Rebirth in Dingolfing: The BMW 1600 GT convertible.

Munich/Dingolfing. The vehicle collection of BMW
Group Classic is now richer by another unique special. This is all
thanks to the vocational training team at the BMW plant in Dingolfing.
The apprentices restored the BMW 1600 GT convertible in a project
lasting several years under the guidance of their trainers. The
four-seater painted in silver has a red hood and its unusual history
makes it a revealing representative of the time when the company BMW
made the transition from being a niche automaker to a mass-production
car manufacturer enjoying steady growth in success and an
international reputation.

The classic car now radiates a new lustre. It is the only surviving
example of originally two prototypes that BMW commissioned from the
Italian bodywork designer Pietro Frua. In autumn of 1967, both
automobiles left the production buildings in Dingolfing for the first
time. The test drives for one of the vehicles came to an end with an
accident and the vehicle was then scrapped. The second car was granted
a special honour. The BMW 1600 GT convertible was handed over to the
major shareholder in BMW AG at the time, Herbert Quandt. It remained
in the hands of the family for many years and was then passed on to
other private owners. A fashion model from Munich enjoyed the wind
coursing through her hair as she drove along in the open-top BMW and
the rare treasure was then acquired by a businessman from Fürth in
Franconia, and subsequently found a new home at the Munich-based
Allianz Centre for Engineering.

Major restoration work was carried out there on the BMW 1600 GT for
the first time so as to ensure that the car was preserved for
posterity. When the experts from BWM Group Classic became aware of the
unique special from Dingolfing and they succeeded in agreeing an
acquisition, a plan emerged to return the automobile to its original
condition at the very place where it first saw the light of day. The
restoration at the Dingolfing plant became a project that formed part
of the training of apprentices who were aspiring to become bodywork
and vehicle construction mechanics.

BMW Group Classic supported the project in a number of ways including
the expanded options for procuring original parts that had recently
become available. Furthermore, replicas of numerous components that
were no longer obtainable were painstakingly remanufactured.

The rebirth of the BMW 1600 GT convertible in Dingolfing also
rekindled memories of a particularly exciting chapter in the history
of BMW. When the two-door car came into existence, the company had
just taken over the Dingolfing vehicle manufacturer Glas in that same
year. Since 1955, the company had successfully produced the
Goggomobile. In 1964, Glas launched the sporty, elegant Glas 1300 GT
styled by Frua in the marketplace and one year later the more powerful
Glas 1700 GT. Glas was looking for a strong partner and the automaker
initially agreed a joint-distribution operation with BMW but this
ultimately led to a complete takeover by the Munich company. The
compact sports car was then fitted with the rear axle, the seats and
the 77 kW/105 hp engine from the BMW 1600 TI, a BMW kidney grille for
the front end of the automobile and the round headlights from the BMW
02 Series.

The idea of placing the sporty coupé alongside a convertible came
from the USA. A proposal was made by the importer Max Hoffmann to
develop a new version of the coupé with a 2.0 litre engine and an
open-top version. In October 1967, Frua delivered a convertible body
mounted on a strengthened floor assembly. This was then painted in
Dingolfing where all further assembly work took place. On 16 November,
the BMW 1600 GT convertible was entered in the plant’s production book
as being completed. However, the plans for series production and
export to the USA never came to fruition.

Only a single example of the Italian-Bavarian convertible was ever
licensed for driving on public roads. 51 years after the first
automobile was manufactured, its second production was registered.
This time the completion of the car’s restoration was celebrated to
give BMW Group Classic another gem for its collection.