BMW 507

The story

The 507 began as Max Hoffman's idea. The New York importer was convinced Americans would buy thousands of a glamorous German roadster priced below the Mercedes-Benz 300SL, and a BMW still struggling after the war agreed to build it. Goertz, an industrial designer who had never drawn an entire car, gave it a long, calm hood, slim kidneys and soft haunches that look as right today as they did in 1955. Under the hand-formed aluminum body sat a light-alloy 3.2-liter V8 and a 4-speed gearbox on a shortened sedan chassis.

It was never a sprinter. Period tests put 60 mph about 11 seconds away, and it behaved more like an elegant touring car than a racer, picking up speed with a warm V8 voice. The trouble was cost. Hand-beaten panels meant no 2 cars were quite identical, the price climbed toward 300SL territory, and only 252 were built before production stopped in 1959. Elvis Presley drove one, John Surtees kept his for life, and the 507 now ranks among the most coveted BMWs ever built, a sales disaster that matured into a legend.