The BMW Diana’s

In touring car racing in the early 1960s, Hubert Hahne set the highlights for BMW. Hahne, who was born on 28th March 1935 in Moers on Rhine, and quickly discovered his passion for motor racing and in 1963 celebrated his first major success behind the wheel of a BMW 700, winning the European Touring Car Cup.

The following year, Hahne dominated the German Circuit Championship with a BMW 1800Ti. By the end of the season he won an impressive 14 of the 16-round season, his most successful year. In 1966, he won another European Championship and, with a BMW 2000Ti, he mastered the challenge of the “Green Hell” in 9:58.5 minutes, thus being the first touring car driver to lap the Nürburgring in less than ten minutes. He also goes on to win the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race with Jacky Ickx.
In 1966 and the following years, Hahne also successfully competed in Formula 2 and established two world records at Monza. In 1969, he finished runner-up in the European Formula 2 Championship and entered several Formula One races. A year later, in 1970 he retired from Motor racing and now lives in Italy.

Hubert Hahne, racing driver and BMW agent based in Dusseldorf presented one to his wife as a wedding present – ‘Diana Korner’ who was a German actress at the time. The “Diana” was a BMW 2002Ti with special equipment. Hahne decided then to carry out a small series of 12 cars, with the agreement of BMW, all painted of different colours, some with turbo engines or 6 cylinders. It is interesting to note that the numbers of chassis’s, as these cars are all successive, proving well that the Diana’s were not an official model in range BMW, the firm brought Hubert Hahne the necessary logistical support for the realisation of this very special series.

These “Diana’s” were also equipped with steel sliding roofs, racing bucket front seats, electric front windows, 5-speed gearboxes, racing door mirrors, top tint front windscreen, twin headlamp upgrade, dashboard and panels on the doors covered out of deer.

Andy Andexer (Chairman of the 02 Club in Germany) owns the only road-going example and he knows of the other 2 (I think they are basket cases). His car is insured for €60,000 (2006)

Strut Brace is a recent addition and wasn’t available in the 1970’s

How things have changed, or maybe they haven’t? In 1972 the year of the Munich Olympics BMW supplied two Inka Orange 1600-2 (there was a small fleet made for testing) for the opening ceremony and used as steward’s vehicles for the marathon and other long distance walking events. However, these were no ordinary 02’s, they were Electric vehicles.

BMW collaborated with Varta and Bosch, twelve 12v starter batteries were installed in the engine bay weighing 772lbs (350kg) that powered an electric motor that was good for 37 miles (70 km’s) driving at a constant 31 mph (50 kph). Where the gearbox was normally mounted a DC-Shunt wound motor weighing 85kg was installed the drive shafts were directly connected to the rear axle via a reducing gear, the cars speed was restricted by a pulse generator also developed by Bosch.

The electric 02 had no clutch or gearstick, only an accelerator controlled the cars motion. A lever was installed that could switch between forward and reverse drive. Obviously the car had no exhaust system and you could say “Zero emissions”. In place of the clock a gauge showed the remaining range left. All the electronics were installed in the boot and interior heating was provided by of course an electric fan. Interestingly the two front side windows were also electrically heated, but using these would serious limit the cars overall range.

Each car weighed an almighty 1331.5 kg’s and could reach a top speed of 90 kph, but properly took hours to reach it. Both cars still wore the “1600” badge on the rear panel and hidden behind the front centre kidney grill was the socket to charge the car.

Below; BMW 2002 TI “Diana” – one of the most exclusive BMW’s built seen @ Techno Classica in Essen 2015 and 02 meet 2016
This original design was a big hit for BMW . But a very exclusive small series of the successful racer cars  was build by Baura for the then new BMW dealer Hubert Hahne . There were only 12 of these BMW 2002 TI produced , they were all named after his wife “Diana”. Each car was painted differently, with novel equipment and dual headlights. This vehicle was exhibited from the private collection of Hahnemann. It has a  2.5 L six-cylinder engine fitted later by Granser.
Year built: 1971 Number of pieces: 12;
Owner: Reiner Ahrend; Exhibitors: BMW 02 Club e.V.
Specifications: Engine: conversion to 6-cylinder in-line; Engine Size: 2,478 cc; Bore x stroke: 86 x 71.6 mm; Power: 110 kW / 150 hp at 6,000 r / min .; Transmission: 4-speed manual transmission; Front brake: disc brakes, internally ventilated; Rear Brakes: drum brakes; Dimensions: 4,230 x 1,590 x 1,410 mm; Empty weight: 1130 kg; Top speed: 200 km / h