E30 Zone

If you wonder who was the person who draw and design the BMW E30 who is maybe one of the best looking Beemers ever made? Here he is



He was born December 8th 1932 and Im sorry to say that he pased away 17th of March this year

You can read a bit more about the man behind the car you love here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claus_Luthe

He design the good looking BMW's. Genius.

I wonder if one day someone will post up my photo on a Ford forum with reference to my brilliant work on the curren generation 1.8L 2.0L & 2.5L ford engines.

The boy did well though. Definately a genius.

RIP what a guy

brilliant design..... gets my thumb up

RIP! What a guy! He designed lovely cars for BMW!

he also did the e34,e32,e36,e38 and a hand in e39, Z3 etc

Interesting man

What sucks is we didn't track him down years ago and as a forum, interview him about it. I bet there's plenty of questions zoners could have asked him. It would have been legendary.

good idea rosco.... it its a shame that. Is it me or does he just look german?

^ Its the tweed sport coat thats the give away

RIP Sir , you earned it

yeah, RIP indeed

It was only when I read his obituary earlier this year that I discovered that not only had he designed the e30 (amongst other BMWs) but he also worked for NSU and Audi before BMW and had designed my other car an NSU Prinz 4. Unwittingly I have bought two cars by the same designer.

This will shock you.

He did time for Murdering his drug adict son.

A talented man plauged by a stressfull personal life.

so true Barry! I knew he had a dark past, didn't BMW keep the faith in him during his jail time and kept his job after for him?

I think* Bangle was in charge by the time the E39, E46's came out but Luthe's team had done the graft on them and bangle did the finish touches on the design

Then the flame surfaced cars appeared which Luthe didn't like as he had crafted the smoother subtle BMW's for 20 years. He publically didn't like the design direction BMW had taken after he had left/retired

Does anyone know if any of his design team are still alive?

Rosc0PColtrane wrote:Does anyone know if any of his design team are still alive?

I think it was only his son that he fatally stabbed ...

He looks vaguely like Norman Wisdom!

beemerbird wrote:

Rosc0PColtrane wrote:Does anyone know if any of his design team are still alive?

I think it was only his son that he fatally stabbed ...

lol!

I seen some of his design sketches on a page about his life, real craftsmanship - very inspiring! (I study automotive design)
I have great respect for the guy, i think we all share his vision of what a car should be. Shame about his personal life tho, RIP.

He sure knew how to make a decent car RIP

who designs them now???? fat americans aint it.... well they did the 7 i know that much

Alex wrote:He sure knew how to make a decent car RIP

who designs them now???? fat americans aint it.... well they did the 7 i know that much

Chris Bangle basicly lead the Design team after Luthe's time. He is American.

bss325i wrote:

Alex wrote:He sure knew how to make a decent car RIP

who designs them now???? fat americans aint it.... well they did the 7 i know that much

Chris Bangle basicly lead the Design team after Luthe's time. He is American.

thats why the new cars are putting on weight

no offence to americans BTW

i wouldn't worry Yanks specialise in offending everyone else

You should hear what the call us on COD 4!

I bet he had a bag of werthers in his jacket pocket, he definately had the 'look' !

they think we are all posh people dont they well they havnt been to liverpool then or up here in the north east we used to have americans living next door and they were so loud you could here there conversations and all there cars were autos, they had a 1999 citroen saxo auto with only 4.5k on the clock which was sold for a few hundred quid, i think they hated us becuase we once had 4 e30s and the front garden that was demolished to make way for another

When it comes to other designers from BMW during the 1980s you have the Italian designer Ercole Spada who was the man behind the BMW E12, E28 and E23
You can read more about him here: http://www.zagato-cars.com/koopmann/pos ... cspada.htm

bss325i wrote:You should hear what the call us on COD 4!

I was just gonna say that

bss325i wrote:You should hear what the call us on COD 4!

@uck em!!! iv taken down many a tough talking yank on cod 4... nearly on my 4th time through online...

RIP Sir & Thank You for such a great car!

78dude wrote:When it comes to other designers from BMW during the 1980s you have the Italian designer Ercole Spada who was the man behind the BMW E12, E28 and E23
You can read more about him here: http://www.zagato-cars.com/koopmann/pos ... cspada.htm

???

Iirc, the E21, E12, E24 6 Series and E23 were the work of Paul Bracq (F) just after his Mercedes period. The E28 was Luthe's facelift on the E12 and his first job at BMW. Luthe's original E36 design was a lot more outlandish than the car that appeared. If you're not old enough to really remember the E36 when it was new, you won't know the impact it had - very advanced at the time and still quite modern looking now. BMW Management got Luthe to tone it down a bit.

Luthe oversaw the E34 and E32 which were penned by Spada, Luthe adding bits like the E32's tail lights. Luthe styled the Ro80 as well as the Mark 1 VW Polo.

Bangle pretty much saved BMW. The E39 might seem a great design, but sales in Germany developed a slow puncture shortly after launch and the E38 never sold that well. Bangle 5 and 7 Series outsell Mercs so he did something right.

e30bmlover wrote:

bss325i wrote:You should hear what the call us on COD 4!

@uck em!!! iv taken down many a tough talking yank on cod 4... nearly on my 4th time through online...

Dont worry, they get it back!