photos posted at the Cohort by robadr
Desperation is the mother of invention. In the late fifties, BMW was desperate for something a bit bigger than their two-passenger Isetta; their inventive result was to stretch the Isetta so that could accommodate four adults in a car that was six inches shorter than the legendary Mini, commonly held up as the most space-efficient small car. And unlike the Mini, it even had a (single) rear door, making this just about the only two-door car that offered direct access to both rows of seats.
That’s not all: it had a trailing arm independent rear suspension instead of swing axles, similar to what BMW ended up using until well into the nineties. And of course the legendary BMW motorcycle boxer twin in its bobbed tail. But it was all for (mostly) naught, as the BMW 600 was a flop. But not in my book; I’ve wanted one of these since I first saw one in Innsbruck in 1960. And I still want one.
It’s hard to imagine what a precarious situation BMW was in during the late ’50s and early ’60s. They had bet the (small) farm on their extravagant, expensive and large six and V8 sedans and coupes in the early ’50s, and they were not panning out. In a desperate move, they bought the rights to manufacture the Italian Isetta bubblecar, as that market segment seemed to have some possibilities, and BMW had a single cylinder motorcycle engine and transmission to power it.
The Isetta (barely) kept BMW alive, but the microcar market was already in decline by the late ’50s, as Germans’ incomes were rising rapidly, and of course they were having kids. BMW desperately needed a four passenger car, so the idea came up to stretch the Isetta into a four seater. Keep the front end with its front-opening door, add a rear compartment with a single side door, and drop in the larger BMW two-cylinder motorcycle engine. A winning formula? Not exactly.
Tatra87 has told the story of the little egg-mobile Isetta 300, which has of course become a cult classic. It sold reasonably well, some 135k were built in Germany and more assembled in the UK.
It’s such an iconic shape that it’s being revived in the form of the electric Microlino. It’s currently heading into production, but don’t hold your breath here in America. Unlike the Isetta, it’s not coming stateside.
As is rather obvious, the (opening) front end of the Isetta and its suspension were carried over.The body was stretched, resulting in a rear compartment with a full-sized rear seat, accessible with a single curbside door. And it was quite roomy. The 600’s space efficiency is pretty much unparalleled, better than the Mini’s, for seating four.
Strictly speaking, the Zündapp Janus had the 600 beat in terms of space efficiency, since it was two inches shorter. But its seating configuration, with the rear passengers facing the rear, was not as palatable, and only 6,902 were ever sold. The Janus preceded the 600 by two years, so one rather suspects that BMW was influenced by it. It would have been tempting to just weld two Isettas back-to-back, but BMW apparently thought the wiser of that.
The 600 was relatively much more successful, with some 35k built, but that still was not enough to keep it going past 1959, making its total production run some three years.
It was given a new perimeter frame, and the fan-cooled 582 cc boxer twin (as used in the R67 motorcycle) was hung out back, driving through a four speed transmission.
The rear suspension was relatively more ambitious than the typical German swing axles, with trailing arms. BMW would use a modified (semi-trailing arms) version of this basic design for their rear suspensions on all subsequent models (except the limited production M1) until the 1990’s. There’s a bit of the 600 in millions of BMWs.
The fan-cooled boxer was rated at 19.5 hp @4500 rpm. And if you didn’t want to clutch, there was an optional Saxomat automatic clutch.
The seating in these was really quite decent, as it was a bit taller than the Mini, and one could sit up properly, not hunched over the wheel like seemingly all Mini drivers.
The speedometer tops out at 90 mph (this is a NA import version). Actual top speed was right around 100 km/h (61 mph). Not bad; not great.
The rear seat was reasonably sized. Adequate for two adults; more than so for kids; even three would fit.
The “600 “2-door” was sold in the US, along with the Isetta 300 and the expensive coupes and sedans. Quite a price spread: from $1,048 to $11,900. The 600 was priced at $1,398; therein lay its huge problem: the VW Beetle was priced at $1,545, and was a bigger and more powerful car, in a whole different class. This was the overwhelming problem for all of the German small-car builders: with its vast volumes, VW could build the Beetle very profitably at prices none of the smaller makers could match. It seriously crimped 600 sales, both in Germany and the US.
The 600 was called “Isetta 600” in some marketing materials, but technically, it was the BMW 600. “Full 4-5 seat”? Three kids in the back, sure.
Its variable interior space utilization, by folding down the rear seat or removing it completely. The microvan.
Its vital stats are here, if your eyes are young enough.
Not surprisingly, some owners hopped these up, since it was easy to use high performance BMW motorcycle parts.
Let’s not talk about crumple zones; the Isetta makes the Beetle look downright safe.
Sales of the 600, which arrived in 1959, were very modest. Wolfgang Denzel, the distributor of BMW cars in Austria, hired Giovanni Michelotti to draw up some concept sketches based on a lengthened BMW 600 chassis. Denzel presented the results, a two-door coupe with a semi-fastback roof, to BMW’s management. The concept was generally well received, but objections were raised about the limited rear passenger space.
So BMW decided to produce two versions, the coupe and a 2-door sedan with a taller, longer roof. They became a key factor in BMW’s survival long enough to develop and build their brilliant “Neue Klasse” cars. But the 700 is a story for another day.
This BMW 600 resides in the Isetta Cafe Bistro in the Vancouver area. As noted earlier, it was technically not an Isetta, but that’s how the NA importer (Max Hoffman) chose to market it, so there’s no need for them to rename it the BMW 600 Cafe Bistro. Now if only they’d let you sit in it to drink your coffee.
Related reading:
Curbside Classic: 1961 BMW Isetta 300 – BMW Lays An Egg
Curbside Classic: 1964 BMW 1800 Neue Klasse – The Car That Saved And Made BMW
Good day. Regarding the crumple zones, the VW was a lot safer than people think. It had a fair bit of crumple zone,and the centre section frame would absorb a good deal of impact force. It was safer than most small cars of the day. The rear end would would absorb a fair bit of force too as the impact force would stress the spring plates of the swing arms. Not bad at all for a 1936 design. Paul,did BMW ever use one of their war-time 750 flat twins in this car?
No. BMW’s factory then was in Eisenach, which ended up in the Russian occupied sector, and had been badly damaged by bombing. BMW had to start all over in Munich. The new post WW2 boxer engines were influenced by the R75 engine, but were a bit smaller.
They didn’t build a 750 cc boxer motorcycle engine until the new R75 in like 1968.
But I suppose it’s theoretically possible that somebody swapped one in.
Your comparison with the mini is well worth thinking about. Both debuted in 1959, both seated 4 people in surprising comfort and both were (obviously) affordable cars for the masses. However, one of them stayed in production until 2000, and the other one didn’t.
I think, like the VW, the mini is a “proper” car, just a small version, whereas the 600 still has one foot in the microcar class. A mini very much feels like a real car to drive, even on motorways. And I think the fact that the exact same shell was able to win rallies and races with some very peppy engines, shows the inherent qualities of the chassis. It’s hard to imagine the 600 chassis coping with a lot of horsepower.
Much as the 600 is cute as a button and I’d have one in a heartbeat, you can see why it struggled up against the VW and the mini.
It’s unusual to see modern pictures of an Isetta where the car is not surrounded by curious admirers. On the other hand, I’ve probably only seen one out on the road a handful of times.
Here in the Boston area, the annual Microcar Day at the Larz Anderson museum was a perennial favorite. My kids loved it, particularly since it was one of the rare car shows where kids were encouraged to climb in and sit in the cars. Sadly, I think that’s one show that ended with the COVID shut down of shows at the Larz Anderson…and for some reason isn’t coming back.
This is my 1959 BMW Isetta 600
Looking good there Hank ~ I hope you drive it some .
-Nate
Well… looking at this macro-Isetta with that curbside door… now I know where Chrysler Plymouth got the idea for their original minivan! 😉
Paul,
You mention the removal of the passenger front seat for extra space. I’ve restored/repaired 3 BMW 600 Isettas along with a slew of the 300 based cars, and have never seen separate front seats in either model. The BMW 600 cars I’ve worked on were US versions with a one-piece front seat like the car in the photos. Perhaps the European spec cars had separate front seats?
One of the 600 cars I worked on was owned by a Herr Schroeder and his wife. They were foreign correspondents working for the German Magazine “Der Spiegel” in the Washington DC office, and decided to bring their US spec 600 back to Germany. I heard that on arrival in Europe, the car had to be converted back to Euro-specs for items like lighting.
My shop was very fortunate when repairing microcars, that we had one of the biggest collectors of these little cars living only a couple of miles away. In pre-internet days this was a huge help in finding spare parts, manuals, and special tools. [A big shout-out to John M for all his assistance!]
Bill, I misread the small print on that brochure. The rear seat is removable. But the drawing suggests that the front is too, but obviously that’s not the case. I guess a thin ladder could fit between the seat and the side.
I’ve amended the text.
Much as I’d love a bubble, the safety aspect must have hit sales even then. I don’t hold out much hope for the Microlina, cute as it is. As a quadcycle it doesn’t have to pass safety tests which is fine until hit by a vehicle that has.
Inspiration for the “Smart4 2”?
I think it’s time for a CC article on cars with three passenger doors. Offhand the Hyundai Veloster, the OSI DAF city car (possibly unique with a sliding driver’s door and “suicide” rear passenger door), the Saturn SC coupe and various trucks like the 67-72 Suburban and VW Doka. I’d call the 600 an honorary 3 door since there’s only one rear passenger door.
I’ve been waiting for someone else to step up concerning another Isetta based 4 passenger car with 2 doors. Anyone know who manufactured it and it’s name?
Hint: It was [appropriately] named after a Roman deity.
Bill, It’s right up there in this post, the Zundapp Janus.
Damn, not only did I miss the mention, but I missed the photo as well! Mea Culpa!
Lots of minivans, like the Previa, although typically they have sliding doors. My Mazda MPV had 3 normal doors though, and I can’t offhand think of any others like that.
Not minivans, but the 1958-60 International Travelall and 1967-72 Chevrolet/GMC Suburban had that setup too.
As for 3 regular-door cars, there was the Kaiser Traveler, a quasi-hatchback that looks like it has four doors, but one of them doesn’t open because the spare is stored vertically behind it blocking what would have been the entrance.
You are correct concerning the Kaiser Traveler, I used to own one in the 1980s. The left rear door was simply the door assembly welded in place, with a leatherette panel inside that held the spare tire in location. I’m attaching a factory photo showing what it looked like.
This was poorly engineered & designed. Let’s say you had folded down the back seat and loaded the vehicle with various items, and one of the tires went flat. Instead of simply opening the left rear door to expose the spare tire, you had to unload the vehicle and fold the back seat up into it’s normal position to access the tire. Then you had to wrestle the tire out the right rear door too! And of course reverse the procedure once the tire has been changed.
And the first BMW MINI Clubman, though I’m sure if this made it to North America. For the RHD UK, the third door was on the “wrong” (driver’s) side.
There were 3 door Model T touring models. They did not have a driver’s door. In the 50s in southern Ontario we used to pass one parked at a gas station and my dad stopped to look at it. He talked about restoring it but unfortunately we never did.
BMW’s very first production 4 wheeler, in the entre-deux-guerres, was a licence built «Baby» Austin Seven.
Am I the only one who looked at the photo of the Microlino and said I want? Good thing for my checkbook it won’t be coming over here 🙂
It may be just a quirk of the frame photo, but it seems to me that the front pivots for the rear suspension arms are mounted on a line perpendicular to the frame – making them *trailing* arms, rather than ‘semi-trailing’… 🙂
Well spotted, the rest of us were half asleep – they do seem to be true trailing arms.
Quite true. I just regurgitated what I read, and didn’t look close enough. I’ll amend the text.
I was taken by the building as much as by the car. It was built as a small neighbourhood shopping centre in suburban West Vancouver in the 1960s, with an adjacent (now disused) gas station which also looks to be under renovation. The detailing on both buildings is simple and impressive.
A great example of west coast, mid-century design, lovingly taken care of and restored. It doesn’t appear to be on the local Heritage list – if not, it should be.
How neat that some survive .
A neighbor had a BMW 600 in the very late 1950’s and I got to ride in it a few times .
Micro cars, why not ? .
Someone told me long ago that the BMW licensed Austin Seven was called “Dixie” ~ true ?.
-Nate