If you like the classic BMW E9 coupe, odds are that you also think the earlier New Class Coupe is pretty awesome too. Granted, some don’t appreciate the more delicate look of the 4-cylinder big pillarless coupe, but most of the design features that Wilhelm Hofmeister penned into the 2000C and 2000CS were directly translated into the E9 coupe. That means, of course, that the design language was effectively the same for over twenty years until the last of the similar designs – the E24 – finally left production in 1989. Even then, the “Hofmeister Kink” remained a styling cue that was incorporated into the new designs from Munich. The 2000CS, though, held some unique details such as the front end which looked distinctly different than the models that followed. Shared with some of the New Class sedans, the dual beam lights hid behind a glass cover – something that wouldn’t occur again until the 1990s. But the profile was classic BMW coupe; a long hood and delicate A and C pillars with plenty of glass along with a sharply cut tail. Squint, and you can still see some details that are incorporated even into modern BMWs:
