In the 1960s, automobile manufacturers knew that, with unitary construction, the fastest way to a faster car was to ease a bigger engine into a model you already had. Over in Germany, the engineers and marketers of the Bayerische Motoren Werke arguably grasped that idea better than others, leading to the 2002.
To revive the sporting image they’d enjoyed in the 1930s, BMW started with a smaller, lighter and less well-appointed two-door version of their ‘Neu Klasse’ (New Class) sedan range that had debuted in 1962 and featured innovations – for the era – like fully independent suspension and disc front brakes.
