BMW 503s: Graf Goertz’s grand designs

By Graeme Hurst

| 10 Oct 2025

Classic & Sports Car – BMW 503s: Graf Goertz’s grand designs

It’s hard to picture a motoring world without BMW and its famous blue-and-white propeller emblem.

And yet, had the former aero-engine builder not risen from the ashes of its WW2-devastated factories, we would have had no 2002tii or 3.0 CSL.

No awesome M1 or sublime E30 M3, nor stylist Chris Bangle’s divisive ‘flame surfacing’.

The famous German car maker has designed a whole array of two-door ‘Ultimate Driving Machines’ that offer a sportier, more involving take on its upmarket saloons.

BMW’s opulent, unprofitable 503s pushed the firm to the brink of bankruptcy

Much of BMW’s immediate post-war history focuses on its stunning 507 roadster, a model that has been near-deified by marque fans yet had little influence on the cars that rolled out of Bavaria for close to four decades – and put hardly any funds into the firm’s empty coffers.

The 507 had a larger sibling, the 503, that also made its debut in 1955.

You’ve most likely never seen one in the metal, but the Coupé – launched at the Frankfurt motor show – gave a glimpse of BMW’s future.

Like the 507, though, the 503 cost so much to produce that the company lost money on every single one.

The 503 was primarily an upmarket 2+2 version of the 502, better known as the ‘Baroque Angel’ and itself the V8-engined successor to the six-cylinder 501.

Open and closed versions of BMW’s sublime 503 meet in the Alps

That was Bayerische Motoren Werke’s first post-war car after its Munich motorcycle facility was razed by Allied bombing and its Eisenach car plant – home of the fabulous 327/328 series – was lost behind the Iron Curtain.

The 503 was also BMW’s first serious attempt to counter the spectacular renaissance that arch-rival Mercedes-Benz had enjoyed with its 300SL sports car in 1954.

It featured a bigger version of the Baroque Angel’s then state-of-the-art, all-aluminium V8 engine, but it used the same chassis.

Like the Mercedes, it was aimed squarely at the wealthier end of the US market: a sector keen to be seen enjoying a prestigious European badge among a sea of ubiquitous American automotive labels.

What’s more, the BMW 503 had been inspired by those buyers.

This BMW 503 Cabriolet has a column-mounted gearshift

Just as with the 300SL Gullwing-turned-Roadster and the 507, the development of the 503 came thanks to the influence of Max Hoffman – a US importer of European cars whose sales volumes and distribution network gave him serious clout back in Munich.

Hoffman was keen to offer a BMW rival to the Mercedes-Benz ‘Adenauer’ two-doors and came up with the man for the job: Albrecht Graf (Count) Goertz – a one-time Raymond Loewy employee who had successfully styled the 1953 Studebaker Starliner coupe.

Under Hoffman’s initial guidance, Goertz was tasked with reclothing the BMW 502 chassis in both open and closed bodywork.

Many a designer may regard Goertz’s BMW 507 as his finest hour, although the 503’s masterfully restrained elegance – particularly its rump – was reportedly a bigger hit with design legend Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina.

The BMW 503 Cabriolet’s V8 is good for 140bhp

Both body styles were completed in just over a year to make their debuts at the Frankfurt show, where they were joined by the 505 limousine (which was later abandoned), while Mercedes-Benz had nothing new.

The 503 wowed as much as for its looks as its specification.

V8 engines were almost unheard of on this side of the Atlantic in the mid-1950s while the BMW’s all-round electric windows and optional sunroof were major novelties, as was the soft-top’s powered folding hood.

Less appealing was the price. At DM29,000, the 503 cost DM12,000 more than the saloon 502 and was DM3000 dearer than the 507.

The roles have since been reversed, because a 507 is many times the Coupé’s value today.

Even that price-tag wasn’t enough, because the Coupé – like the 507 – was massively labour-intensive to produce.

The heavy BMW 503 Cabriolet requires a lot of steering input to get round tight corners

Just 412 cars were made before production stopped in 1959, by which time the firm was desperately trying to stave off bankruptcy – and a hostile takeover bid from Mercedes-Benz – by manufacturing Isetta microcars under licence.

We’re lucky enough to sample both variants of this luxury 2+2 today with a drive over not one but two breathtaking Alpine passes: the Maloja and Julier.

These majestic routes are in the heart of Switzerland’s St Moritz skiing area, and each features a mixture of open straights, fast corners and tight bends on which to let these V8 beauties sing.

First up is the Coupé. For me, it’s the prettier car.

Its pillarless roof gives a more complete look compared with that of the Cabriolet – in much the same way that the closed version of Paul Bracq’s Mercedes-Benz W111 looks better than the Cabrio – and signalled the profile of the BMW two-doors that would follow.

The BMW 503 Coupé’s stylish Rudge knock-off wheels

Slide behind the big Bakelite steering wheel and you quickly appreciate that the BMW 503 was screwed together with the same Mercedes-Benz ‘built up to a standard, not down to the price’ ethos.

Its switches, doorhandles and even the delightful quarterlight knobs work with a pleasing action.

Likewise, the doors open and shut with a weighty heft and a well-engineered precision.

The softly sprung leather seats feel opulent, too, and the dashboard is well stocked with instruments that are fairly close given the 503’s driving position: you sit tucked up towards the windscreen with plenty of legroom, but your arms are folded.

Surprisingly, the gearlever is quite far forward, with first and third needing a stretch to engage.

The big BMW 503 Coupé cruises effortlessly, but is harder work in bends

The initial part of the 44km run from the outskirts of Chiavenna – just 20km north of picturesque Lake Como – towards St Moritz features an abundance of open sections on which to adapt to both the 503’s controls and its weighty feel, with the slightly ponderous road manners that result.

The car’s solidity initially translates into stately progress. That’s understandable when you consider that, at 3307lb, the 503 coupé was 67lb heavier than the chubbiest Baroque Angel.

Which is why the saloon’s 2.6-litre engine was stretched to 3.2 litres. That, plus an extra carb, helped the V8 to crank out 140bhp.

Hardly an embarrassing figure by mid-’50s standards, but where the short-stroke V8 really impresses is with its flexibility, meaning that you don’t need to thrash it when you want to build pace. You soon find that 3-4000rpm on the rev counter is plenty.

The BMW 503 Coupé’s lavish but understated interior, with leather seats and a huge steering wheel

Long gearing makes for a relaxed 120kph (75mph) at 3400rpm in top, but this coupé is more about enjoying the scenery than shaving off lap times.

Open the sunroof, drop all four windows and you can bask in the panorama, while the scenery whirls past like the view from a carousel at a fairground as we begin to negotiate the seemingly endless hairpin bends to the top of the Maloja.

Parking the Coupé alongside its Cabriolet sibling gives a chance to admire the vista more thoroughly and compare the styling of the two.

If there’s an Achilles’ heel to the 503’s lines, it’s the headlights, which appear out of proportion with the dominant twin-kidney grille – or nieren – and lend the car a slightly sinister look.

Goertz evidently intended them to sit lower, but the design fell foul of Germany’s safety legislation at the time.

A V8 badge adorns the BMW 503’s bootlid

Being a pre-’58 model, this Cabriolet has the earlier, mid-mounted gearbox.

That layout was inherited from the 502, in which it allowed a flatter floor and three-abreast seating up front.

The downside of the remote location was a column shift, but that was moved to a floor change in September ’57 when BMW switched to running the ’box directly off the engine.

The 503 gained front disc brakes at the same time.

Swapping cogs on the column feels more in keeping with the Cabriolet’s boulevardier feel, anyway.

This is probably amplified by this car’s two-tone leather and lively metallic blue paintwork, which would look right at home wafting through Beverly Hills with the crooning voice of Frank Sinatra coming from the car’s Becker stereo radio.

The BMW 503 Coupé’s period Becker Mexico stereo

In comparison, you could more easily imagine the Coupé as transport for a night out at the State Opera House in Berlin, and its immaculately attired occupants enjoying the sights in silence as they barrelled along Unter den Linden before an evening of Wagner.

Right now, though, we’re worlds away from either, turning before St Moritz towards Chur and, 3km later, exploring the V8’s performance as the 503 tackles the extra 1500ft-plus climb of the Julier pass.

Even at 7493ft, though, the Julier is only Switzerland’s ninth-highest pass.

It’s some 500ft lower than the better-known but equally scenic Furka pass to the west of the Alps, where the fantastic James Bond Goldfinger Aston Martin DB5 and Ford Mustang chase sequence was shot.

At this altitude – and with the tight corners that we soon encounter as the road begins to rise dramatically – the 503 doesn’t feel as if it would cope with having 007 on its tail, although one did make it to the silver screen.

‘Where the BMW’s short-stroke V8 really impresses on the Alpine passes is with its flexibility’

The 1971 film The Last Run, in which George C Scott plays an ageing gangster engaged to smuggle an escaped convict across Portugal and Spain, features a BMW 503 in an epic chase involving some serious off-road antics over a mystery Mediterranean pass.

The sight of such an extravagant machine being thrashed will make you wince – somehow, the pursuing Jaguar XJ6’s gravel-spraying antics seem more palatable – but the sequence has clearly been speeded up.

The BMW 503 is a heavy, cumbersome beast in tight corners, with a tendency to understeer and skinny radial tyres that are easily overpowered by the body’s inertia.

The pinion-and-sector steering needs plenty of input to keep the car on course, too: the wheel’s lack of self-centring requires lots of arm-twirling to navigate through the twisty bits and make the rapid descent.

The BMW 503 Coupé’s elegant VDO speedometer

At well over 3000lb each, neither car is ideal for this terrain, yet the combination of the relatively stiff torsion-bar-sprung chassis and strong brakes imbue you with confidence if you press on.

The plush and substantially equipped cabin makes you feel safely cocooned, too, while you revel in the engine’s soft V8 beat.

The Bertone-bodied BMW 3200 CS, which replaced the 503, wouldn’t fare much better on these roads, thanks to the same bulky, separate-chassis construction.

No, the step-change in BMW handling came with the monocoque Neue Klasse models, which evolved into the iconic E9 series and the 3.0 CSL – arguably the marque’s seminal coupé.

By then the creator of the famous propeller badge would be on a much firmer financial footing, thanks to further backing from the Quandt family.

It was also about to enjoy burgeoning motorsport success that would inspire a raft of legendary performance variants.

Yet all of that might never have happened without BMW’s first proper foray into the two-door market.

Images: Gudrun Muschalla

Thanks to: BMW Group Classic

Factfile

BMW 503

Sold/number built 1956-’59/412 (273 Coupés & 139 Cabriolets)
Construction steel chassis, with aluminium and steel bodywork
Engine all-alloy, with aluminium wet-liners, ohv 3168cc V8, two twin-choke Zenith carbs
Max power 140bhp @ 4800rpm
Max torque 159lb ft @ 3800rpm
Transmission four-speed manual, RWD
Suspension: front independent, by double wishbones rear live axle; torsion bars, telescopic dampers f/r
Steering pinion and sector
Brakes drums, with servo (front discs from Sept ’57)
Length 15ft 7in (4750mm)
Width 5ft 7in (1702mm)
Height 4ft 9in (1448mm)
Wheelbase 9ft 3½in (2835mm)
Weight 3307lb (1500kg, Coupé)
0-60mph 10.5 secs (est)
Top speed 118mph
Mpg n/a
Price new £4801