[Brookside]

text NYT/June 11/Phil Patton

History in Motion


To commemorate the 1940 BMW that still holds the average speed record for the Mille Miglia race in Italy,
the company used the 2006 event run last month to unveil a concept car evoking the lines of its forebear.

There is no future production model lurking inside — the underpinnings are lifted from the stock Z4.

The idea was to explore new ideas of aerodynamics as the '40 model did, this time in carbon fiber instead of aluminum.

The fascination with asymetry of Chris Bangle, BMW's top designer, plays out in the rear end;
the boat tail seems formed of overlapping pieces, like a bathrobe.

[Brookside]

I'm having a hard time deciding if this design is inspired or brutally ugly...like something out of a totalitarian fantasy. ?

[Brookside]

The 1940 original. Tho I'm not sure this is exactly the car that set the Mille Miglia record or how many were built.

[Will L.]

Sorry, but that does absolutely NOTHING for me. The new Z4 coupe seems closer to the 1940 car than that concept does. The side slats, grill and headlights show some similarity to the original, but the overal shape is just completely wrong.

The concept just looks big, heavy, slow and ugly to me.

[Brookside]

Grotesque is the new Beauty

[LonghornTX]

I think it is a good interpretation of the original. It even has the S54 :headbang:

[Brookside]

The Futurist Umberto Boccioni 1882-1916

Could this be the beginnings of "flame surfaces"?
Boccioni was an Italian Futurist painter and sculptor. He was killed in combat in WW1.
What this sculpture and the Mille Miglia concept seem to have in common
is a dynamic surface where motion and light present the sensation of movement.

The Futurists, in their 1912 manifesto announced, `a new beauty ... a roaring motor car, which runs like a machine-gun, is more beautiful than the Winged Victory of Samothrace. We wish to glorify war.'