Description
Introduced at the 1961 Frankfurt Motor Show, the BMW 3200 CS was a stunning-looking coupe built on a decade-old chassis, but nobody seemed to care about that.
The German brand needed a new design language for its cars and tried to achieve that with a sporty-looking coupe. While at first, the company's management looked at the Lancia Flaminia coupe as an inspiration, they soon ditched that idea. Instead, BMW hired Bertone studios to pen a new vehicle, and they gave them a chassis from that, which was sourced from the BMW 502 that was launched in 1951. The solution worked, and that's how the 3200 Coupe CS was born.
It was the first car that sported the famous Hofmeister kink on the C-pillar, and that was the design element that defined BMW cars for decades to come. The front fascia sported the traditional kidney grille but slimmer and shorter, flanked by thin horizontal slats. Thus, the cooling area was ensured. With its low-profile beltline and the tall greenhouse with slim pillars, the car looked light, even though it wasn't in the featherweight category. At the back, the raked-forward curved windscreen and the slightly sloped-down deck followed the elegant lines of the vehicle. Finally, the automaker installed round taillights on the rear fascia with chromed surroundings.
Inside, the automaker placed a wooden dash panel with three dials fronting the driver and an upper vinyl-trimmed area to protect it from the sun. In the center, the 3200 CS featured a radio and an ashtray. The front bucket seats were so wide that they actually formed a bench seat above the transmission tunnel, while in the back, there was room for two adults.
Under the hood, BMW installed the 3.2-liter push-rod V8 engine previously used on the 502 and 503 models paired with a four-speed manual that sent the power to the rear wheels.
