After BMW spoiled us last year with plenty of concepts and anniversary models celebrating its 100 years of existence, the Bavarian manufacturer is not showing any signs of slowing down. During this weekend’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, the Germans plan on bringing a legend back to life, unveiling the much-anticipated BMW 8 Series Concept.
Every BMW fan out there will be watching the villa on the shores of Lake Como in Italy this weekend, waiting to see how the 8 Series was re-imagined after 20 years of absence. Until then though, those of us who just can’t wait for the official unveiling to take place will have to make due with renderings, such as the one we’re showing you today.
Inspired by the teaser released last week by BMW, the digital manipulation showcased in the video below seems to be striking pretty close to home, even though it shows just a side profile of the car. The artist behind this work, Jan Peisert, decided to take us through the whole process instead of showing us just the end result.
Not only did Peisert provide a rather interesting take on what the upcoming 8 Series Coupe might look like, but he went a step further and tried to offer a glimpse into what a possible M8 could look like, bi-color wheels and everything included. And while things definitely look enticing, we’ll have to wait for BMW to actually show us its Concept before we can start judging the looks of the upcoming 8er.
The new model will also arrive in Convertible and Gran Coupe guise later down the road, creating a new model range that will take on the offerings of Mercedes-Benz and its S-Class Coupe and Convertible models. Inside the cabin, you’ll find levels of luxury that will mirror those found on the 7 Series, with a slightly different design to give the 8 Series its own character.
Under the hood we’ll find a range of 3-liter straight six engines as well as the ubiquitous 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 for the 850i models. A BMW M8 is said to be in the works as well, but official confirmation is yet to come. Nevertheless, since the 8 Series is scheduled to go into production next year, if the M8 comes to fruition it will definitely have the same powerplant as the upcoming F90 M5 with over 600 HP and all-wheel drive included.
[Via: autoevolution]
WAIT! A missing B-pillar was what made the 8-series special. This render HAS it and I really hope it’s wrong.
B pillar will be there cause they making a gran coupe version
This wait is excruciating!
that batbimmer looks hot.
We’ve already seen the actual car in testing wearing camouflage. The real 8 series is nowhere near as sleek and low profile as this rendering. The actual car will be tall-ish and slightly frumpy like the 6er GT. Someone within BMW AG is a fan of the frump ala Prius. FFS, even the Tesla Model S team does a better hatchback design than the Bavs. SMH – what a waste.
um no all those test cars ride high
Yes, the Prius influence is all over the i8 – WTF?!?!?
between the silhouette teaser and the camo spy shots, i will bet the 8 concept will not pay the proper homage to the original design. instead, we will get something that looks like every other current bmw, starting with an oversized double kidney grill, especially in contrast to the rather diminutive one of the original. i feel the problem stems from a team of designers who know nothing of what made the original designs so awe-inspiring in the time they were out or do not have the ability to re-imagine those qualities in today’s design language, likely because they are from a different era themselves or simply were not enthusiasts to begin with. i will say that at least ford’s mustang designers pay respect to the heritage design (sans the fox body era). the litmus test is whether someone from the 90s who was familiar with the original 8 but doesn’t follow these blogs would be able to look upon the new one and immediately think to themselves “that reminds me of the 8 series from all those years ago”. yet i am still waiting with bated breath in hopes of something with a real road presence that proves me wrong.
U know that requirements have changed a lot since then? This is all leading to the designs we have today. Designers arent able to do what they want or what would fit/look best, there are millions of barriers… We might see almost identical cars in maybe 30 years anyway because of that.
The 2019 8 Series has no need to pay ‘homage’ to a coupe from the 80s.
The original 8er looked too much like an early Lamborghini coupe. It has aged well, but at introduction it was too conservative.
Not impressed at all: Why does the belt line look so disproportionately thick compared to the greenhouse?
Like most of these renderings, it roof looks like it got squashed by a compactor.
Exactly! It looks like the stole the rear half off of a new Impala and then chopped the roof! This rendering looks terrible!
This rendering is horrible! The rear quarters look like they came directly off of a 2017 Chevy Impala….hoping this is not accurate!