BMW has unveiled its newest – and wildest – design examine creation within the one-off Idea Skytop design examine, which premiered at this yr’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este held on the shores of Lake Como in Italy.
The Bavarian producer not often misses a chance to roll out its most interesting artistic endeavors on the high-brow Villa d’Este occasion, having final yr paid tribute to the early 2000s M Coupe ‘clown shoe’ with a one-off Z4-based Idea Touring Coupe.
For this yr, although, the M8-based Idea Skytop upped the ante even additional and, just like the Z8 it pays homage to, options BMW’s strongest modern V8 engine – packing a 460kW/740Nm punch.
“The BMW Idea Skytop is a really distinctive and unique design, within the custom of the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este,” stated BMW Group head of design Adrian van Hooydonk.
“It affords a mixture of driving dynamics and class on the highest degree, akin to its historic ancestors, just like the BMW Z8 or BMW 503.”
In some ways, the Idea Skytop seems extra like a BMW 507, the lithe youthful brother of the 503, which shared the identical 3.2-litre alloy V8 making roughly 112kW – an terrible lot of ponies for a street automotive within the Nineteen Fifties.
There isn’t a denying its relation to the Z8 of the early 2000s although, a uncommon trendy traditional with simply 5703 models produced and bought, every utilizing an S62 V8 from the E39 M5 fettled and fitted between the Z8’s rails within the late Nineteen Nineties, producing round 300kW in its last kind, making for a potent bundle.
Whereas neither the Z8 nor 503 come near the Skytop Idea’s 460kW, practically 70 years separate these early V8 roadsters and BMW’s newest creation.
Visually, a glossy but muscular physique – roofless in fact – with an unmistakable BMW kidney grille and sloping rear offers the two-seater a equally sporty silhouette to the Z8.
Nonetheless, in honouring the 503 and 507, it additionally combines traditional luxurious craftsmanship, highlighted via lashings of brown leather-based and brogue-style accents, with hyper-modern parts just like the slim, milled aluminium LED headlights.
A leather-finished roll-over bar behind the seats and sloping rear tail supply a speedster-esque aspect profile, with two matching leather-based roof items tucked away within the baggage compartment beneath.
“For me, the easy fusion of inside and exterior mixed with the progressive tail design expresses the class and originality that the Concorso stands for,” stated BMW designer Marcus Syring.
Judging from photographs provided by BMW and from the occasion at which it debuted, the Idea Skytop appears to have nailed the transient by honouring its V8 drop-top forefathers however with trendy efficiency and styling.
Rumours are already circulating a few limited-edition run of 25 Idea Skytop fashions, with Mr van Hoooydonk hinting at manufacturing potential and likening the mannequin to the three.0 CSL.
“If we do it, I believe we must always do it in a really restricted manufacturing,” he informed Autocar. “Very restricted.”