This Mall Has Everything From 1930s BMWs To The New i3

If you want to see how far BMW has come over roughly a century of making cars and motorcycles, a Prague shopping mall has the answer. The brand has squeezed everything from rare prewar machines to modern M cars and motorcycles into one exhibition at OC Arkády. And now, there’s a rather important new arrival: the i3.

The exhibition, organized with BMW dealer CarTec Praha, runs through October 15, so you have a week left as of this writing. You can visit the display for free during the shopping center’s opening hours. Putting the new i3 in a collection of historic cars is actually a pretty clever move. After all, the latest electric sedan shows where BMW is going, while the cars around it show where the company has been.

The second-generation i3 (well, third if you’re counting the China-only sedan) is the newest addition to the exhibition. It gets plenty of attention as the second Neue Klasse model after the iX3. In Czech-spec form, BMW quotes a range of up to 912 kilometers (567 miles), which is quite the flex for a car sitting among machines never particularly concerned with how far they could travel between charging stops.

From i3 To Pre-War Cars

The new i3 is also an important car for BMW beyond its impressive range figure. Styling-wise, it’s essentially the electric counterpart to the new G50 3 Series, sharing much of the same Neue Klasse aesthetic. Inside, the two also look like they’re cut from the same cloth, despite being fundamentally different cars underneath.

Of course, the exhibition’s point is to remind visitors that BMW didn’t start yesterday. The display includes rare historic cars, including the 328, 335, 326, 315, 319, Z1, and even an Isetta. There’s also a particularly rare 335 convertible wearing bodywork from Swiss coachbuilder Graber. Only two were built, making it a car that probably deserves its own security detail.

An Eclectic BMW Lineup At The Mall

The exhibition also celebrates the 40th anniversary of the original E30 M3, which feels appropriate given that BMW’s M division has spent decades turning relatively sensible cars into relatively irresponsible ones. Sticking to the M side, the M2 is also on the lineup. On the electric side, the i3 is joined by its crossover twin, the iX3.

The motorcycle side is just as ambitious. Motorrad is showing everything from prewar machines such as the R42, R2, and R61 to modern performance bikes. Highlights include the M 1000 RR Toprak Edition, R 12 Toprak Passion, and an M 1000 RR TT edition inspired by the legendary Isle of Man Tourist Trophy. Other bikes include the R 1300 R, R 1300 GS Adventure, F 450 GS, R 18 Bobber, F 900 R, and S 1000 XR. Czech news portal iDNES has a massive photo gallery spanning nearly a century’s worth of BMWs.

That’s arguably what makes the exhibition more interesting than a conventional new-car display. You can walk past a prewar BMW, an E30 M3-era icon, an M2, a motorcycle, and then arrive at a Neue Klasse EV. It’s essentially a century of BMW history condensed into one shopping-mall visit.

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