Rainer Buchmann is a German car designer, who founded the "bb" company specialised in the modification of luxury cars.

Life and career

Rainer Buchmann founded the bb company in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...

in 1974, when he converted a

Porsche 911 The Porsche 911 (pronounced ''Nine Eleven'' or in german: Neunelfer) is a two-door 2+2 high performance rear-engined sports car introduced in September 1964 by Porsche AG of Stuttgart, Germany. It has a rear-mounted flat-six engine and ori ...

Coupé into a Porsche Targa and painted it with the rainbow colours of

Polaroid Polaroid may refer to: * Polaroid Corporation, an American company known for its instant film and cameras * Polaroid camera, a brand of instant camera formerly produced by Polaroid Corporation * Polaroid film, instant film, and photographs * Polar ...

. The car was exhibited for Polaroid at the

photokina Photokina (rendered in the promoters' branding as "photokina") is a trade fair held in Europe for the photographic and imaging industries. It is the world's largest such trade fair. The first Photokina was held in Cologne, Germany, in 1950, a ...

fair in 1976. Buchmann produced a number of unusual modifications of Porsche and Mercedes-Benz cars for international clients. Buchmann employed the former Porsche employee Eberhard Schulz in 1978 and built together with him the bb Mercedes-Benz CW 311 in Frankfurt, which was permitted to bear the Mercedes star. It was one of the most streamlined and fastest sport cars of its time with a maximum speed of over . Both the Turbo Targa and the CW 311 had their debut in the 1980 German movie ''Car napping''. Later cars included the bb Flatnose Porsche, the bb Magic Top Mercedes-Benz, the bb Volkswagen Polo Paris/Carat and a conversion of one of the last Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman with free standing wing arches in 1930s style.Peter Vann, Dirk Maxeiner: ''Die schönsten Autos der Welt'', Motorbuch Verlag 1984, , S. 108 ff. Buchmann became partner of well known German companies including car and paint manufacturers. Buchmann saw himself as a car couturier, because his designs were further advanced than those of commercial car tuning companies. He excelled also by technical his developments. Beside his car body modifications he was a pioneer for leading edge automotive electronics, which is today common in many mass produced cars: a remote control for the central locking system, infrared sensors as park assistants, digital computer systems and the multi function steering wheel, for which he filed a patent, and the speaking cockpit. His turnover declined in the 1980s as in the worldwide aftermarket tuning sector. The deteriorating dollar exchange rate affected his exports to the United States and Near East, so that he closed his business in 1986. Subsequently, he worked as a self employed consultant. Buchmann started a comeback in Frankfurt in 2014. He presented the bb Moonracer, a new interpretation of the Turbo Targa Rainbow Porsche of 1976 based on a 1980s Porsche Targa. Parallel to this a book about bb was published by Heel, which was written by Dr. Gerold Lingnau the retired editor of the technology and motor section of the

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

. The book reviews under the title "bb Rainer Buchmann: Innovation-Design-Emotion" the achievements of the car couturier.Gerold Lingnau: ''bb Rainer Buchmann: Innovation-Design-Emotion''. Heel Verlag, .

Gallery

File:Bb (Rainer Buchmann) Rainbow Porsche, Moonracer Porsche und Flatnose Porsche.JPG, bb Rainbow Porsche, Moonracer Porsche and Flatnose Porsche in September 2014 File:Bb (Rainer Buchmann) Moonracer Porsche.JPG, Rainer Buchmann unvealing the bb Moonracer Porsche in Klassikstadt Frankfurt on 20 September 2014 File:Bb (Rainer Buchmann) Flatnose Porsche.JPG, bb Flatnose Porsche File:Bb (Rainer Buchmann) Magic Top Mercedes.JPG, bb Magic Top Mercedes-Benz File:Bb (Rainer Buchmann) VW Polo Carat Paris.JPG, bb Volkswagen Polo Paris/Carat

Patents

Electric steering device for vehicles.
EP 0153434 A1.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buchmann, Rainer Year of birth missing (living people) Living people German automobile designers 20th-century German inventors Businesspeople from Frankfurt