BMW and Pininfarina Create the Beautiful The Gran Lusso Coupé Concept

BMW has teamed up with Pininfarina, the legendary Italian design house, to produce the gorgeous BMW Pininfarina Gran Lusso Coupé concept, which may or not preview styling cues for the new BMW 8 Series.

The two time-honored companies unveiled the outcome of their first collaboration at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2013 earlier this week. Hopefully, it will be the start of a long collaboration.

“The appeal of this collaboration with Pininfarina is that you get another, very different and special angle on facets like luxury and exclusivity,” says Karim Habib, Head of BMW Design. “The Italian company, after all, has always been a byword for these criteria in particular, demonstrating time and again its keen sensitivity and exceptional finesse in these areas. In Pininfarina we have found the ideal partner to lend shape to this vehicle concept.”

“The result of this cooperative venture is far greater than the sum of its parts,” says Fabio Filippini, Head of Design at Pininfarina. “When two such tradition-rich and experienced brands join forces to turn a vision into reality, something utterly new and exciting emerges. From start to finish, this project was defined by a mutual respect for the identity of the other company.”

EXTERIOR REVIEW:

As swoopy and slippery as an Italian supermodel, this gorgeous vehicle has several readily apparent and highly distinctive features, starting with an over-sized BMW-standard kidney-shaped grille. On some cars this would be controversial (think of the latest Lexus models or every recent Audi) but this has a certain elegance and it's balanced by the large hood and the wide stance of the vehicle.

Next are the headlamps, which look razor sharp, thin and aggressive as hell. The lower bumpers and flat air-intake tend to give it a grimacing and fierce look, as they wrap into a KIA-like bow-tie, though like everything on this car, they are overlarge, so the comparison is perhaps unfair, and is only a passing resemblance.

The side is described by the companies as "a powerfully present silhouette" on which the convex taperings on the side, "add a dynamic elegance and give the body a tautly athletic shape." One cannot argue with this description.

The side mirrors look as though they are being held by the outstretched arms of a metallic being, or aluminum mailboxes, if one wishes to be unkind, but we don't, because they are entirely consistent with the design, and add to the elegance.

The "matt-sheen embellishment" behind the wheels feature the Pininfarina name, and the V12 labeling behind the trademark Hoffmeister Kink towards the rear of the vehicle shows that the car does, in fact, have an awesome engine (or one is planned, at any rate. Again, we'll see if this sees production.)

The rear tail lamps sweep across the trunk like a snake, the head of which curves downward like it's about to strike the rear wheel, or curl up in the wheel well, at least. They are entirely consistent with current design, but taken to the next level, and given the Italian panache one would expect.

Overall, this design study is worthy of both companies, and is consistent with historical BMW styling - enough so that it, if it is influential enough within the company, should lead designers towards something quite beautiful if it does indeed presage the new 8-Series when it finally bows sometime in the next 2-5 years. Let's hope we don't have to wait too long to see something like this on the road.

Photos: BMW Group