Description

The Master and his Pupil

For many people the BMW 507 of the year 1956 is still one of the most beautiful passenger cars of the whole automobile history.
Its designer, the German Albrecht Graf Görtz, was living in the USA at the time, and he learned his trade in the office of the legendary US star designer Raymond Fernand Loewy. Loewy created the symbol of Shell – the Shell mussel – and therefore he was leaving worldwide a lasting impression in the history.

Besides industrial projects, Loewy also created automobile chassis, mainly for the US manufacturer, Studebaker.

After the end of the Second World War, the young Albrecht Graf Görtz came to work in his design office and worked there until 1953. Four years later, Lowey placed an order in Munich for a 507 without chassis. Within a short period he realized his own ideas and equipped the BMW 507 with a fiberglass chassis, which was manufactured at the French company Pichon-Parat.

Rounded features were characterizing the 507 with front looking like a smiling face; the car windows had all rounded corners and the futuristic design of the exhaust pipes was reminding strongly of American style elements. However, a safety bar was showing high safety awareness and also electrically operated windows were installed into the unique model.

In October 1957, Loewy´s own 507 was presented to the public on the Autosalon in Paris and caused a lot of discussions. Albrecht Graf Görtz certainly considered this unique model, but how he reacted is still not known, but the BMW type 507 was the car, where the spirit of the master and his student came together.

Loewy drove his 507 until 1962.

More Information: AutoCult.de