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E21 HISTORY
The E21 is the Cinderella model in BMW range. The E21 came after a five year development period, and had more investment (35 million DMs) than any previous BMW product. Bernhardt Osswald headed up the design team, and the E21, unlike its predecessor the 2002, was designed from the outset to take a 2-litre engine. Safety and refinement were paradigms for the new generation car. Launched in July of 1975, the E21 is now 30 years old.
The E21 matured the concept of safety, refinement, silence space and aerodynamics so well that it created a market of its own for high quality compact “executive cars”. With the following years spawning a proliferation of imitators.
When the E21 came to the UK in the autumn of 1975, three models were available – all with four cylinder engines: the 90bhp 316, the 109bhp 320 and the fuel injected 125bhp 320i. In 1976 the E21 was runner up in the Car Of The Year awards(COTY).
Two four-cylinder (320 and 320i) cars were dropped in 1977 in favour of six-cylinder cars with 2-litre carburettor and 2.3-litre fuel injected formats (these cars were UK launched in January 1978), the 1.8-litre 316 was introduced in 1980. The Baur cabriolet was also introduced in 1980.
Production of all E21s ended in December 1982, with a total production of just over 1.3million, the lion’s share being manufactured at the Munich factory.
| Contact details for the E21 Register | | | Chair/Registrar | John Foster | jsfc4d@aol.com |
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