BMW revives the 1970 BMW Garmisch to pay tribute to Marcello Gandini

Gandini’s BMW Garmisch will be at the Villa d’Este Concours d’Elegance. This model pays tribute to the legendary car designer, just like the Lamborghini Miura, the Lamborghini Countach or the Lancia Stratos.

This year’s Villa d’Este Concours d’Elegance has a very special visitor. It is a legendary model for the Bavarian brand, specifically the BMW Garmisch concept. This vehicle is a recreation of a car that debuted in 1970. With this vehicle, BMW wants to pay tribute to Gandini, one of the most influential car designers in Italy.

The original BMW Garmisch was a concept designed by Marcello Gandini for Bertone that debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in 1970. It is worth noting that Gandini is responsible for legendary cars such as the Lamborghini Miura, the Lamborghini Countach and even the Lancia Stratos.

Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President of BMW group, has pointed out that “for me, Marcello Gandini is one of the great masters of automotive design, and his cars have been an important source of inspiration for my work”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpCU9pF4vMg

BMW Garmisch from 1970

The original BMW Garmisch was developed in a couple of months but it featured a folding passenger mirror, interesting materials and an unusual vertical radio on the centre console.

“We chose the name Garmisch (an upscale German ski town that hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics) because skiing was very popular in Italy at that time,” said Gandini. “It evoked dreams of winter sports and Alpine elegance”.

The Bavarian brand asserts that “since the earliest days of the brand, BMW has been inspired and influenced by Italian design and car-building culture. From the lightweight aluminium body it created for the Mille Miglia with Carrozzeria Touring in the late 1930s to the wedge-shaped BMW M1 designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, there has always been a vital exchange of concepts and ideas across the Alps”.

The most distinctive styling element of the car is a derivative of the kidney-shaped grille of BMW, which is now square. The honeycomb mesh design for the rear window is a trademarked Gandini design, and it also appears on today’s Garmisch. BMW used a chassis from the BMW 2002 to build the original, just as with this new Garmisch.

“The original idea came from Nuccio Bertone himself, who wanted to consolidate our existing relationship with BMW by designing a surprise car for the Geneva Show,” recalls Marcello Gandini, who was in charge of Bertone’s design department at the time.

“We wanted to create a modern mid-size coupé that would be faithful to the design language of BMW, but that would also be more dynamic and even somewhat provocative.” Although the car’s side profile was very elegant and clean, its most distinctive design feature was the bold, vertical and almost angular variation of the kidney-shaped radiator grille of BMW, which was flanked by square glass-covered headlights.