The origins of the Series Touring are to be found in the acquisition of
Glas by BMW, which took place in
1966 : at the time it was launched a car produced by Glas same, but with
motor BMW, and that was always sold with the BMW brand with the name of
BMW 1600 GT . It was a car that proposed body
coupe . But he did not meet much success and before long was retired. BMW, however, had an idea definitely out of line and went to work on a car that in some qualmodo take his place, at the same time offering something special.
The
Series Touring (project number
E6 ) is well launched in 1971, in versions
1600 ,
1800 ,
2000 and
2000 Tii . This is a "short" version of the
Series 02 from which it derives, with hatchback body, two doors and the tailgate. He resumed that body type proposed by the 1600 GT, but the magazine in order to have the rear more spacious, a sort of cross between a
station wagon and a
coupe : the car that more he approached was the
Renault 16 , already in list since
1965 , but with five doors. Ultimately, though, the car was considerable as a three-door hatchback, one of the first, if not the very first. It was basically a
compact (solution that BMW resurface, with disappointing results, in the
nineties on the
BMW 3 Series Compact ). During its production series
Touring was never subjected to any kind of makeover.
Aesthetically resumed all characters of the series 02, including round rear lights.
Even the engines were the same as the corresponding models in three volumes. On
1600 ,
1800 ,
2000 and
2000 tii are then replicated engines to 4
cylinders in line 1573, 1766 and 1990
cc , and capable of delivering respectively 85, 90, 100 and 130
hp of
power maximum. The 2000 tii power was mechanical injection Kugelfischer, while in the other versions was a
carburetor .
There was also another version in the initial range of Series Touring, namely the
2000 Touring Automatic , equipped with
automatic transmission . Other Touring rode instead a
change manual 4-speed transmission.
The
Touring is not got but success and in 1974 was removed from production to be replaced by 1500, with which he returned to the classic body three volumes and two doors, but the engine was a limited version 1.6 used on the 1600 Series Touring made the mistake of being too far ahead of its time: a car today with similar characteristics would certainly be much more successful.
While the unfortunate Touring were prepared some special versions, which can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Touring are BMW Alpina, which are standard on the 2002 Turbo mechanical supercharged capable of delivering up to 170 hp. Aesthetically resume the most powerful version of the flagship 02 Series were produced only four.
