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Strictly speaking, this is not a concept car. It's the recreation of an original 1970s concept car, one of the most influential in BMW's history.
The BMW Garmisch was originally designed for the 1970 Geneva motor show by the great Marcello Gandini - the man behind such iconic car designs as Lamborghini Miura and Countach, the Alfa Romeo Montreal, the Citroen BX, the Fiat X1/9... we could go on.
Perhaps less well known is his work for BMW, which began with the Garmisch concept, and which would go on to encompass the E12 5 Series, and influence really all of BMW's work through the early eighties.
The Garmisch was originally developed by Gandini, working at the Bertone styling house, as an independent design study, hoping to get some interest from BMW. "The original idea came from Nuccio Bertone himself who wanted to consolidate our existing relationship with BMW by designing a surprise show car for the Geneva Motor Show", remembers Marcello Gandini, who was in charge of Bertone's design department at the time. "We wanted to create a modern mid-sized coupe that was faithful to BMW's design language, but that was also more dynamic and even a bit provocative."
The car was especially notable for very clean, unadorned sides, and a radical angular reinterpretation of the BMW kidney grille. Other unusual details included sports car-like louvres on the C-pillars and the honeycomb-patterned mesh cover for the rear window - a trademark element of Marcello Gandini's style.
The cabin was pretty wild too, with a vertical-set radio panel, and a big fold-out mirror for the passenger. The car was named for the Garmisch ski resort, as Gandini says: "because skiing was very popular in Italy at that time. It evoked dreams of winter sports and alpine elegance."
Sadly in the 50 years since the original concept was built, it was lost, presumed scrapped. For the annual Villa D'Este Concorso d'Eleganza, held on the shores of Lake Como and long-supported by BMW, the decision was made to recreate the Garmisch, as a tribute to the work of the great Gandini.
"When I first heard that BMW wanted to recreate the BMW Garmisch, I was a bit surprised", Marcello Gandini recalls of his first meeting with Adrian van Hooydonk, who visited him in Turin in the summer of 2018 to ask for the his approval. "Now I am very pleased that I was able to be part of this project and happy that BMW chose to recall this enjoyable past. Having seen the final car, it is hard for me to even distinguish it from the original."
The astonishing thing? BMW started work on the car with only five photographs to use as a reference. "Marcello Gandini to me is one of the grandmasters of car design and his cars always have been an important source of inspiration for my work", says Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President of BMW Group Design, who has been intrigued by the BMW Garmisch since he first discovered a faded period picture of the car some years ago. "Building the BMW Garmisch for a second time gave us the opportunity to pay tribute to Mr. Gandini, recall one of his lesser-known cars and highlight Bertone's stylistic influence on the evolution of BMW design. For me, that alone was reason enough to do this project - filling in the gaps and completing BMW's history."
"At the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, we should reflect on the past, but we should also think about where we are going", said van Hooydonk. "Marcello Gandini's designs have always been very clear and very clean, but also very dramatic. This is why I find his work so inspiring. He was always able to create something spectacular using very few design elements. This approach of trying to accomplish a lot with less is quite modern still today."