From my book "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic" by Bentley Publishers:
"They say there’s no accounting for taste, but they’re wrong. The two-door BMW coupes built from 1968 through 1976 (the 2800CS and 3.0CS / CSi / CSL, body code “E9”) are among the most beautiful driving machines ever to grace the blacktop. Their lithe lines, wood dashboard, huge glass expanse, and silky-smooth six-cylinder engine have stolen the heart of many BMW fanatics and non-BMW-philes alike. Although the 2002 is the car that established BMW’s reputation in this country, the 3.0CS is the model that is most frequently listed as the most gorgeous BMW in the buff magazines. A major factor is that the lines of the car include elegant slender pillars holding up the roof in the front and back. These are the so-called “A” and “C pillars.” A true coupe like the 3.0CS has no “B-pillar” between the front door and rear side window, so when you roll the front and rear windows down, there’s this immense unbroken space from front to rear. Of course, the lack of a B-pillar means the front and rear windows have nothing to seal against but each other, so even when E9s were new, the wind noise was high and they leaked in the rain, but when you’re this gorgeous, you can get away with murder.
If you really want to get BMW-geeky, the C-pillar on a 3.0CS has a beautiful example of a “Hofmeister kink,” a design element originally introduced on the 1961 BMW 1500 (and widely copied throughout the industry) where the base of the C-pillar juts forward before rejoining the rear quarter panel. The total design, combining the “kink,” the sweeping unbroken window space of a true coupe, and a surfeit of glass, continues to be stunning 40 years later. This timelessness and looks-just-right sense is all the more remarkable for the following reason. One can safely argue that iconic car designs – Jaguar XKE, Porsche 911, Corvette Sting Ray, etc – tend to come out of the box as sheer perfection, and the “freshening” they received at later points did nothing but screw them up. With this in mind, consider that the 3.0CS was not a clean-sheet-of-paper design; the car’s graceful body did not, in fact, spring full-grown from the head of Zeus. It evolved incrementally from the previous 4-cylinder model – the BMW 2000CS, whose body is nearly identical from the doors back, but whose shorter nose exhibits long slits of glass-covered headlights, making the front of the car look like a cross between a praying mantis and an electric razor. The fact that, in lengthening the 2000CS’ nose to accommodate the new six-cylinder engine, they got the design of the car so right is utterly amazing. It’s like adding a dormer onto a split-level house and expecting the result to look as elegant and integrated as something penned by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The 3.0CS isn’t beach-body curvaceous like a high-dollar Italian exotic – it’s more like the elegant 40-something woman you just can’t take your eyes off. I first saw a 3.0CS in the flesh while living in Austin, and was immediately, utterly, and completely smitten. Screw 2002s, I thought, I want me one of THESE."
Copyright 2013, Rob Siegel. All rights reserved.
