BMW Honors Designer Marcello Gandini

At this year’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este the recreation of the BMW Garmisch was shown. The classic concept car was designed by Marcello Gandini for Bertone and disappeared after its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in 1970. With the newly re-created car, BMW says it is paying respect to one of Italy’s influential car designers.

Like many Italian show cars of the 1960s and 1970s, the original BMW Garmisch was developed by Bertone as an independent design proposal intended to demonstrate the studio’s creativity.

Since the early days, BMW has been influenced by Italian design and its coachbuilding culture. From the lightweight aluminum BMW 328 Mille Miglia created at Carrozzeria Touring in the late 1930s to the wedge-shaped BMW M1 designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, there has always been a dialogue of ideas across the Alps.

The car was created in just months, with the interior customized as well. With its vertical radio – shades of Corvette – on the center console, a fold-out mirror for the passenger and a brash mix of colors and materials, the BMW Garmisch eschewed functional interiors of the time. According to Marcello Gandini, even the car’s name was chosen to impress: “We picked the name Garmisch because skiing was very cheap tramadol online popular in Italy at that time. It evoked dreams of winter sports and alpine elegance.”

“When I first heard that BMW wanted to recreate the BMW Garmisch, I was a bit surprised”, Marcello Gandini said of his first meeting with Adrian van Hooydonk, who visited him in Turin in the summer of 2018 to ask for his approval. “Now I am very pleased that I was able to be part of this project and happy that BMW chose to recall this enjoyable past. Having seen the final car, it is hard for me to even distinguish it from the original.”

Born in 1938, Marcello Gandini is an influential car designer. During his 14 years as Design Director of the Bertone design studios in Turin, he created some of the most daring and revolutionary automobiles of the era, including wedge-shaped concept cars like the Lancia Stratos Zero or the Alfa Romeo Carabo, as well as sports cars like the Lamborghini Miura. Besides the BMW Garmisch, Marcello Gandini and his team at Bertone have worked on the BMW Spicup showcar and the first generation of the BMW 5 series, which was created under the lead of BMW’s former head of design Paul Bracq.