Surprise! BMW’s New Concept Car Isn’t A Crime Against Our Eyeballs

Every year at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Italy, BMW rolls out a concept car. Given BMW’s current production car lineup, this should be cause for trepidation, but this year’s one-off bucks the ugly trend. The BMW Skytop concept has leaked and it’s not egregiously difficult to look at. In fact, it’s actually fairly conservative for a targa-roofed GT car, and could symbolize a return to form for the Bavarian brand.

Over the past few years, BMW has earned a reputation for vehicles that are aesthetically challenged. The front of the current M3 is still difficult to look at, the new X2 is rather ungainly, and the less that’s said about the XM, the better. While a certain refocusing of the brand identity was necessary, refocusing requires direction, not a Roblox account.

If we look at what made BMW design iconic in the ’80s and ’90s, it’s sharp, reasonably safe styling that nails the fundamentals and doesn’t rock the boat. After all, nobody would call the E30 3 Series or E39 5 Series visually innovative, but almost everyone wouldn’t mind looking at either car. Well, the Skytop concept takes off where reasonably classy models like the outgoing G30 5 Series left off, appearing to start with an 8 Series coupe and take things to the next level.

Up front, a prominent brow evokes shades of E9 coupe and E24 6 Series, and the kidney grilles aren’t just horizontally oriented, they don’t bleed into anything. There’s enough space on the fascia to let all the elements breathe, something we haven’t seen from the brand in far too long. Isn’t restraint lovely?

Around back, there’s a little bit of Z8 to the blade-like taillights while the prominent central spear along the decklid echoes the treatment on the hood. Admittedly, that element’s rather showy, being most famous in modern use on the Bugatti Chiron, but it’s not offensive.

Around the side, a line down the bodyside between the arches cleaves visual mass out of the sheetmetal, while flared side skirts redirect the eye, making the bottoms of the doors look less heavy. However, the piece de resistance of this concept is the execution of the targa roof. Not only does the greenhouse incorporate a proper Hofmeister kink, the swept targa bar and largely flat deck lid carry plenty of retro-cool drama without directly ripping off any one car in particular. Now that’s how it’s done.

Mind you, it’s probably too soon to draw any conclusions about BMW’s future styling from the Concept Skytop. This thing’s a one-off concept for Villa d’Este, and last year’s Villa d’Este concept was the equally tasteful Concept Touring Coupe shooting brake. However, projects like this show that someone deep inside BMW’s design department has taste, and that’s hope worth hanging onto.