BMW continues the art of coachbuilt design with the unveiling of the Concept Speedtop

Debuting at this year's Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, the BMW Concept Speedtop is a grand tourer that harks back to the golden era of coachbuilding. Ultimately, the new design will follow in the footsteps of the BMW Skytop roadster, unveiled at last year’s show and swiftly ushered into ultra-low-volume production. This transition from concept into limited production runs is a relatively new one for BMW, partly inspired by the legions of coachbuilt one-offs and wonders that grace the Villa’s lawns each year.

BMW cemented the importance of its partnership with Concorso by using the event as a place to debut new concept models. Over the years, these have included the 2008 BMW M1 Hommage, the 2011 328 Concept, the pumped-up 3.0 CSL Hommage revealed in 2015 and the spectacular BMW Garmisch recreation from 2019.

The company has subsequently pivoted from this focus on reinterpretations of classic designs. Last year saw the debut of the Concept Skytop, which went on to be built in an edition of 50. This year, Adrian van Hooydonk, Head of BMW Group Design, proudly introduced the BMW Concept Speedtop, revealed amidst much Sturm und Drang during the opening night event at the 2025 Concorso. When the dry ice had cleared, what stood before the camera-wielding crowd of media, owners, collectors and dealers was a handsome three-door shooting brake style grand tourer.

It's very much a companion car to last year’s BMW Skytop and it too will go into limited series production for 70 of the marque’s most avid fans, desirous of something that simply won’t be available on the open market (nor, it must be said, in the US, where regulations prohibit the Speedtop’s sale). ‘You can do a few things with hand-built cars that you can’t do in production,’ says van Hooydonk. The design team worked with the Manufactory workshop at the BMW Group plant in Dingolfing, all well as collaborating with Italian leather goods manufacturer Schedoni on the matching leather bags for the car.

Visually, the Speedtop shares the shark-nosed profile of its open-topped sibling, while the rear treatment is also similar. In place of the Skytop’s fluted rear deck is the long roof of the Speedtop, finished off with a central roof spline, a motif carried into the interior headliner. The exterior colour is Floating Sunstone Maroon, a rich metallic reddish brown, paired with two-tone leather in Sundown Maroon and Moonstone White.

‘We had quite a lot of freedom with Speedtop,’ says van Hooydonk, ‘the design team is always able to influence the proportion of a car, which isn’t the same for every manufacturer.’ At 5m long, 2m wide and a low 1.36m high, the Speedtop has an elegant proportion and dynamic profile, something BMW hopes to carry through to future Touring models across its line-up. This particular car has a traditional V8 at its heart, giving it a truly sporting edge.

The company’s close association with the Concorso has generated much inspiration over the years. ‘All of the cars on display here were handbuit,’ van Hooydonk continues, ‘the details can be inspiring, although it’s not that we want to repeat them.’

His newly installed colleague Maximilian Missoni, now Vice President of Design, responsible for BMW’s midsize and luxury cars, as well as the Alpina brand, explains how the weight of history helps shape his understanding of mobility. ‘I’m personally not inspired by the designs themselves, but by the solutions and cultural codes [they represent],’ he says. ‘As designers, we have to learn these codes and work out how to reinterpret them. Many of the creators [of these cars] weren’t designers, but engineers – they brought beauty through pragmatism and emotion.’

‘We also find inspiration at places like Salone,’ says Oliver Heilmer, Head of BMW Design for the compact class, Neue Klasse and BMW M cars, ‘there we see new material solutions, combinations and colours. But also we’re inspired by the dialogue we have within the design team itself – that’s a big driver.’

BMW design is a dance between past, present and future. Concept Speedtop sits astride all these worlds, a continuation of the coachbuilt tradition, a demonstration of the importance of proportion, the influence of luxury goods and the value of BMW’s character. The design trio also discussed the company’s use of AI. ‘We’ve been working with it for a couple of years,’ says van Hooydonk. ‘We want to build and train our own AI – and we’re doing that now with 100 years of BMW history, rather than use a general AI trained on the internet.’

Hinting that elements like wheel designs might be the first to incorporate AI-assisted design, the three designers are adamant that the human component remains essential. ‘It’s down to humans to choose the right solution,’ says Heimler, ‘AI is a tool.’ Missoni goes further, pointing out that designers have traditionally been trained to provide a number of solutions and options to select from. ‘AI will change that – it offers a huge number of solutions, so we have to filter more things out. You need to become a more rounded designer, not just a stylist.’

In addition to Concept Speedtop and a new race-inspired motorbike concept from BMW Motorrad, the Concept RR, guests at Lake Como were also greeted by the new BMW M2 CS. The new model is an evolution of the ultra-compact, ultra-light performance BMW, a lineage that goes back to the BMW 2002 Tii of 1971 and includes the BMW 1 Series M Coupé from 2011.

The uprated and lightened version of the M2 bears the hallowed CS initials – ‘Competition Sport’, in company parlance. Pulling back the covers, van Hooydonk describes it as the ‘ultimate, ultimate driving machine ', some 30kg lighter than the regular M2 thanks to a carbon fibre roof, mirrors, and race-inspired rear spoiler, and power hiked up to 530hp. This too will be a limited production run.

Concorsodeleganzavilladeste.com, BMW.com