In 2008 BMW launched its 1 Collection to the North American market with the US getting the two door coupé and convertible. BMW advertising and marketing was all abuzz with the 1er being heralded because the second coming of the 2002. They went as far as to ship out a ‘child e book’ to consumers of the primary mannequin 12 months vehicles – full with a reproduction VIN sticker, certificates of possession, a number of textual content and footage in addition to a reprint of David E. Davis’ well-known Automobile & Driver article. When a 1 Collection Coupé and a 2002 facet by facet you’ll marvel how anybody may consider a hyperlink between them. However BMW was insisting there was and had gone out of their solution to proclaim it. What was the hyperlink between the 2002 and the 1er? “BMW by Design” and “BMW’s Hidden Gems” books offers an evidence.

The Precursor To The BMW 1 Collection

Within the early 1990’s BMW had bought the Rover Group – after having made an try to buy Porsche. The rationale for the acquisition was that the corporate wanted to develop its manufacturing (and gross sales) to maintain from being absorbed by one other firm – as had nearly occurred to BMW in 1959. Ford had approached the Quandts within the late Nineteen Eighties in an try so as to add BMW to the Ford empire, so the stress was actual. BMW was centered on reviving Rover’s fortunes within the mid Nineteen Nineties and had spent an excessive amount of effort attempting to rationalize Rover’s product. This absorbed an excessive amount of design effort and put different potential merchandise on the again burner. One in all these tasks is described in Steve Saxty’s, “BMW’s Hidden Gems.”

The 1,000 kg Final Driving Machine

With the 12 months 2002 approaching, BMW designers proposed a contemporary equal to the sixties period 2002, the 2K2. The 2K2 gestated at about the identical time BMW was attempting to repair Rover. The 2K2 was designed to be a two-door, three-box automobile based mostly on a pared-back composite bodied model of the E46 chassis then underneath design. The BMW 2K2 venture was much less about being an entry-level automobile than a again to the pure spirit of a 1000kg mild tremendous enjoyable to drive machine.

What a splendidly convoluted story the 2K2 is; how the designers stored after it and thru successive iterations of drawings, and an replace to the three collection platform from E46 to E9x, what lastly emerged was the 1 collection. It handed by way of the arms of three senior designers: Andreas Zapatinas (later head of Alfa design), Thomas Plath (was successfully Bangle’s quantity 2 and former Ford designer of the RS1700T and Sierra XR4i) and Chris Chapman (later head of Hyundai design). In fact, you see a number of the retro design cues within the BMW 1 Collection Coupe as a result of Chapman had 2K2 in his head and so designed it as a two-door. Later, the hatch spun off it.

What a fantastic story the 2K2 is and it’s strengthened in Chapter 3 of BMW byDesign. Steve Saxty has produced a set of books for anybody desirous to get into the ‘sanctum sanctorum’ of BMW. By itself the textual content would suffice however the illustrations, pulled from BMW’s archives, enormously enlarge the expertise. Steve Saxty describes the constraints, company, monetary, bodily, that both whittle away or refine ideas. The fabric, textual content and footage, inform the distinctive story of BMW’s design processes – nearly as for those who had been granted a tour of the FIZ design studios guided by the designers themselves.

[Photos courtesy of Steve Saxty / BMW]