BMW facilities suffered so much damage during World War II after making top sports cars in the 1930s that it couldn't return to auto production until 1951. But the automaker's ravishing 1956-59 507 sports car revived its reputation for making fast, durable, superbly engineered road cars.

The beautifully built 507 had sensational styling and could do 0-60 mph in 7 to 8.8 seconds, depending on gearing. Top speed was 128-138 mph. Only 253 were built, and it's estimated that at least 200 have survived. A 507 is valued at $455,000 if in excellent (but not show-car condition) and at $325,000 if in "very good" condition, says the Collectible Vehicle Value Guide. The initial price was about $9,000, steep for the time.

Elvis Presley leased a 507 while stationed with the Army in Germany, and Pete Fountain, the New Orleans jazz great, had a brass plate with his name on it put in the engine compartment.

The idea for the 507 didn't come from BMW. Rather, shrewd import car baron Max Hoffman, who was an Austrian transplanted in New York, convinced BMW he had enough rich American customers for a sleek BMW sports car.

BMW agreed to build such an auto because it needed an image boost -- and extra money. And, after all, Hoffman was a former racer and Austrian Rolls-Royce/Bentley dealer with a solid reputation among German automakers. They included Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, which built a few models for America at Hoffman's urging.

In the free-swinging 1950s U.S. auto market, a few influential people such as Hoffman could talk respected European automakers into producing special cars for Americans.

Such a thing would now be impossible. Hoffman owned distribution rights on the East Cost for high-pedigree European autos and also sold them. America was by far the largest, most affluent market for cars of all types in the 1950s, and Hoffman seemed to have all the right ideas for cars that would appeal to wealthy Americans.

BMW needed a sensational auto to put its name on the map here, where it was virtually unknown. It made a plump 1954 502 sedan that was too costly for postwar Germany and too odd for America. But Hoffman saw that the 502 had a new 3.2-liter V-8 that could power a sleek BMW sports car.

Hoffman recruited German-American industrial designer Count Albrecht Goertz to style sporty models with the 502's beefy chassis and running gear. Goertz designed the slick 503 coupe and convertible, which had small back seats and the 502's chassis and pushrod aluminum V-8 with 140 horsepower.

The 503 was a modest image builder for BMW, but Hoffman wanted something far more sensational -- a car that would turn heads on New York's Park Avenue or Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. He urged Goertz to come up with a more rakish car, and the result was the 507 two-seat sports car.

It looked better than Mercedes and Jaguar models, and even some virtually unattainable Ferrari models. The 507 still turns heads.

The new BMW was a showstopper when it debuted at the 1955 Frankfurt auto show in Germany. Its styling was years ahead of its time and so good you couldn't change a line of it without hurting the car's appearance.

The pointed nose had BMWs characteristic twin grilles. As with the Ford Thunderbird, it offered an exquisite removable steel top to accompany its convertible top so it could comfortably be driven during American winters.

The 507 had a 150- or optional 160-horsepower version of the 503's V-8, with dual carburetors, high compression ratio and special camshafts.

Few 1950s European cars had a V-8 because of stiff engine size taxes. Even the legendary, race-winning Mercedes-Benz 300SL had a six-cylinder engine. But the V-8 was king in America, and Hoffman knew Americans would relate to it easily.

The 507 had a four-speed manual transmission and a BMW sedan's steering, tubular chassis and suspension, with a wheelbase shortened fully 16 inches to a trim 97.6-inches.

Large drum (and later front disc) brakes let it safely cruise on Germany's unlimited-speed highways at more than 100 mph.

Handling was good because the 507 had precise rack-and-pinion steering, torsion bar front suspension, nicely designed rear suspension and a sophisticated tubular chassis for great rigidity, compared to most 1950s convertibles.

The fully equipped and nicely detailed 507 was plenty fast for its day, but could have been faster and more competitive on race tracks if it hadn't been so heavy. It weighed 2,935 pounds, and thus wasn't as nimble as it should have been.

Hoffman planned to sell at least several hundred 507s annually in America. He initially figured it would cost about $5,000. A Corvette was about $3,000, but it was only a Chevrolet, with little snob appeal.

Things didn't work out the way Hoffman wanted.

BMW didn't have the tooling to make the 507 in the numbers desired by him, and it took longer than expected to get the car to America. When it finally arrived at Hoffman's lavish New York City dealership, the largely hand-built 507 cost about $9,000, or about the price of two Cadillacs.

Hoffman had a hard time getting rid of the car, partly because most Americans still hadn't had heard of BMW, which didn't get a prestigious name here until decades later.

Still, the 507 was a critical success among knowledgeable auto industry personnel and car buffs here and in Europe.

It went a long way toward reviving BMW's pre-war reputation and helped the automaker begin building a sparkling reputation in America.