It has been known as the best automotive evaluation of all time. Nevertheless you rank it, “Flip Your Hymnals to 2002” by David E. Davis Jr. modified the automotive world within the U.S. and catapulted BMW of North America into the highlight. It was so insightful that it even led to Davis being fired.
However we’ll get to that in a second.
The yr was 1968, and the automobile Davis was testing wasn’t the insane Turbo and even the Tii. These fashions have been nonetheless years away. This was merely the bottom mannequin 2002, which maybe made the way in which it drove all of the extra revolutionary to Davis and a whole technology of automotive fanatics.
A yr earlier, the journal had declared BMW’s 1600-2 “the perfect $2,500 sedan Automotive and Driver ever examined.” With the bigger and extra highly effective 2.0-liter engine, the 2002 grew to become, as Davis wrote, “most actually the perfect $2,850 sedan in the entire cotton-picking world.”
This highlight ultimately turned some of the obscure automotive manufacturers imported into the U.S. right into a family title. However on the time of publication, issues have been very completely different for BMW of North America (BMWNA). BMW hadn’t formally exported its vehicles to the U.S. previous to World Warfare II, and only some have been imported by personal prospects. Throughout the Occupation, American service members found sporty BMWs just like the 328 and 327, however they didn’t convey sufficient of those vehicles dwelling to make a lot of an influence. BMW’s postwar product technique didn’t improve the marque’s visibility throughout the Fifties, nor did its disjointed distribution system. Whereas Fred Oppenheimer’s Fadex Company had short-term success with the Isetta microcar, Max Hoffman failed to seek out an viewers for BMW’s V8-powered 507 or every other fashions aimed on the American automobile purchaser. The early-’60s Neue Klasse sedans and 2000 CS coupe additionally missed the mark. By 1966, BMW had bought simply 1,253 vehicles in america.
All of that modified with the launch of the Sort 114 (because it was identified internally). Thanks partially to Automotive and Driver’s glowing evaluation of the 1600-2, BMW’s U.S. gross sales practically quadrupled in 1967, reaching a complete of 4,564 vehicles. Curiously, practically all of those have been 1600-2s, not the bigger, extra sensible four-door fashions.
Nonetheless, BMW remained a little bit of an fanatic’s secret. Nevertheless, with the April 1968 concern of Automotive and Driver, that every one started to vary. As one of many “Large Three” automotive publications, together with Highway & Monitor and Motor Pattern, Automotive and Driver had round a million subscribers and unbelievable energy to affect readers—a lot of whom have been possible tiring of the massive American muscle automobile phenomenon.
However it wasn’t simply the standard of Davis’s insights that made the evaluation legendary. It was the way in which his prose transported readers to a time, a spot, and a way of thinking.
To offer you an thought of the ability of this evaluation: it was this piece that in the end sparked a grassroots motion that led to my father shopping for a 2002 within the early ’70s. That automobile, in flip, gave me the BMW bug once I was a small boy within the early ’80s. I can solely think about numerous readers have comparable tales. However sufficient about that—let’s dive into the evaluation. Listed below are a couple of excerpts so that you can decide for your self:
As I sit right here, contemporary from the elegant embrace of BMW’s new 2002, it happens to me that one thing between 9 and ten million People are going to make a horrible mistake this yr.
As far as I’m involved, to hell with all of ‘em. In the event that they’re content material to stay within the automotive darkish, allow them to. I do know in regards to the BMW 2002, and I believe fanatics will purchase as many as these pink-cheeked Bavarians of their leather-based pants and mountain-climbing sneakers wish to construct and ship over right here. One thing between 9 and ten million squares will miss out on this neat little 2-door sedan with all of the cojones and brio and elan of vehicles twice its measurement and 4 occasions its worth, however some ten thousand eager sorts will purchase them in 1968, so the bulk loses for as soon as.
Depress the clutch. Straightforward. Like there was no spring. Snick. First gear. Take away weight of left foot from clutch. Place weight of proper foot on accelerator. The minute it begins shifting, you already know that Fangio and Moss and Tony Brooks and all these different huge racing studs retired solely as a result of the dreaded that sometime you’d have one in every of these, and when that day got here, you’d be indomitable. They have been proper. You’re indomitable.
David E Davis
As for David E. Davis Jr., “Flip Your Hymnals to 2002” cemented his fame as one in every of America’s best and most influential automotive journalists. Sarcastically, it additionally obtained him fired from Automotive and Driver, because of his criticism that the 2002’s radio—made by Automotive and Driver advertiser Blaupunkt—“couldn’t decide up a Manhattan station from the far finish of the Brooklyn Bridge.”
Afterward, he took a job with the promoting company Campbell-Ewald earlier than returning to Automotive and Driver in 1976, this time as editor-in-chief. In that position, he wrote much more favorable opinions of BMW cars and moved Automotive and Driver headquarters from New York Metropolis to Ann Arbor, Michigan. There, Davis petitioned town to renumber the journal’s new workplace constructing as 2002 Hogback Highway—barely out of sequence on the road grid however a becoming homage to the automobile that made his profession and put BMW on the radar of discerning American fanatics.
You’ll be able to learn your complete unique evaluation right here. And for a full retrospective on David E. Davis (who handed away in 2011) head over to Automotive & Driver.
BMW 2002 Photograph Gallery
