BMW’s modern styling may not catch your fancy, but this Skytop Concept could change that.
The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este is a playground for some of the most exotic, iconic and downright gorgeous cars designers have ever concocted, and there’s another to add to the list with this BMW Skytop Concept convertible. Against the some of the brand’s modern aesthetic cues — the new M3/M4 are certainly polarizing, to put it mildly — I don’t think anyone could argue against this clean, yet distinctive take on past low-volume designs like the relatively rare Z8 and the even more obscure 503 cabriolet.
While you can definitely see the 8 Series in the front fascia, things get even more interesting as your eye moves through the Skytop’s clean lines. One prominent line runs from the hood, through the interior and onto the rear deck, where BMW positioned a simple (but effective, in terms of the overall look) strip of aluminum trim on the trunk lid. Then, at the back, you get a strong sense of the old Z8, with the thin taillights and the rounded bumper.
Behind the Skytop’s two seats, there’s a leather-finished sports car as well as two removable roof panels that stow away in the luggage area. BMW also incorporated a fully retractable rear window, so while it’s not a comprehensive top-down experience, this concept still gets pretty close. And the design still turns heads, and that’s obviously what matters here, especially given its reveal at the Concorso d’Eleganza on the shores of Lake Como in Italy.
Under the hood, the BMW Skytop Concept brings M8 Competition power to the table. Thanks to that 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V-8 chucking out 617 horsepower through an 8-speed automatic transmission, this convertible certainly wouldn’t be a slouch, if BMW decided to actually greenlight a production version.
Despite the “concept” nature of the Skytop’s design, the interior looks…surprisingly normal. Apart from the color scheme, it looks like BMW could actually put this roadster into production, if the company wanted to. The Skytop’s switchgear and layout pretty much come lock, stock, and barrel from the 8 Series, down to the crystal gear lever.
That said, whether BMW will actually put this model into circulation — even as a limited-edition take on the M8 convertible — remains to be seen. This is a bit more down to earth than Audi’s “Sphere” concepts, so I wouldn’t completely rule it out.
