The BMW Pininfarina Gran Lusso Coupe concept has made a stunning debut at the 2013 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Como, Italy.
The striking concept combines the prestige German manufacturer’s styling pillars of luxury and elegance with the Italian design house’s trademark attention to detail and finesse.
The BMW Pininfarina Gran Lusso Coupe is defined by taut contours and liberal surface areas that embrace the concept’s long wheelbase, stretched bonnet and generous greenhouse.
The Bavarian brand’s kidney grille and shark nose team with horizontal headlights and a broad intake fascia to add width and significance to the unique front end.
A high shoulder line runs the length of the sculptured profile, which is distinguished by a flowing roof line and a striking countersweep that stems from the ‘air breather’ outlet behind the front wheel arch.
The slender L-shaped tail-lights are set in matt aluminium and embrace the rear end in a single stroke.
The four-seat cabin is BMW at heart with a Pininfarina twist, boasting kauri wood aged more than 48,000 years, high-quality Tobacco Brown and black Foglizzo leather, Italian virgin wool headlining and metal highlights in stylish black chrome.
BMW Group Design senior vice president Adrian van Hooydonk says the brand’s values of technology, precision and dynamics are complemented harmoniously by Pininfarina’s skilled craftsmanship to create a vehicle with “sheer presence in a highly elegant form”.
“[Pininfarina’s] expectations for the end result have been just as high as ours, and their understanding of the design perfectly complements the BMW design DNA for a vehicle of this kind,” van Hooydonk said.
Pininfarina head of design Fabio Filippini says the product of the cooperative venture is “far greater than the sum of its parts”.
“When two such tradition-rich and experienced brands join forces to turn a vision into reality, something utterly new and exciting emerges,” Filippini said
“From start to finish, this project was defined by a mutual respect for the identity of the other company.”
Set to influence the design of the next-generation BMW 7 Series due mid decade, the luxury coupe concept has also sparked rumours of a return of the 8 Series nameplate to complement the brand’s flagship limousine.
