The BMW 503, which despite numerous awards and gold medals in Cannes, Rome, Lisbon, Vienna and Wiesbaden had to be withdrawn from the market after just 412 units. A luxurious luxury sports car in pontoon form, which was presented at the IAA Frankfurt in September 1955 after only 18 months of development at the same time as the BMW 507. And both motoring journalists and the public were immediately delighted!
Unfortunately, however, it was not a sales success due to its high price. In May 1956, BMW charged DM 29,500 for the Coupé and C-Class Cabriolet, in December 1957 the car cost DM 31,500 and in July 1958 DM 32,950. At the time, that was about half the price of a terraced house, so only well-heeled customers such as Roland Graf von Faber-Castell, Rudolf-August Oetker and film actress Sonja Ziemann could afford this vehicle.
Nevertheless, this classic car still has impressive values today, both inside and out. The aluminium body was manufactured by the coachbuilder Baur. The 8-cylinder V-engine with a displacement of 3,168 cm³ produced 140 hp (103 kW) at 4800 rpm and accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h in 13.3 seconds. A top speed of 190 km/h was specified. And of the 412 examples, 139 were convertibles and 273 coupés.
I have been practicing vintage car photography for more than 35 years and here I mainly photograph normal everyday vehicles which were still on the road en masse over 30 years ago. But also cars with extraordinary, beautiful design. From time to time I take pictures of cars, .. Read more…