Earlier today, I pondered whether BMW would ever be cool to enthusiasts again. The M3 and M4 look like a dog’s dinner, the M5 is too stiff for road use, the less said about the XM the better, and the new M2, well, it’s a great M4, but none of the M2 Competition owners I know are itching to upgrade. Thankfully, BMW seems to have almost redeemed itself because it’s rolled out a concept that is unmistakably inspired by the sub-zero clownshoe Z3 M Coupe. Yes, it’s an actual shooting brake called the BMW Concept Touring Coupe, and it’s gorgeous.
The BMW Concept Touring Coupe is, without a doubt, a Z4 shooting brake. That means you get a very close cousin to the Toyota GR Supra with a practical, distance-oriented wagon-like form. It’s in a neutral grey-brown with a sumptuous tan leather interior and a breathtaking gold set of wheels, and the only ways it could be cooler is if 1. BMW put it into production, and 2. BMW made it with a manual gearbox. This car is the internet’s wet dream in an era when it almost felt like BMW was incapable of producing something this awesome ever again.
Power comes from an inline-six, although BMW is coy on which. I reckon there’s a good chance it’s the B58 turbocharged three-liter unit found in the Z4 M40i, seeing as this stunning one-off is based on a Z4. As is BMW tradition, all that inline-six goodness goes to the rear tires, although it appears to do so through an eight-speed automatic gearbox. I know this is a concept car and costs have to be kept reasonable, but would it have really been so hard to gently tap Toyota’s shoulder and ask to borrow the ZF GS6-45BZ and pedal setup found in the GR Supra? Then the Concept Touring Coupe wouldn’t have just broken the internet, it would’ve nuked it from orbit.
The interior feels very four years ago, but in the best way possible. The current iDrive 8 system found in models from the 3-Series all the way up to the XM is horrendous, ditching buttons and burying functions like heated seats in touchscreens. In contrast, the Concept Touring Coupe appears to use iDrive 7 with its magnificent physical presets and climate controls, then drapes the dashboard and the rest of the interior in hide with a perfect satin sheen. All that leather, by the way, comes from Italian tanner Poltrona Frau, and the baseball-stitching on the seats and console gives just the right Mk1 Audi TT vibes without being entirely derivative. The tone is closer to the caramel heritage leather that was optional in the E39 BMW M5, a car that’s near and dear to pretty much every gearhead’s heart.
Circling back around to the styling, holy moly, is this thing every jaw-dropping. The iconic Hofmeister kink is loud and proud in the greenhouse, and the haunches on this thing are sensational, imbuing the shape with a massive sense of drama. The rear glass to ducktail transition is gawky in the best way possible. True beauty isn’t perfection from every angle, and this element seems fittingly function-over-form. Those multi-spoke wheels really remind me of Alpina designs, but they’re finished in what looks to be the same gold as the wheels on the M2 CS. Call them perfect reminders of the recent past. Oh, and that multi-slat grille pattern is excellent, a subtle evolution of the popular M double-slat grilles found on cars like the F10 M5.
Maybe BMW is making money on their limited-edition XMs, who knows, but wouldn’t we all be happier with this and a manual gearbox? We, the enthusiasts who helped build BMW’s rep in America. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of incredibly wealthy people with Z8s and old M3s and even 3.0 CSLs in their garages, clamoring for something like this. I don’t care if a production version would be well-optioned Porsche 718 GT4 money, I wouldn’t even care if it picked its nose and ate its own snot. I just want the chance to see one of these cars in the wild. The BMW Concept Touring Coupe is what the fans wanted all along. Now take the “Concept” out of the name and do what’s cool.
(Photo credits: BMW)
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If they can price this inline with the Z4, it’ll kill. Or at least, I’ll buy one. Hope that helps.
Sign me up for the modern clown shoe – even with the awful rear visibility – it still likely has better visibility than a modern Camaro…
Ace and Gary may have permanently altered perceptions of this particular set of shooting brake proportions.
I really like it… but as long as I’m dreaming… I’ll go with a Taycan Sport Turismo. In that awesome metallic green…
That c-pillar (d-pillar? I can’t tell what’s happening in that tiny window) is WAY too thick. Otherwise it looks good. But that last pillar looks awkward, like the latest Mazda 3 hatch.
It’s a fucking disaster but don’t tell Thomas,
I love that window!
Sshhh let people have nice things
I won’t let people have ugly things. Not on my watch.
I’ve got a Z4 Coupe, a car which looks either brilliant or like a pile of parts for other cars depending on the viewing angle. Also there is too much bonnet, there’s easily space for a straight eight under there.
I like this new concept despite its looks. Sometimes people without kids need to chuck a bike in the back of their 2-seat coupe and bugger off to another country. That’s what I use my Z4C for and it’d be really nice if I don’t have to replace it with a Cayman with a roof rack.
Do tell! Perhaps in a future article?
The overall proportions aren’t good either. Would it have killed them to give us a little rear overhang? I’m glad they want to emulate the clowshoe but I still find it ungainly.
People either loved the clown shoe, or they are liars who were too scared to admit they loved the clown shoe.
I love the clown shoe, and I’m not afraid to admit it. Take my money.
Ah yes, the Ultimate Jiving Machine.
I guess it looks better than other recent BMWs, and Porsche 928s/AMC Pacers, but I would not go so far as calling it gorgeous. But you do you, Boo.
You’re kidding,right? It looks like one of those stupid posts someone made where they crudely stretch a car into a weird shape.
I’m just glad to see the grills return to something with a vague hint of normality. Last weekend my daughter and I got into a pretty intense debate about what the current crop of BMW grills resemble: beaver teeth or really large nostrils. I’m team chomp and she’s team snnnnnnnnnfff. It was a tough battle – my desktop memes vs. her tictok vids. I’d say it ended in a draw as we went back to looking at used Miatas.
New Clown Shoe! Yay!!!
It’s a neo Clown Shoe and the proportions make the giant kidneys look more like normal grille and less like an abomination. Stick two small kidneys in the middle and it would look like a,proper front end. I don’t hate it but I doubt it sees production
Typical BMW… This is a car we could make if we wanted to, but we will not.
2002 Hommage conceptVision Gran TurismoZagato Coupe concept328 Hommage conceptM1 Hommage conceptLike it says in the article, just needed to be a 3-pedal set up and it is almost perfect. I like the color, but tired of the rock and dirt selection. And I would prefer a 4 year-ago interior, there was maybe two screens max. The HVAC/Radio and Speedo/Tach.
Too bad they couldn’t figure out how to put tires on it. I wonder if that’s related to the shooting brake back or not.
It looks so good except for the direct side view. Then it looks like a wheelie stunt car.
Aaaand that’s a bad thing?
It’s good to know there are still designers over there that aren’t spitefully throwing the most egregious disjointed shit possible together to garner clicks and see how far they can go with ugliness before the cars don’t sell anymore….
The problem is still the front overhang that makes it look like it’s FWD with a longitudinal I6 ahead of the axle.
The entire front end is long, with the wheels closer to the front than the halfway mark! Maybe the slash vent moves the eye, but definitely RWD proportions with a long and low front fascia for aero. What would you think about a 1990s F-body Trans Am?
Little of it looks RWD to me other than the A-pillar location, which is negated by the FWD-like overhang and triggers my looks-like-poor-space-efficiency nerve. I thought the same of the ’90s F-body, though the rear overhang was also too much. On its own, the rear would have been fine, but together, it reminded me of a teeter totter from the side view. At least the F-body’s front end was pointed so it wasn’t as bad from more angles. I like a car that’s supposed to look performance to appear to have the wheels trying to run away from car because of the speed—it gives it a “looks like it’s going fast while it’s standing still” aesthetic—which means short front overhang and long rear, though a short rear can make it look muscular. Basically, I just hate a long front overhang, especially when it’s not (or shouldn’t be) a necessary result of packaging, like in a FWD/AWD car with a front engine ahead of the transaxle.
Dear Munich,
Please make this or I will purchase a Audi out of spite.
Yours Truly,
EmotionalSupport
BmwAudiIf they want to have a circus in Munich, then at least bring out the clowns.
Nouveau breadvan
Clown Shoe Pt. 2 ?
Should be Part 3.. there had been 2 version of the clown shoes, one based on Z3, one based on the first Z4,
It’s a big no for me dawg.
Front is as boring and ugly as the z4, rear too.
The shooting brake part could not be more badly executed, it looks like the worse of those vague coachbuilders productions on cars that weren’t meant to be a break.