1969 BMW 2000C Coupe

Description

BMW have a long tradition of building elegant, sporting coupes, beginning with the lovely and now highly coveted 507 of the 1950s and continuing with the latest 4 and 6 Series today. The Bavarian auto maker's successful New Class of the early 1960s spawned a lovely coupe derivative, the 2000, in 1965 with airy coachwork built by Karmann. Sold in two models, the 2000C used a single carburettor engine while the twin carburettor 2000CS saw the power raised from 100 to 120 horsepower. Under the bonnet BMW employed a gutsy two-litre, single-overhead camshaft four-cylinder unit, designated the M10, fed by either single or twin Solex carburettors. The pillarless styling was clean, elegant and very much in keeping with BMW's new family look, although the reverse-raked front end did cause some controversy, with the twin kidney grilles and headlamps lending the car a distinctive look. As BMW's flagship model during the late 1960s, the 2000C and CS coupes had nicely appointed cockpits with typically 1960s woodgrain dash, full instrumentation and plenty of room for four passengers, although rear legroom was limited, and the whole car was finished to typically Germanic build standards. The 2000C could be had with either a four-speed manual or automatic transmission and proved a great success for BMW, laying the foundations for the succeeding generations of coupes that still form an important part of the brand's image today. In production from 1965 to 1969, a total of 11,720 New Class coupes were made of all types.