If there’s anything that BMW has proven with the Concept Touring Coupe, it’s that it hasn’t forgotten its roots. And while it has been busy fitting ginormous grilles and TVs into the back of its cars, the new concept is a masterclass in reigniting a much-beloved classic. The Z3M ‘bread van’ has been a design icon and the new Concept Touring Coupe follows those footsteps, albeit with even more sensuous lines.
While the name is inspired by the BMW 328 Touring Coupe that won the Mille Miglia endurance race back in 1940, the ethos of the shooting brake started with the BMW 02 Series model variants of the early 1970s, which featured “Touring” in their name to distinguish them from sedans.
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BMW Concept Touring Coupe interior | Image: BMW
Recently unveiled at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Italy, this is a dreamy concept for now although it does look ‘production ready’. Based on the Z4 roadster, the Touring Coupe concept has a lovely shooting brake silhouette with a long metal roof neatly flowing into the vertical tail section. There are further design flourishes including the ‘Sparkling Lario’ exterior paintwork which was specially created for the BMW Concept Touring coupe and it even gets embedded flakes of blue glass.
In a surprising turn of events, the most talked about piece of the car isn’t the grille. Instead, the elongated side window graphic with the Hofmeister kink hogs the attention. That said it does get a bespoke BMW kidney grille with longitudinal bars. Even the multi-spoke alloy wheels are special with gold detailing.
Inside, we’d described it as the current Z4 mixed with a heavy whiff of Italian leather and bicolour. The top half gets a darker shade of brown to not distract while driving while the lower half has a lighter tone. Of course, with this one-off concept car, things won’t be complete without bespoke Italian leather luggage for your escapades around the South of France.
BMW Concept Touring Coupe | Image: BMW
Dynamically things stay the same but there is little to complain about the 3.0 litre straight six with 340hp and even the suspension is unchanged.
“The BMW Concept Touring Coupé celebrates the original Sheer Driving Pleasure,” says Domagoj Dukec, head of BMW Design. “A highly emotional vehicle like this shows that the passion for everything that goes into driving pleasure has been essential through the ages and will be for the future.”
Here’s hoping BMW builds something like this because the world needs beautiful cars like the Concept Touring Coupe!
BMW Concept Touring Coupe | Image: BMW
BMW Concept Touring Coupe | Image: BMW
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