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Originally Posted by southlight
Good point. Despite the differences, the visual appearance of this prototpye (at least the front end) doesn't look that different. In other words, I still have hope.
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Yep, the front and rear will echo the VED protype. However, the sides leave me in doubt. Here's an except from a story I picked up on another site (starts with bmw ends with blog
) with an interview from the designer.
"BMW VED introduces for the first time “layered surfacing”, both in interior and exterior design. BMW design chief Adrian van Hooydonk says “layered surfacing” creates a more cohesive and harmonious appearance while also optimizing air flow."
"Q: Can the layering design be used in a production car?
A: What’s important about the layering design is that we work on it every day. We’re trying through layering to create a visual lightness, along with physical lightness, in order to get the performance we need and very little fuel consumption. We need to be lighter and this is something we are definitely working on and it has a lot of potential."
So, I cannot help but notice the way he dodges the question. I am skeptical that this type of body shell will be production feasible by 2013. It might be, but there's many considerations IMHO - everything from fabrication cost to end user maintenance. It's a lot to overcome IMO. In a half million dollar supercar, sure, anything would be on the table. But I think this car is targeted in the 5 figures dollar range for sure. Maybe BMW will do it at this price point, we'll see. If anyone can pull it off, it is BMW I suppose.
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I doubt it will be branded Z6 or Z8 as these badges traditionally are associated with two-seaters.
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Yes, and that's a good point. However, given that this car will (apparently - things could change from the dontblogaboutthis mule) be riding on a 6 series platform and will be offered initially with traditional powerplants, I don't know how they will distinguish it sufficiently from the 6 series itself if they do not change it to be two seater, more sportscar-ish, layout. We shall see. But to me, merely making this a 6 series rebodied with swoopy features is a risk.