With the presentation of the BMW 1500 at the International Motor Show (IAA) in 1961 the enterprise lays the foundation for the success story of the following decades. Since the end of the war, BMW had been keeping itself more or less afloat on the market with motorcycles and a policy of extreme contrasts in its automotive models, which include both luxury vehicles with V8 engines and microcars like the Isetta. Although plans have existed since the midfifties for a model in the medium-size class – impatiently awaited by many BMW customers – the company’s poor financial situation had so far prevented its realisation.

It is only thanks to the sales success of the small BMW 700, and above all to the dedication of industrial magnate Herbert Quandt, that this project is finally able to get off the ground at the beginning of the sixties. With this series, known as the New Class (’Neue Klasse’), a new age dawns for BMW. From the middle of the 1950s onwards, BMW produces drawings for a modern car of the medium-sized class, known as the “Mittelwagen”.

Designers initially adopt a style similar to the Type 503 luxury coupé, which is being designed at the same time. From 1957 onwards the BMW design for the midrange car is significantly influenced by the ideas of Italian designer Giovanni Michelotti, who also decisively influences the shape of the small BMW 700 a little later on.

On this basis the BMW designers develop the BMW 1500 New Class in its final form in 1960/61. With its generously proportioned windows and clean horizontal lines, this model is a significant departure from the German automotive landscape of the time, and gives the Brand a new face which also reemerges in the following generations of BMW cars. In 1965 it finds expression in the elegantly sporty coupés BMW 2000 C and 2000 CS.

As well as its external form, the New Class sets new standards by its modern engineering. Newly designed from scratch, the BMW 1500 represents the leading edge automotive engineering of its time. Large investments in production technology make it possible to build a body which is light, torsion-resistant and self-supporting. The sophisticated chassis, with independent suspension of all four wheels and front disc brakes, ensures driving comfort and safe, sporty roadholding.

The new four cylinder inline engine is a special success for the BMW design engineers. Its 80 horsepower, produced with an engine capacity of only 1.5 litres, make it a high performance engine in its day. The valve control via an overhead camshaft underlines the car’s sporting ambitions, as does the short, precisely controllable central gearshift used to operate the four-speed transmission.