Since I wrote my bio of Paul Bracq in 2018, a lot more BMW material has come to light. Olivier Guin over at Car Design Archive has been constantly feeding in new snippets, Adam Wade at Rare Classic Cars & Automotive History has conducted a revealing interview with Bob Lutz, Steve Saxty has put out a three-volume set of BMW styling work and Remco Slump at Autovisie has provided the exact date of a Bertone scoop that everyone including me has been getting wrong. Plus I’ve also managed to dig up some images that put Giovanni Michelotti at the centre of the E12.
In this extract, I try to map out more precisely the relationship between BMW, Michelotti and Bertone just as Bracq was joining the Munich firm.
In 1966 Wilhelm Hofmeister of BMW got in touch with Nuccio Bertone.
BMW had just assimilated elements of the Bertone-bodied 1961 3200 CS, styled for the carrozzeria by Giorgetto Giugiaro, into the factory-shaped 1965 2000C/CS coupe.
Nuccio only recently lost Giugiaro and his replacement was Marcello Gandini. BMW came calling just as Gandini had debuted with the Lamborghini Miura – which made him at once the equal of his peers.
Hofmeister was seeking a possible future language for the marque in the guise of a sedan and briefed basic specifications; wheelbase of 2550 mm, track 1340/1390 mm and four cylinder 1800/2000 engine up front.
Unlike the public-facing 3200 coupe, this was an internal study for BMW eyes only.
Bertone, along with Giovanni Michelotti, had been consulted by BMW in the mid to late 1950s to help update the Munich firm’s saloon shape.
Michelotti emerged as the primary player of the two; styling the air-cooled rear-engined BMW 700 in 1959.
«Neue Klasse» arrived in 1962, and was a brilliantly indirect riposte against the more conservative Mercedes-Benz. It literally saved BMW during a period of boardroom turmoil and potential takeover by the pointed star.
Hofmeister instructed Georges Bertram to extrapolate a four-door from work provided by Michelotti. The shark-like face and general body language evolved considerably from the 700, but familial continuity was there. The shapes Neue Klasse spawned propelled BMW forward; the nifty and nimble 02 coupe, then – eventually – the long and lithe E9 coupe.
In 1966 Neue Klasse earned a 2 litre engine, but the trapezoidal headlights couldn’t hide its corrugated sides. It was already looking old.
The specification given to Bertone was for this model.
Marcello Gandini’s talent at Bertone was still coalescing and his initial efforts were not always up to par.
The FT Jaguar (bottom right) shown at Geneva that March alongside the Miura provided a marked contrast, evolving the house language Giugiaro channeled into his seminal Mazda Luce, but lacking its grace.
His BMW study, however, was graceful and balanced. Gandini retained the forward prow for the face, but more significantly lost the rippled siding of the Neue Klasse, using a simple crease and crisper edging to define a softer overall form instead.
The BMW brief to Bertone had been blind. It was not intended for the Neue Klasse, but instead for a new six-cylinder senior model.
Baron Alex von Falkenhausen created an inline six based on the Neue Klasse four, which in 1966 was anticipated to be 2.2 litres for project E122. The engine was eventually enlarged to 2.5 litres and the project named E3.
Michelotti had apparently been consulted but Hofmeister seized on the Gandini proposal, using both Rennen and Bertram to re-proportion its language into the E3 hardpoints.
The «Neue Sechs» that emerged in 1968 was less than its progenitor.
The in-house talent had failed to retain the balance of the study. Like the Mercedes-Benz the BMW New Six shape was understated; but it was ambivalent where the W108/109 was assured. Nevertheless thanks to its superior driving dynamics, the model was a successful step for the marque.
Once they had delivered the mockup in 1966, Bertone’s involvement ceased. They were not publicly associated with the E3 upon its launch in 1968, but in July of that year the carrozzeria was put on retainer by BMW, perhaps as further recompense for work that made it to market.
1968 also coincides with the beginning of development for E12, Neue Klasse’s official replacement, which Nuccio Bertone would not see until after management had approved the shape.
Instead, it appears that Giovanni Michelotti was the primary hand. The large concept above is credited as ‘1961, 1500’ but it is clearly a later rendering.
The rendering top left is typical of his work for Neue Klasse around 1961, usually showing variations against the production model’s stiff corrugated siding and chrome beading.
The large concept uses a softer overall form with the sides swelling out. Michelotti has curled the upper edge down to the raised upper body side, which is complemented with a raised lower bodyside. Gone is the hard lip, and the side relief treatment feels more organic than corrugated.
The distinctive turning signal and upper edge treatment of the large concept mimic that of Michelotti’s DAF Siluro from 1968 (top right), which gives us a closer idea of the date of this drawing.
It’s as if Giovanni had been shown the 1966 Gandini study, and asked to dial in more BMW.
Another Michelotti, undated, which is much closer to the production shape.
The only thing out of place is the front turning signal, something it shared with the early prototype bodies.
This Frua dated 1969 also shows the final body voluming.
Pietro Frua had become involved with BMW via their takeover of Glas, and this sketch feels like some pick-up work he might have done while visiting, attending to some detail work at the rear of the car.
Sometime around the middle of 1969, Wilhelm Hofmeister’s E12 shape was prepared into fullsize form.
At the Frankfurt Motor Show that September, Eberhard von Kuenheim was announced as the new chairman of BMW. The 41 year-old was a protege of the Quandts, the auto manufacturer’s majority shareholders, and had just turned around another of their businesses, IWK.
One of Eberhard’s first appointments was Paul Bracq to head of styling.
As Chief Body Engineer, Wilhelm Hofmeister took the role of styling head for himself amongst his broader range of responsibilities, instructing Bertram and Rennen as well as outside contractors directly.
He was told by Von Kuenheim that Paul Bracq would now make the styling decisions for BMW on the E12, as well as the 02 replacement that had just been briefed in.
Hofmeister cannot have been pleased with this news.
Bracq arrived in December and with the shape already finalized attended to details, in this case, the front turning signals.
E12 was eye-to-eye with the Mercedes-Benz W114/115.
Deft use of curl was the key motif here. On the raised upper bodyside it thickens out the feel of the metal. Around the face of the car the aperture lip adds a deeper sculptural sophistication to the metal, against the clean black grille bereft of silver trim and bezels.
Released in October 1972, the E12 would define BMW styling into the 1990s. Without Marcello Gandini it might not have existed. Without Giovanni Michelotti it might not have been so intrinsic to BMW’s future.
In 1978 Quattroruote published an interview with Giovanni Michelotti. Listing his work for BMW, the stylist nominated the 700, 1500, 1600, 2000, 2500 and 2800. Pretty much every model of their modern era up to the E12.
On the 700, the whole shape was essentially his. On other models, he supplied a substantive amount. On others again, his hand seems barely evident. Self-promotion was a necessary condition for an independent contractor, and he was good at it.
So why did Michelotti not nominate the E12?
Was it that he was asked to modify the work of another carrozzeria, one that was in the process of taking this closely-held client away from him?
…
Despite the retainer, Bertone had seen no work from BMW since delivering the Gandini study in 1966.
For Geneva in March 1969, they prepared a proactive effort called Spicup. An E9 platform with new body and roof that went from spider to coupe at the press of the button.
It was not quite enough to wrest Max Hoffman’s attention away from Brissoneau & Lotz. In fact, it was one of Marcello Gandini’s worst shapes ever.
But Marcello Gandini was otherwise on fire.
1967 had brought his Lamborghini Marzal in a new straight edged language. His Alfa Romeo Carabo for 1968 added razor wedge to the vernacular. Gandini didn’t invent this language, but he perfected it – soon even Giovanni Michelotti and Giorgetto Giugiaro would be emulating him.
The manufacturers wanted some as well.
One day, Nuccio was called to Munich to have a look at the model of the future “Series 5” saloon; he walked around the prototype, with a gloomy expression on his face, and then asked Hofmeister: “How many years are you thinking of carrying on with this car?”
“Oh, five or six”, replied the German, “until the next change of model”. At this, Bertone opined that the car seem little more than a restyling operation, whereupon Hofmeister slapped Nuccio on the back and drew his attention to the fact that the body had already been approved by top management, who considered it a great step forward.
– Luciano Greggio, recounting conversations with Nuccio Bertone
A few weeks later Wilhelm called Nuccio back. By August 1969 BMW was in possession of Bertone drawings positing the future of the model.
Their proposal was the E12 made rectilinear. Proportioning and hardpoints were retained, but the bridging language was all straight edge. Gandini even went so far as to interpret the kidney grilles into his trademark hexagon motif.
Later in 1969 Bertone received the packaging specifications for the 02 replacement. By December they had submitted six drawn proposals including this version redolent of his Lamborghini Uracco.
Gandini used a double wedge to define the profile; a long one up front and a truncated one at rear. The shape was entirely in keeping with his best, and looked as nimble as its BMW predecessor.
Giugiaro had also been asked to submit ideas, but Bertone prevailed. The project proceeded under code E19.
Then Paul Bracq arrived.
After Von Kuenheim told Hofmeister to leave the E19 to the Frenchman, Wilhelm called Nuccio.
The two of them decided to build one of their own for real. When BMW found out about it, they made it clear they did not want it displayed.
The Bertone Garmisch was shown at Geneva three months after Bracq started.
Nuccio paid to build the showcar, but the act itself was so out of character for him.
He had similar secret commissions with Volkswagen and Mazda at the same time, and yet he never revealed this work once it had been sidelined. He would instead recycle the shape for a new prospective client. Betraying a confidence like this was not something he had done before.
It feels more like Wilhelm Hofmeister trying to force Eberhard Von Kuenheim’s hand.
The gambit worked; Bertone got the halo.
On the 4th of December 1970 Autovisie magazine published images taken only days earlier of the Bertone courtyard. Half under a tarpaulin was a fullsize body carrying the lines of the rectilinear E12, though with the hexagon kidneys mercifully gone.
It was a coupe, not a sedan. Hofmeister and Bertone had manoeuvred over Bracq, ensnaring the premium model in the range. The two-door coupe body would give Bertone his own production volumes, and the model would lock in the language for the next generation E12 sedan, and so on down.
Then Bob Lutz arrived.
A Swiss-born American ex-Marine from Opel, Robert A. Lutz replaced Paul Hahnemann as VP of Sales and Marketing in December 1971. He joined what he would later describe as a ‘totally corrupt organization, I mean everybody was on the take.’
He fired entire teams of staff but his biggest impediment was importer Max Hoffman, who first tried to bribe him before issuing threats with gangster allusions. Lutz stared him down, took him to court and extricated BMW from an agreement that was hindering its massive potential in the US.
Bob Lutz played hardball, and he took a keen interest in styling.
“I arrived in Munich just as the company was preparing the replacement of the beautiful 3.0CS coupe. One of the problems that the company hoped to rectify in the new car was the relative difficulty of getting in and out of it. … The company’s answer was a taller, rather stodgy design, ordered up at an outside styling consultant. I rebelled, and sketched out another, lower design.”
– Bob Lutz
This rendering by MOT magazine based on the Autovisie photo fits with his description of taller.
Bertone’s influence on the future of BMW stopped here.
The BMW E12 was planned for launch at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games alongside the BMW Turbo.
Turbo was a rush job, with a functioning vehicle built nine months after Paul Bracq sketched out his vision in a single night. The body needed to be fabricated in Turin, with its easy access to the deep pool of highly-skilled craftsmen required to complete a bespoke job on such a tight deadline.
With Bertone now carrozzeria non grata, the manufacturer used Giovanni Michelotti’s workshop for the build. It would be his last job for BMW.
…
Not an easy story to tell and maybe even worse to comprehend. A dazzling number of designers mentioned. Still not sure who was responsible for the 1800/2000 shape, the 02, and where does the bigger 2500/3.0 fit in? Not a word about that one which also is a sleek design, let alone the CSL.
I am not a big fan of 60s and 70s BMW, but they did have clean shapes – opposite to their confusing todays designs.
Yes, it’s very confusing and I was trying to focus only on the cars Bracq was directly involved with – E12 onwards – but to do that meant going back to the 1966 Bertone study and tracing it through the E3.
There is someone on a BMW forum who claims to have seen the archive as well as contracts, and is quite definite Michelotti was the lead on the 1600 coupe. But the final concepts appear to have come from in-house; Bertram.
In short, Giovanni Michelotti is not wrong to claim so many BMW shapes from this period as they are all based on the 1500 sedan. I believe he was the one who came up with the shark face at the very least.
To the best of my knowledge
1500/1800/2000 sedan: George Bertram from concepts by Michelotti
1600/02: George Bertram from concepts by Michelotti
2000C/CS: George Bertram from concepts by Michelotti and the Bertone 3200CS
E3: as described above
E9: Manfred Rennen based on 2000C/CS
Really fascinating stuff, Dottore Don, an almost tortured tale. It sounds more like the attribution fights and intrigues within an art movement more than the far more prosaic reality of an heavy industrial manufacturing company. Great post, of course.
You’d have to suspect that it’s probably central to the apparent chaos that the company was corrupt: is there any detail from Lutz on what he meant by that, because it’s quite the allegation?
No, the prosaic reality is closer to the truth. Attribution is partly driven by the stylist’s ego, and partly by writers seeking a snug fit to the story.
Lutz describes his extraordinary experience dealing with Max Hoffman and others here
Brilliant link, thanks Prof A. Now more time to be spent pursuing the rest of this interview, so, on the other hand, no thanks at all! (Not that I won’t pursue).
Digressing slightly, Lutz wasn’t a stylist, but I’m so pleased to hear his words near the beginning of this: Euro stuff (v. US) was less ornamented, cleaner, subdued, leaner, and tighter in execution. I’ve never heard a more succint summary of so much of what has bugged me about US styling from its high point of the ’60’s – arguably its best – to the great collapse into the ’70’s and until, well, now. It’s nearly all of it since been essentially the opposite of the Lutz words I’ve just quoted, and too often not very nice to any non-US eyes.
It took a lot of chutzpah to write Chuck Jordan a ten page memo from the sales dept. hehehe
The Giandini study was amazingly modern, if not ahead of it’s time. Cut away the front end and the rear end – and you will see a 1975 Opel Ascona B / Vauxhall Cavalier (or just do I so ?)
I make the pojnt in the bio that the 1972 Commodore/Rekord was a close elaboration of the Gandini study. Your mention of the Ascona means I’m not just seeing things myself.
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I think you’ve both got good points – that Ascona glasshouse could be alternative universe 5 series (or maybe 3 series given the size) and there’s definitely something of the Gandini in the Commodore coupe
As a former E12 owner, the Michelotti connection was new to me. Or perhaps forgotten. I just assumed it was all Hofmeister. Thanks for filling in some (big) gaps in my knowledge.
I found nothing at all linking Michelotti to the E12 during my research. Even Steve Saxty’s book doesn’t link him to the car. My only evidence is the drawings themselves.
I got in touch with the Michelotti archive asking for dates of the drawings. The response from his son Edgardo was one sentence: the E12 was not his car.
Unraveling these styling attribution Gordian knots is a Herculean task to which you have set yourself admirably. Thanks for sharing the results of your labors. It’s quite enlightening, even if it is a bit challenging to follow in your footsteps.
As to the corruption at BMW, color me unsurprised. And it’s always good to read about the positive influences of Bob Lutz; I tend to lean a bit to the other side when thinking of him. But he was involved in so many key moments in the industry; quite a career, and perhaps the last carrier of lots of pivotal memories.
Yes he was a singular figure. He certainly enabled Bracq to get to his best, but I think even Bracq started to chafe at Lutz’s overpowering force.
An interesting read, if a little hard to follow. I think that’s more because I don’t recognize half of the names; it’s a tough job to give enough detail on the lessor-knowns without stretching the article out significantly. Anyway, I’m biased, being a multiple Mercedes owner, but it always felt to me like a really good-looking BMW was the exception in the 70s and 80s, while a Mercedes scored hit after hit, and one that looked off was the exception (the R107 is all that comes to mind; maybe it’s the US park-bench-bumpered versions I’m used to seeing). This helps explain that: it seems someone had to pick up where the last guy left off a few too many times. At least they seemed to find a pretty good groove in the 90s. That’s not to say BMW was an also-ran until that point, just that the general shapes usually weren’t cohesive to my eye. You might complain that Mercedes tended to the stodgy side, but they seemed to hit on a look that was aesthetically pleasing in a solid, no-nonsense way you’d expect of German luxury. At least in playing with the basic theme long enough, BMW eventually scored a few hits – the E36 and E38 can be pretty sharp cars to my eye, and at a time when Mercedes was just taking their classic shapes and popping them in the oven for a bit. BMW’s good run didn’t last long, but that’s another story…
Overall I agree, but I think the E24 was a much better-looking proposition than the R/C107 panzerwagens. I say that as a proud ex-owner of a W116 – pedestrian friendly brutalism and still more assured than the 70s BMWs.
I’m also feeling you on the E36. That’s when BMW not only stepped ahead of MB but stood at the forefront of what a great looking sedan should be.
Lots to digest in this rich helping of Italo-Bavarian layer cake. “Carrozzeria non grata” — you spoil us, Dottore Andreina!
The Garmisch still stands out as one of the great what-ifs of the early ’70s. OK, the hexagonal kidneys were perhaps not needed, but the rest is Gandini at his best, IMO. But the saloon you show in your 2nd and 4th pictures is the real stand-out of the lot — I was dimly aware of it, but in this context, it really shines. Much sexier than the 2500/2800/Bavaria saloon that eventually came to be. I’m attaching a photo of the rear, which is also incredibly beautiful.
Thank you again for this piece.
Ironically, Garmisch is probably the single most influential factor on the new Neue Klasse concepts BMW has just introduced.
Yes, that took me a few attempts to parse.
The Bertone prototype is very pleasant and has a remarkably better stance than the rather FWD-looking E12. I cannot quite fathom why the bodywork is further back.
However, it’s even blander than the final E3 – too good-looking? Opel would be my first reaction, or some sort of Japanese large sedan that never was.
Would have made a nice Bog ALFA, actually!
FWD-looking… an excellent way to describe a key difference between the two. Might have been affected by engineering hardpoints.
With regards the 1966 prototype, its shape is reflective of the carrozzeria more than the marque – which was quite often the case back then. Take away the kidneys and re-profile the face, and it could be sold to anyone looking for a new sedan shape. It was only once BMW took it on that it became their language to use.
Baffling, because BMWs have always had close to 50/50 mass distribution – The Bertone has more of an Isabella proportion, which was also 50/50, of course. It’s probably that the A-pillars & screen were pushed far too forward and the glassy roof made too square, as in the Maestro/Montego.
That’s what really did for the carrozzerie in the end – not only design recycling, but they were widely imitated elsewhere. By the late ’80s, everything looked ItalDesign super-rational, for example and it became boring.
That’s why they all went in-house, in the end. An interesting one is FIAT Group – their 1990s designs were all a bit off and one wonders why they went Centri Stile instead of external. Then one sees the Bertone, ID, IdeA and Pf proposals and one realises why! They were all even more off than their in-house designs, which admittedly did embody some of the carrozzeria ideas.
The rejected proposals were often recycled as Hyundais, Kias, etc.
Yep everyone either went super-conformative or lost the plot. Giugiaro probably came out best moving into the 90s, but at the expense of any spiciness, i.e. Uno.
Then computers came along, allowing the creatively curious to draw a line, then erase it instantly and try to draw it again better. The best lesson there is.
I really miss those clean shapes, with a continuous straight line somewhere to tie it all together. The current Civic has that and bizarrely, it’s one of my favourites!
Those weird dart-lines lines & curlicues on many rear doors are looking like the product of a disturbed mind and look damaged to me; I was staring at the rear door of some Hyundai SUV and it took me a while to realise is had actually caught a bollard and wasn’t factory!
There’s definitely a clean shape thing happening at the moment; Tesla truck which I’m not enamoured with, Hyundai van which is a stunner and my favourite; Rolls-Royce Ghost. The new Neue Klasse is simplicity that looks good in sedan and van, not so much in SUV.
But you’re right about the prevalence of tortured contusions elsewhere.
The year: 1979 public enemy # 1 in France is Mesrine .He had taste for having chosen a marron BMW 528i E12 .Unfortunately for him it will also be his coffin.
It’s that simple buy an E12 series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iJfdN1wLIc&ab_channel=MartinLinkov