Claus Luthe
Claus Luthe ( born December 8, 1932 in Wuppertal, † March 17, 2008 in Munich) was a German automobile designer. He initially worked for Audi NSU and changed mid-1970s to BMW. He is considered one of the most important car designers of the 20th century.
Life
As a trained master coachbuilder Claus Luthe worked initially in the body company full in Würzburg, where he designed, inter alia, for buses. After a short stay at NSU - Fiat (Claus Luthe was, inter alia, the design of the front of the Fiat Nuova 500 involved) then pulled it Luthe to NSU, where he established and headed the design department from 1967. In 1976 he was appointed as head of design at BMW successor of Paul Bracq.
In 1990 he left there as design chief, as he agreed to it after killing his then 33 -year-old drug-addicted son Ulrich with BMW, to take early retirement. Claus Luthe was sentenced at the end of the procedure, in which it was assessed by the psychiatrist Henning Sass, to imprisonment for a term of two years and nine months. After the pronouncement of judgment of the warrant for his arrest but was released from custody and Claus Luthe was released. Luthe received a free consultant contract with BMW. His successor is appointed with some delay Chris Bangle.
Rolling stock
The most popular cars that designed Claus Luthe in the 1960s were
- The second generation of the NSU Prinz, for which he took loans from the design of the Chevrolet Corvair to take the Prince his original subcompact appearance,
- The NSU Wankel Spider,
- The then revolutionary NSU Ro 80, which is still regarded as a milestone in automotive design (1967 )
- And the VW K70 (originally NSU K70 ).
Due to the NSU takeover by Volkswagen Werk AG the K70 came as a Volkswagen in a comparison with the original design Luthe modified form on the market.
Luthe worked from 1971 to 1976 in the Audi NSU Auto Union AG and designed there, inter alia:
- The Audi 50 (later VW Polo I)
- The second generation of the Audi 100 (Audi 100 C2)
- The second generation of the Audi 80 (Audi 80 B2)
The Audi 80 B2, however, was significantly modified following his departure from Audi NSU.
As head of the design department of BMW, he designed, mostly in collaboration with Ercole Spada:
- The second generation of the BMW 5 - series ( E28 ),
- The second and third generation of the 3 Series ( E30 and E36)
- The second generation of the 7 series ( E32 )
- The 8-seater coupe ( E31 ) and
- The model of the third 5-Series (BMW E34 ).
NSU (1956 - 1971)
NSU Prinz 4
NSU Wankel Spider
NSU Wankel Spider
NSU Ro80
NSU Ro80
VW K70
VW K70
AUDI NSU (1971 - 1976)
Audi 50
Audi 100 C2
BMW (1976 - 1990)
BMW E28
BMW E30
BMW E30
BMW E31
BMW E32
BMW E32
BMW E34
BMW E36