The BMW 3 Series Touring shouldn’t really have happened at all. Or so the story goes.
BMW engineer Max Reisböck dreamed up an estate version from his own E30 saloon out of necessity. He, quite simply, needed more space to take the kids on holiday each year.
So he grafted it on the back.
He clearly did a very good job of his home-built wagon, because when he returned to the factory from holiday he was told the E30, his first BMW, was not to leave the premises.
Not until BMW had officially built a 3 Series Touring themselves, that is. Reisböck’s car had created such a furore that a board meeting was stopped in its tracks and they quickly decided to press go on a project they didn’t even know they needed.
You can imagine the panic in the press department, first when they realised this non-existent BMW had been roaming the streets and second when a whole new car was thrust upon them to promote.
The finished product looks remarkably like the car in Reisböck’s family stills, with similar pillar lines and rear hatch.
Claus Luthe’s E30 design had been around for five years by this point, Reisböck’s project had been rolling around in his mind and garage for three, and BMW had been around for 60.
Yet finally, the Touring had arrived.
It hasn’t looked back since, and has even caved to public demand – ever since the E30, really – to make an M3 Touring.
You’ll find one of each, the oldest and the newest, on Winter Wagons at the Scramble.
