Very cool prototype coupe - Where is it now??

John H.

John H.

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Hello all, was checking out the '02 FAQ and ran across a post that had some drawings of some alt. '02 designs in the early sixties and scrolled down to the bottom. There was a drawing and pictures (front and back) of a 1600 coupe prototype(along with a cabrio). Sadly, I couldn't post the pic, so you have to check out the site to see it. Before you think I have been smelling too much paint or received a blow to the head, this looks like the baby brother (sister) of our coupes and is not the standard 1600 that was produced.

http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~tpoesiat/city-e.html

My query and/or question is what happened to this one-off prototype? Is it in a museum or collection somewhere? I did a cursory search on google but got overloaded by refs to the regular 1600 .
 
A few years back I was Matt McGinn's shop on a snowy Saturday and was taking salvageable parts from a couple of 02 parts cars that were destined for China. Matt decided to try a similar exercise by cutting the roofs and pillars to try and design a coupe without the benefit of these pictures.

What becomes apparent very quickly is how boxy and straight angled the 1600/2002s are. To get the roof to slope downward toward the back of the car the front pillar has to be made shorter(the winshield on the 1600 Cabrio is shorter than a regular 02 if I remember) and the winshield and rear window of an 02 is much flatter compared to the coupe. The proportions of the roof just looked strange with the rest of the body of the car, like a chopped '50's Buick on a regular 02 body without any roundness to it.

The pictures of the Baur look like they used a regular 02 winshield and made the rear window larger and angle outward at the bottom. I'm impressed, it's a good looking car and the first I've ever seen of it.

The other problem was the 02 is so short there is very little room to bow out a piece if glass or extend anything because there is no length to spare. I wonder how much Baur borrowed from the 3200 link below?










http://www.autowallpaper.de/Wallpaper/BMW/BMW_3200_Bertone/Bilder/BMW_3000_Bertone_2.jpg
 
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