 1500 came just in time for the Munich car maker

In less than two years, 23,807 1500s were sold; the range blossomed with the 1800, later to sprout twin carbs as the Ti and ultimately bored out to become the 2000 in ʼ66.

Sadly, the hot rod of the range, the fuel-injected 130bhp 2000Tii, was never made in right-hand drive.

With help from the modelʼs two-door sibling, the 2002 range, BMW cracked the worldʼs biggest car market: about a third went to the USA.

The firm never looked back.

Only by the turn of the decade, after 340,845 had been sold, did the Neue Klasse start to look dated and the range was replaced in 1972 by the first 5 Series – but you can never imagine one of those being as stylish as this charming 1500.

If only modern BMWs had such charisma.

Images: Tony Baker

Thanks to: BMW Classic

This was first in our April 2004 magazine; all information was correct at the date of original publication

Factfile

BMW 1500

Sold/number built 1962-’64/23,807
Construction steel monocoque, with subframes front and rear
Engine iron-block, alloy-head, sohc 1499cc ‘four’, single-choke Solex carburettor
Max power 80bhp @ 5700rpm
Max torque 87lb ft @ 3000rpm
Transmission four-speed manual, RWD
Suspension independent, at front by MacPherson struts rear semi-trailing arms, coil springs, telescopic dampers
Steering ZF-Gemmer worm and roller
Brakes discs front, drums rear
Length 14ft 9¼in (4502mm)
Width 5ft 7¼in (1708mm)
Height 4ft 9in (1448mm)
Wheelbase 8ft 4½in (2553mm)
Weight 2315lb (1050kg)
Mpg n/a
0-60mph 15 secs
Top speed 94mph
Price new DM9000 (in 1962)