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Profile BMW 335 Profile BMW 502

BMW 502

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top echelon with
a light-alloy V8.

The BMW 502, sibling of the 501 that still
leaned heavily on pre-war engineering, intro-
duced a true innovation in the form of the first
The high-quality interior fittings and details of the BMW 335 exuded style and class. They finally helped the Bayerische Motoren Werke carmakers light-alloy V8 volume-production engine in
to carve out their niche in the highest automobile category. motoring history. With this unit, the BMW
502 was clearly targeted at the upper
reaches of society and reflected the com-
the underhead camshaft was driven by badged as the BMW 335 was relocated came at a price of 9,600 reichsmarks,
cylindrical gears rather than a chain. to the London Motor Show. From 1934 matching that of a contemporary Horch pany’s aspiration to return to the leading
The engine effortlessly produced an on, BMW cars had been offered for sale with a V8 engine. ranks of car manufacturers.
output of 90 horsepower, making it the to the Commonwealth by an English In the end, the outbreak of war and
most powerful BMW production unit yet importer as Frazer-Nash B.M.W. mod- radical constraints on the production of
to be built. els, some of them featuring special civil goods put paid to any further suc-
In order to signal this increased bodies made in England. 1939 saw the cess on the part of this “heaviest” BMW
power even when the car was station- first cars being delivered to a few private model of the pre-war era. Only a limited With its BMW 501 model launched in
ary, the designers extended the front customers, but above all to government number of cars, commissioned by the 1951, the company had impressively
section of the 326 by more than 23 cm, addresses. Apart from the saloon with authorities, were produced up until the stepped out of the shadow of the post-
while a redesigned bonnet with vertical its price tag of 7,850 reichsmarks, there early 1940s. In all, only around 400 war years of privation, by which it had
louvres served to differentiate it from was soon also the choice of a two or units of the BMW 335 were built, and been particularly hard hit. Yet the new
the two-litre model. To demonstrate the four-door convertible with Autenrieth the few that have survived to this day car’s powerful appearance could not
international credentials of such a pres- bodywork to meet the most exacting are counted among the rarest classics disguise the fact that, at least in its
tige car, the premiere of the new model requirements. The open-top variant in the history of BMW. engineering, this was no all-new prod-
uct. It wasn’t until 1954 that BMW
unveiled a genuine innovation in the
shape of its sibling, the 502. One crucial
innovation was a completely new
BMW 335 Saloon engine, hitherto unseen in Germany. It
was a light-alloy V8 unit with a 2.6-litre
No. of units 233 (1939 – 1941) displacement and an output of 100 bhp.
Following comprehensive preliminary
Original price 7,850 reichsmarks studies beginning in the early 1950s, a
first test engine was already undergoing
Engine six-cylinder in-line
trials on the test stand in March 1952,
long before the series-production
Capacity 3,485 cc
launch of the six-cylinder 501.
By mid-1954 the first production
Bore x stroke 82 x 110 mm
engines were being turned out. The
powerplant with its twin carburettor
Output 90 bhp at 3,500 rpm
easily produced an output of 100 bhp,
Only few motorists were Transmission four-speed stick shift and in trials with four carburettors it
delivered 150 bhp. With this V8 engine,
privileged enough to sit
behind the wheel of a Brakes drum brakes BMW presented the first post-war
BMW 335 from 1939 German unit of its kind. Worldwide it
onwards. 90 horsepower Weight 1,300 kg
allowed for cruising
speeds in excess of 140 Two lovely sisters: the 501 and 502 had the
km/h on the new auto- Top speed 145 km/h same bodywork. Shown here a 501, affectio-
bahns. nately known as the “Baroque Angel”.

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