http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claus_Luthe
Claus Luthe
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Claus Luthe, born 8 December 1932 in Wuppertal, Germany is a celebrated German car designer. As a coachbuilding student he first worked at Karosseriebauer Voll in Würzburg, where he worked on proposals for buses. After a short stay with at Fiat, where he was, among other activities, responsible for the frontal styling of the 500, he returned to Germany to work for NSU, where he was instrumental in developing the company’s design department.

Claus Luthe’s best known designs in the 1960s were the second generation Chevrolet Corvair-inspired NSU Prinz, the NSU Wankel Spyder, and, in 1967, the revolutionary NSU Ro 80, which still stands today as a milestone in automotive design. The Volkswagen K70 was originally conceived by Luthe as the NSU K70, but came to the market after considerable delays with modifications to his original design.

Following the takeover of NSU by Volkswagen, Luthe continued to work for Volkswagen/Audi and was involved in, among other projects, the original Polo, and the Audi 100 C2. He produced the initial proposals for the Audi 80 B2, although the design was modified substantially after he left Audi.

In 1976 he succeeded Paul Bracq as chief designer with BMW, styling the the second generation 5 Series and the E30 and E36 3 Series, as well as the 1986 E32 7-Series. By 1990 he was head of BMW’s design department, supervising the creation of the 1989 8-Series Coupe, and the third generation E34 5-Series. In 1990 he left his post at BMW after being arrested for stabbing his son, a chronic drug addict, to death.

 

I read that the previous designer killed his son but could never find a link online. Its bugged me for years b/c I know I read it, but didn't have a name

More BMW design history.
BMW then went 2 years without a head designer. Chris Bangle joined BMW in 1992.
Boyke Boyer, head of exterior design, recalls that BMW's design team was woefully unprepared for this new world. A rumpled man with tousled silver hair, a two-day beard, and a big laugh, Boyer is a 30-year veteran of BMW. Sitting in his office at the FIZ, chain-smoking Marlboros, he says that at the time of Bangle's arrival, the design team was near the bottom of the corporate food chain. The designers had worked for two years without a design director; they lacked a leader to champion their cause and nurture a point of view. As a result, the team fell under the thumb of BMW's justly famous engineering department. "You'd never have a voice at meetings," Boyer exclaims, waving his hands dismissively. "The attitude was, 'Oh, those designers, pshh, pshh. They're nothing but a bunch of picture makers!' "

Not surprisingly, BMW design stagnated. The German auto press sometimes derided its conservative approach as "eine Wurst, drei Grosse" -- "one sausage, three different lengths" -- implying that its cars were cast from the same mold. "When we'd launch new models at an automobile exhibition," explains Boyer, "our colleagues from competing companies would come by and say, 'Are those all of your ideas? What do you do all day?' We couldn't tell them that we'd tried radical approaches but they had all been turned down."

 

Joji Nagashima: E36 3 series, Z3, E39 5 series

Boyke Boyer: E38 7 series

Klaus Kapitza: E31 8 series

Geoff Velasco: X3 (Designworks)

Chris Chapman: X5 (Designworks)

Anders Warming: Z4 (Designworks)

Henrik Fisker: Z8 (now with Aston)

Kevin Rice: new 1 series

Erik Goplen: E46 3 series (Designworks/USA)

David Arcangeli: E60 5 series

Unfortunately Davide Arcangeli who designed the E60 5 Series exterior died of leukemia around November 2004

Left: Mike Ninic, E90 interior development director
Middle: Matthias Hoffman, designer of winning proposal


agashima working on clay model

 

The initial research phase of the E90 project started in the late 90's, at which time a Rover-friendly platform was still on the table. BMW dumped Rover in 2000, and started the E80 1-series project, which also was assigned to the Munich studio. Initial design work on the 2 projects ran at the same time at first, but the E90 was stopped for a while so they could focus on the E80. The E90 was revived in late 2001, an in-house competition took place: 15 designers participated, 6 of the proposals were made into clay models, and eventually Nagashima's proposal was selected to be further developed for production. Then a team was formed to finalize everything: senior design manager Boyke Boyer as exterior design director and Mike Ninic as interior design director. Both of them who have been with BMW for over 2 decades reported to Chris Bangle. The exterior was ready to be signed off in late 2002, prototypes were built and sent to testing in 2003.

 

Taken here
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...p?t=433&page=2

FYI, Mr Nagashima penned one of the most popular BMWs of all time, the E39 5-series, as well as the contemporary E36/7 Z3 roadster. He's an excellent designer, and Japan is strong in industrial design. For those of you who don't know, the Ferrari Enzo was penned by Ken Okuyama, another well-known Japnese-born US-educated designer. Okuyama is now creative director at one of the most influential design firms - Pininfarina.

Also FYI, most of the brand-defining BMWs weren't designed by Germans. The 507 was designed by American Albrecht von Goertz, the 2002 (along with E21, E23 and E24) by French Paul Bracq, the 3.0 CS/CSL and M1 by Italian Giorgetto Giugiaro, the E34 by legendary Italian Ercole Spada, the Z8 by Danish Henrik Fisker and the E46 by Swedish Erik Goplen.

Believe it or not, when people bash "Japanese styling", what they don't realise is that the majority of current offerings from Japan are actually designed by Westerners from America/Europe-based studios. For instance, the 350Z was penned by an English in a Cali-based studio.

There are no borders in design.

 

ABOUT THE NEW DESIGN PHILOSOPHY:
http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/arc...p/t-29529.html
"The effort to envision a new generation of BMWs began a decade ago. Soon after Bangle joined the company in October 1992, he participated in an upper-management workshop that attempted to look 10 years out and pinpoint what premium-car buyers would want. They concluded that the first decade of the new millennium -- the time we live in now -- would be a dynamic world of near-constant movement. BMW would have to build products that move people both physically and emotionally. It could no longer be just a car company. It had to be a mobility company. It had to become a company that let people motor."


"Boyke Boyer, head of exterior design, recalls that BMW's design team was woefully unprepared... he says that at the time of Bangle's arrival, the design team was near the bottom of the corporate food chain. The designers had worked for two years without a design director."

"...critical goal: to get engineers to advocate for design and to get designers to champion engineering. Deep Blue's members were cut free of the FIZ and allowed to relocate so that they could work far from prying eyes -- including, says Bangle, his own eyes. The team leased Elizabeth Taylor's former home in Malibu, California. After six months of grueling work, it had produced six product statements for what would eventually become the X3 SUV."

"It's up to Bangle to draw the best designs out of each artist and keep his teams fresh over the three-to-four-year process of evolving a new car. It's a complex challenge. Experience has shown him that the early front-runner often will not turn out to be the winning design. Bangle prepares for such an outcome by instructing another team to come up with a concept that's diametrically opposed to the front-runner's model. Such was the case in the competition to design the new 7 Series. While the early leader followed the middle road, Van Hooydonk chose to take the road less traveled. There were many setbacks along the way, but eventually, his unconventional design emerged as the winner."

 

So all that's important:

The people who designed the E38, E39, E46, and E53 were brilliant. That's all.

 

You'd have to add E90 to that list since the same guy who worked with the E39 did the E90 as well. The Japanese guy designing the E90 makes sense since the newer 3 series seems to almost have a Japanese car look about it. But, I guess even my last statement would be a little off base having just read this article...

 

Wait, so did Bangle okay both the E39 and the E90?

The E90 was alright when it came out, but I don't like it anymore. It may have something to do with the ugly yellow corner reflector in the headlight cluster, but the rear end is awful.

 

I know you posted years ago, but that was actually the 2000 X5(E53) designed from August 1996 into February 1997, not the X3.

 

Will we see.........

1SICKX6?

 

wow, 5 year old thread. good stuff though!

 

Albrecht von Goertz was German, not American.

 

He was from Lower Saxony (in a town close to Hannover).......but moved to California first (before joining the US Army)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_von_Goertz

 

Interesting. I never knew that he applied for and received American citizenship.