History

The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's BMW New Class page on 28 July 2023, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The BMW New Class (German: Neue Klasse) was a line of sedans and coupes produced by German automaker BMW between 1962 and 1972. These models ensured BMW's solvency after the company's financial crisis of the 1950s and established the identity of BMW automobiles as sports sedans.

The first New Class vehicle was the 1500, a 4-door compact executive car with the new M10 (at the time called M115) OHC 4-cylinder engine. In 1965, the 2000 C and 2000 CS luxury coupés were added to the range.

The New Class coupes introduced the Hofmeister kink, which has been used on most BMW cars since. Another legacy of the New Class is the iconic 02 Series, which are a shortened version of the New Class sedans.

During the 1950s, the BMW line-up consisted of luxury cars with displacements of two litres or greater, economy cars powered by motorcycle engines, and motorcycles. With their luxury cars becoming increasingly outdated and unprofitable and their motorcycles and economy cars becoming less attractive to an increasingly affluent society, BMW needed a car in the 1.5 to 2 litre class to become competitive. Prototypes powered by a 1.6 L engine based on one bank of the BMW OHV V8 engine were built and evaluated without a convincing result.

In 1960, Herbert and Harald Quandt invested heavily in BMW, and gained a controlling interest in the company. That year, the "Neue Klasse" project was begun. Led overall by Fritz Fiedler, the project had Eberhard Wolff in charge of chassis design, Wilhelm Hofmeister in charge of styling and body engineering, and Alex von Falkenhausen in charge of engine design. The team was to produce a new car with a new engine, which BMW had not done since the 303 in 1933.

The prototype was introduced in September 1961 at the Frankfurt Motor Show as the BMW 1500 four-door saloon, alongside the BMW 3200 CS, the last BMW with the OHV V8.

The term New Class referred to the 1.5–2–liter class of automobiles from which BMW had been absent since World War II.

The engines from the 2000 C and 2000 CS coupes were used in the 4-door sedan body for the 2000 and 2000 TI models. The 2000 sedan, released in 1965, used the 75 kW (101 hp) engine from the 2000 C, and like the 2000 C, it had an option for a three-speed automatic transmission. The 2000 TI sedan, released in 1966, used the 90 kW (121 hp) engine from the 2000 CS with twin Solex PHH two-barrel side-draft carburetors and a higher compression ratio. In addition to its more powerful engine, the 2000 TI also had front and rear anti-roll bars and somewhat wider wheel rims and tires than the 2000.

Intended as an upscale version of the 1800, the 2000 featured unique rectangular headlights, distinctive wide taillights, and more exterior trim. (U.S. government regulations of the period put severe restrictions on headlight shape, so 2000 sedans for the U.S. market replaced the rectangular headlights with two pairs of individual round headlights, similar to the arrangement used a few years later in the BMW 2500 sedan.) The 2000 TI retained the round headlights and vertically-arranged taillights of the 1800 and other earlier New Class sedans, and it was otherwise less well-equipped than its 2000 sibling. Introduced soon after the 2000 and 2000 TI, the more luxurious 2000 tilux combined the 2000 TI's sportier engine and chassis with the 2000's exterior styling and higher-grade interior and accessories, including a wood dashboard and optional leather seats.

In a 1967 test, Road & Track felt that the 2000 sedan was "the best performing 2-liter sedan in today's market and the best handling and best riding as well."

For the 1969 model year, the 2000 got the same general updates mentioned above for the 1800: dual-circuit brakes for reliable braking even in the event of partial failure, better heating and ventilation for the interior, an updated dashboard layout, and a restyled front grille.

In 1969, BMW introduced the final model in the New Class sedan series, the 2000 tii ('touring international, injected'). This was BMW's first fuel-injected model, featuring Kugelfischer mechanical fuel injection. The 2000 tii produced 97 kW (130 hp) at 5,800 rpm and 178 N-m (131 lb-ft) at 4,500 rpm. Apart from its improved, fuel-injected engine, the 2000 tii had features similar to the 2000 tilux; a total of 1,952 examples of it were built.

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