Our rendering artist, Andrei, had to sort out some of the comments and choose the best design elements in order to re-draw the 1er Coupe. While many of you might have wanted to see an M1 replica, the truth is that the 135i Coupe was designed as a performance car, but not in the M class, so we decided to stay on the same course.

Beside the excitement of redrawing an existing BMW model, these episodes in the ” Be A Designer” series are all about bringing the community together and sharing constructive ideas. As you can see from the renderings below, the redesigned Coupe keeps a realistic look rather than a prototype-like vehicle. Truth is that the 135i Coupe design is already appreciated by the BMW community and many of you believe that only minor changes are needed.

While some changes are subtle, the overall look of the car has become more aggressive and imposing, and the carbon fiber rook and new wheels, are just the icing on the cake.

We hope you enjoy working with us again and we would like to thank you again for your input and most important, for being part of the BMWBLOG community.

Last but not least, we would like to take a second a thank our sponsor Classic BMW, Ohio who keeps supporting us and our crazy innovative projects.

Project sponsored by Classic BMW, Ohio

High Resolution Photos

Matt Montgomery

• Headlights need to continue along the line of the hood, same width, just not turned down at an angle
• Kidney grilles should each be wider, filling out the space between the headlights
• Front skirt would look great with a carbon fiber diffuser as would the rear. Also carbon out the side mirrors and the antenna fin
• Mirror the double exhaust on the right side for a quad exhaust look.
• shrink the taillights north to south so they wrap around the car with more of a ‘widescreen’ format.
• Strap on some CSL type 19′ wheels in carbon fiber
• take the car’s paint to Marrakesh Brown Metallic as seen on the new x1
• Remove the 135i badge

AiRit

• the headlights I would like it to be slimmer and more aggressive. And I might want the kidney grilles to be a bit bigger.

Michael

• quad square exhausts
• the headlights need to be slimmer & more streamlined for a more aggressive look

Bryce

• Quad Exhaust
• Add the headlights from the 2010 3-series rendering, they look slimmer and more aggressive IMHO.
• Black Carbon-Fiber Roof
• Interlagos Blue
• Add the CS slivers on the side intakes of the front spoiler. I like the current front spoiler though and wouldn’t change it, just add the sliver things.
• Idea: Would the Z4 grill and tail-lights fit?
• Arrow crease on the front hood
• Cooler mirrors (the current ones look pretty lame)
• Slim the taillights to make them look aggressive
• adding some muscle to the fenders, we might as well do the same thing here!

Daniel

• http://www.motorsport24.de/blog/135i-tuning/135i-tuning-das-ultimative-motorsport-fahrzeug

Victor

• symmetric double exhaust
• gill ventilation on the left and right sides near doors.

Shonguiz

• headlights – the two circles should be bigger and more spaced to use the whole headlights inner surface, while the blank-turning signal area should be stripped down.
• Make the whole front cut much more upright and clean
• The grill should be incorporated to the hood.

klier

• Add larger grille with shark nose effect, maybe sqare-ish Angel Eyes without the plastic cover in front of the headlights, like the old school Bimmers..
• The car only need more aggressive headlights other than that its perfect.

jocamryn

• The sagging line over the body panel looks too loose, tighten it up. and lower the upper crease some.
• Light lines/Bars on the rear tails (a-la the 3er and the 7er)

Mike Messer

• I would like to see the e39 m5/e46 m3 side mirrors to get rid of the crease in mirrors.
• A very slight “eyebrow” for the lights.
• Black “Shadow” line trim for around the windows and kidney grills.
• 6000k angel eyes.
• Get rid of the horizontal line in the intake for the front fender, replace with the black mesh found in the “center intake” on the fender.
• The center tail/brake light should be placed in the top center of the rear wind shield (where it belongs)
• Make the front portion of line above the side skirt angled slightly more down instead of up, for a more aggressive feel.

Giom

• more aggressive headlights. Nothing borrowed from other BMWs
• a lower roof line – just slightly. It should accentuate the sporty stance

Sheikh

• Aggressive front lights (as the e90 335i)
• LED lights on tail-lights
• 135i Performance Rims
• Carbonfiber roof as the m3

Max

• more aggressive headlights, taillights from CS and a lil bit lower roof at the end of the car

Mauro Corti

• More aggressive tail LED lights, newer front lights (3er restyling / 7er / 5er GT), larger kidneys like z4’s ones.

Jorge

• Slimmer headlights (to give it less of a big eyed look), grill tilted from the top outer more like the 80’s style BMW’s. the rear windshield should flow more into the trunk instead of the more angeled look.

Alex

• Slimmer sharper headlight from 3er coupe
• Lower edgier roof line to create a super car stance.

SterlingCooper

• It could use a more elegant roofline. Rear seats are kind of a joe anyway, so may as well make the rear window slope a bit more, like a 3 series. Loose the bubble top.

With a large and loyal community behind it, the 135i Coupe rendering exercise should be one of the most exciting projects we have done so far, and the input we’ve received this week, has been overwhelming and intriguing at the same time. At this moment, we can’t even predict what the final rendering will look like, but we’re anxious to see the results.

By the end of this week, our rendering artist will select and analyze the comments you left us, so if there is anything else you would like to add, now it’s the time.

The initiative has been a great success so far, we started off with the redesign of the BMW 3 Series Sedan, then we moved up to the “high-class” and rendered the new 7 Series. But today, we’re going to give you, the BMW enthusiasts, an even more fun project. Together, we would like to redesign the BMW 135i Coupe, the latest 1 Series model that has gathered around it a large community of enthusiasts.

The rules are the same as before, based on your own ideas and input, our rendering artist will draw the 135i Coupe just the way you want to.

In 2007, coupé and cabriolet bodies were added to the 1 series. Exterior changes to the model were minor headlight and taillight revisions, and new front/rear bumpers. The 1 Series Coupé was marketed in the U.S. as a spiritual successor to the legendary BMW New Class with its long bonnet, slim cabin and short rear. It has been said that the BMW 1 invokes memories of the E36 BMW, as stated in both Road and Track and Car and Driver Magazines.BMW is also advertising the car using comparisons to its classic 2002, an iconic two-door from the 1970s known for its light weight and high level of performance.

Being a car that is all about performance and aerodynamics, the 135i redesigning project should be lots of fun. Over the years, many BMW fans have expressed their thoughts on the new 1er Coupe and lots of ideas have been shared regarding future design changes.

So what design changes would you make on the BMW 135i Coupe?

This project is brought to you by Classic BMW, Willoughby Hills, Ohio.

Some of you disagreed with this choice since the new 7 indeed is one of the best designs we have seen in a while. But on the other hand, there were still plenty BMW fans that would have liked to “operate” small changes in the design lines. So we listened to you, we gathered your advice and opinions and passed them onto to our rendering artist, Andrei.

The results? Quite interesting we might add and while the 3 Series redesign was more adventurous and unique, the 7 kept its major design lines, but added some design cues that provide a more aggressive look at the front-end and a rounded, not so radical design lines at the rear.

The wheels on the blue painted 7, come from the CS Concept, on the red car we redesigned the Style 37 wheels found on the older 750i E38 and last but not least, on the gray painted model, we “touched” the Style 312 wheels.

High Resolution Image

Our next project will revolve around the BMW 1 Series Coupe, a vehicle that has lots of fans and gives you and us the opportunity to redesign it more drastically, revolutionary and adventurous, so stay tuned for our next episode. But, if you have any other suggestions, we will listen….

In the mean time, we would like to thank everyone for your input and also, a big shout-out to our sponsor Classic BMW, Ohio that supports us and our projects.

Project sponsored by Classic BMW, Ohio

Victor

• The front part. it’s so boring. maybe work with a bumper and Headlamps? and make nostrils smaller? add bumper like in M models

Frederico Silva
For me just the bumper, so boring…

• Add a more aggressive bumper similar to the M Sport one but without the chrome.
• quad exhausts could be added
• have larger alloy wheels
• don’t add LED lights.

BmwM5Fan

• about the bumper, either like M models

Giom

• I would like to see a very simple but elegant front bumper/air intake. One wide opening with nice subtle detailing on the edges. No chrome inset.

Hantra

• go back to incorporating the grill into the hood. That was so much more pleasing to the eye. Now there’s just this abrupt gap there.

Vaybach Khan

• 1st i would like to see it 7er in some kind of red or even netter in blue
• 2nd tint the windows
• 3rd sharpen the headlights top angle
• 4th black out the rear lights
• 5th change bumper to M without chrome
• 6th put a after market crazy same colored rims…

Jukos

• Front part: Change headlamps in a way that they are on 5 GT series.

JL328i

• I would like to see more dramatic side panels, the ones are the car now are to boring imo. maybe lower the belt line in tad, and decrease the shapness of the belt line crease, while perhaps making it a little bigger?
• smaller more angular grilles
• nicer wheels
• rocker panels that don’t curve under
• the hofmeister kink a bit kinkier

badger

• fix the front bumper, it is very boring
• maybe make the kidney grills a bit smaller and add some design curves into the bumper

Bryce

• If the C-pillar to the 7-series were more angled and the cabin made to look a bit more aggressive like the CLS then this car could be truly beautiful.

Mike Messer

• Redesign the hood so it has something similar to the new V shaped “power bulge” on it. But not quite the full length of the hood since it’s already a long car and does not need to look longer.
• Bring the handle line on the doors down about 2 inches to make the door and overall car appear lower.
• Make the Kidney Grills smaller (at least shorten the height/ leave the width; similar to the new Z4’s)
• The side skirts need a little more definition and the door should be the flatter part. (The skirt is completely flat compared to my e46 325xi). Also, bring the total height of the side skirt up slightly and shorten the total door’s height (maybe about 1 – 1 1/2 inches).
• The front intakes on the bumper are too open. Make them more like the Z4’s how they come in towards the center on the inner part of the brake duct (derived off the ///M models). I would really like to see a hybrid of an ///M bumper and the Z4’s.
• The taillights upper line should be at the same level as the chrome accent bar that goes across the width of the trunk also not a fan of the chrome bar. Integrate the reverse light into the the red light on the trunk. And also bring the base line of all the taillights up a little to also make the car seem lower and wider (similar to the e9X coupe).
• Delete the rear deflectors on the bumper.
• Make the vertical seam between the rear bumper and rear quarter panel slightly less vertical/not as noticeable.
• Make a smoother transition between the trunk lid and the rear quarter panels to get ride of that “Bangle” design. Also, make the lip on the trunk lid slightly less rounded. Maybe incorporate a more CSL-esque lip?
• ACS rear diffuser (or something similar). Also delete the incorporated tail-pipes an have just a cutout for them. The oval shape is also not my favorite, so maybe quad pipes (BMW did use quad-pipes on all of their stock e31s for you naysayers about having quad-pipes on a non-M).
• Lower the ride height by about 1 inch.
• 30% tint on everything but the windshield.
• But I would love to see a set of the newly redesigned wheels that are like the style 37’s (not sure if they are 18″ or 19″, but they should be 19″ for this car. They’re used on the 3 series performance package); or a 19″ redesigned version of the style 42’s (not the like the style 101’s); or style 312’s (also 19″, not the current 21″). Non of the wheels should have a lip larger than 1 – 1 1/2 inches (if at all).

L1ndja

• I would just like to see bigger rims and Star-like desing like the one in the Hamann version.

Bryce

• a glass canopy top, make it a moonroof. It would give it the cool look of the M3 roof with the cool functionality of being able to see the sky.

Neal Pratt

• Make the grills like the 335i, and give it CS headlights.

AiRit

• I would like the tail lights to be longer but narrower kind of like e92.

Timur

• Vertical bands of the kidney grills to do wider and chrome-plate as on Z4. It will give the solidity and aggressiveness.
• Change the form of the front headlights, do them expressiveness, sharply, more clear.
• Shadow line – not much well, since chromed lines emphasizes the beauty of Hoffmayster’ line.
• Rear part to make over completely, because it looks like Lexus LS

AutoCritical

• How about for the C-Pillar, having to extend it further back more, so it looks more coupe like. Overall size would be the same still…

lovebmw

• Remove the rear bumper reflective glasses
• if the car was a little wider but it is not about
• Wheels of concept cs.

nabil

change the side mirros, make them rounder rather then squared off!

The project is a joint venture between your BMWBLOG, Automarket.ro and rendering artist Andrei Arvavarii and it is sponsored by Classic BMW Ohio who believed in this project and continues to support it.

Today, we are back with a new challenge, even more exciting in our opinion. After you successfully managed to redraw the exterior design of the current 3 Series Sedan, we offer a new opportunity: based on YOUR ideas and input, our rendering artist will draw the new BMW 7 Series just they way you you want to.

It remains to be seen if the new design language created by the BMW designers for the 7 Series would be embraced by you or once again, some modifications might be needed.

While the new BMW 7 Series has been less controversial than the previous “banglelized” model, the fifth generation 7 Series has still received its fair share of criticism.

The new 7 was launched last summer and it was meant to replace the more conservative design we have seen in the fourth generation. The design of the new flagship sedan is more adventurous and brings back some of the much needed sporty design lines.

The first model launched in 1977 and it has always been offered in a four dour configuration only. Throughought the time, the BMW 7 Series was the high-end model which introduced a series of innovative technologies in the BMW line-up.

Another innovation brought by the 7 Series was in the hydrogen area with the 100 limited edition 7 Series, most of them driven by high profile personalities and actors, from the Munich Mayor, to Albert, Prince of Monaco and actors like Brad Pitt and Hillary Swank.

But the latest innovation comes from the recently revealed BMW ActiveHybrid 7, a mild hybrid that puts it at the top in the hybrid sedans market.

We are ready for your input, so what would you change about the new BMW 7 Series?

This project was brought to you by Classic BMW, Willoughby Hill, Ohio.

We have always valued your input, comments, suggestions and this was a way for us to repay you and allow you to become more involved with our blog. To make this even more interesting, we teamed up with Automarket.ro, which presented the same challenges to their readers. A question has arisen from the beginning: will people across the globe share the same design opinions and passion for BMW?

Well, today we have our answer and thanks to the hard work of rendering artist Andrei Arvavarii, who had to scan through the tens of comments to find the most common requested design elements, we are able to bring you not one, but two different versions of the current BMW 3 Series Sedan.

As you can see, one version of the front-end is a bit closer to the reality, but the second one brings out a lot of the M1 Hommage elements and it’s rather quite interesting. Now let’s see what the Automarket readers came up with: Be A Designer for Automarket
This has been a fun project and judging by the positive reactions we’ve had, we will continue it in just a few weeks. Of course, many of you might wonder which model will we be choosing next and so far, our thoughts gear towards the new BMW 7 Series, a model that has been slightly criticized when it came out, but started to grow on everyone lately.

We would like to thank you everyone for the comments and we hope you enjoyed this as much as we did.

This project has been exclusively sponsored by Classic BMW, Ohio.

AutoCritical

• Have more of a light catching feature on the lower half of the body side.
• I was looking at the X1, and my favorite ‘feature’ in its design is how the crease around the DLO (seen at the C-Pillar) suggests the connection, under the belt line, to the lower light catcher at the base of the doors.

Mauro Corti, bm3rmy, Vaybach Khan, AiRi, Lariv

• taillights- changed like 3er coupe

Mauro Corti, bm3rmy, Lariv, Paul

• More integrated door mirrors.

Mauro Corti

• the car is too narrow and high in the back, I’d like it a lillte more like audi a4, lower and larger

bm3rmy

• front bumper- in the middle looks like passat, change that, make it to look that the car has some muscle.
• front lights – I would like to be more aggressive – to bi a little bit inside of the front bumper and to have a kinetic look with some new innovative features like audi but not like waves.

Vaybach Khan

• maybe a little more coupe side windows..with a longer trunk aiming to the ground…
• the front end and grill i would like to be profiled in opposite way then current, like e24 perhaps..with big grills

Lariv

• New alloy wheels

Lance

• Sportier bumper like the M3 Coupe, but more solid – not just fins.
• Headlights – must use white LED fed corona rings like the 5GT with chrome eyelids – not this white transparent colour of ice-cream tubs.
• Grille – larger and widerlike the Z4 in silver with chrome surrounds. Shape must be changed to a trapezium that is indented – not a flat nose.
• The bumper edges around the wheel is too sharp, there must be a more E36 type of premium look.
• The rear bumper must be more muscular and sporty.
• And that rear wheel arch bulge like the ones on the CS please

Moncho

• M1 concept front-end lights

Giom

• Widen the kidney grills slightly so they’re closer to the edging, and maybe enhance the chrome surrounds… ie, make it a little thicker.
• The windowsill line, raise that by not even an inch. This is to decrease the side window area, creating a more coupe like proportion.

Paul

• try to use an orange light rod like those used for the halo lights. I always liked the constant orange rod on the 5ser and it was a shame it just wasnt used for the repeater
• Also, there´s just to much going on on that back bumper…needs to be more clean with less lines
• and the front bonnet always looks like its open and it needs to be straight instead of having all those grooves that fit the kidneys, that need to be maybe bigger but for sure thicker – try the m3 i like the way they are slightly “in” the bumper if you now what i mean.
• also the chrome surroundings on the windows are a bit out of date…i am sure bmw already working on this as the new 7 and GT have them thicker.
• Also ditch those fog lights..they are just so 90´s with that glass housing…dont go audis way as fiat and merc have but instead of the boring LED´s try to use a rod or something like the new RR has.

Edox

• Front apron of the 135i coupé

This project is a joint venture with Automarket.ro and Andrei Avarvarii and we will all you give this unique opportunity: to create renderings of a BMW model, of course, all based on your input.

Through the “Be a designer!” project, you would have the opportunity to express your opinion regarding the design shapes of a BMW production model – chosen by us- and to propose a new design and ideas which would change that particular model. We’re open to all of your reasonable proposals and your ideas will be collected from Monday through Sunday from the Comments section down below. At the end of this time period, BMWBLOG, Automarket and Andrei will collect some of the most interesting design proposals.

The following Wednesday, BMWBLOG will give you the new rendering of the BMW 3 Series, incorporating or removing any design elements which you would have liked to see or not see, in that particular model.

Since this is a joint venture and because we would like your design ideas to go globally, we will work together with Automarket.ro and their readers in drawing this BMW model. Automarket is the largest automobile related website in Romania. Each BMW model that will participate in this project will be drawn at the same time by the readers of both websites, but the final renderings will be different for each website.

Of course, all the Automarket readers will be able to see the design proposals on our blog and vice versa, therefore the Be A Designer! Project will turn into a global initiative that will connect BMW fans around the world.

This week’s design proposal is the BMW 3 Series, the most sold BMW model in the entire history of the German automaker. When launched, the E90 BMW 3 Series has created a controversy among the BMW fans, many voices were opposing the new design lines and experiments that the former BMW designer, Chris Bangle, has incorporated into the new 3 Series. Not many know though that the E90 3 Series was actually designed by the Japanese designer, Joji Nagashima, who lead the exterior design team of this model.

SO, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE ABOUT THIS BMW 3 SERIES?