Unveiled on the 2023 Villa d’Este Concours d’Class, the BMW Idea Touring Coupe won’t stay a one-off mannequin for lengthy. Adrian van Hooydonk, the BMW Group’s head of design, informed Autoblog that he is open to creating a small batch of coupes if there’s sufficient demand.
“It’s a one-off in the intervening time, and there are not any concrete plans to place it in manufacturing, however we made an settlement earlier than we set sail for Lake Como that if there’s sufficient curiosity we are going to check out it. It may very well be a really low-volume model, like 50 vehicles or so,” he revealed.
It would not take an excessive amount of psychological gymnastics to think about BMW may promote 50 examples with relative ease. Past the rarity, which might undoubtedly enhance the mannequin’s enchantment within the eyes of collectors, the taking pictures brake-like roof line would make it a success amongst youthful patrons who grew up lusting after the Z3 Coupe launched in 1998. In fact, it takes greater than a want to flip an idea automotive right into a manufacturing mannequin, and van Hooydonk mentioned it is nonetheless too early to inform whether or not the Idea Touring Coupe will obtain the proverbial inexperienced mild for manufacturing.
“I would love that,” he mentioned with a smile.
There’s even higher information: if the Idea Touring Coupe turns into a manufacturing mannequin, it will not be very distant. Van Hooydonk introduced up the three.0 CSL Hommage R idea offered on the 2015 version of the Concours d’Class. Plans to construct it weren’t introduced on the time however it morphed into the limited-edition 3.0 CSL in 2022. “Possibly we will do [the Concept Touring Coupe] a bit faster,” he hinted.
As for the roof line, the Z3 Coupe taste is intentional. “We may have achieved a fastback coupe however we in a short time selected the bread van, or taking pictures brake, structure as a result of we felt that it could make it a bit extra iconic,” van Hooydonk defined. He added that, whereas the Z3 Coupe fueled controversy when it made its debut 25 years in the past, it has change into a sought-after basic due partly to its uncommon silhouette.
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