The BMW 3200 CS was a sports touring car manufactured by BMW between January 1962 and September 1965. It was designed by Bertone and was introduced at the 1961 Frankfurt Motor Show. More than five hundred were built.
The 3200 CS was the final variation on BMW's early postwar luxury platform that began with the 501 introduced in 1951. The styling of the 3200 CS influenced the 2000 CS coupe version of the New Class and the later New Six coupes.
It was the first BMW to feature the Hofmeister kink (which would become one of the company's trademark design elements).
Concept and design
In 1960, Helmut Werner Bonsch, BMW's marketing manager, discovered that the Pininfarina body for the Lancia Flaminia coupe would fit on the chassis of the BMW 3200L sedan without major modification. He proposed to BMW's management to commission Pininfarina to build Flaminia coupe bodies with BMW grilles in order to create a successor to the 503, which had been discontinued in 1959.[1]