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Obituaries: Claus Luthe
By Yoann Besnard on 26 March 2008 | 
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Claus Luthe died last week at the age of 75 years old. The car designer led BMW’s design during the 80’s.
While today car designers are the rock stars of the motor shows, Claus Luthe belongs to the same category as forgotten designers like Uwe Bahnsen who authored the most memorable cars of the 80’s. Claus Luthe is considered the father of the 7-Series E32, 5-Series E34, the 3-Series E30 and E36, and the 8-Series coupé.
Born in 1932 in Germany, Claus Luthe studied bodywork before joining Fiat as designer where he drew the front face of the 500 in the fifties. In 1956, he came back to Germany to join NSU. There, he designed the Prinz and the famous RO80 which inspired the Audi 100 model. He became head of the design department at NSU in 1967. Under the leadership of VW, Luthe designed the Audi 100 and the first VW Polo.
In 1976, he left VW to become head of design at BMW. At BMW he went on to design some of the company's most emblematic models such as the 7-Series E32 and the 5-Series E34. Unfortunately a family tragedy stopped his career. In 1990 he left his post at BMW after being suspected of fatally stabbing his chronically drug dependent son. Later on he worked as an external consultant for BMW.