The lost BMW

The lost BMW Garmisch an interesting story behind a vanilla sedan, the famous Italian designer Marcello Gandini had designed a small 4 door BMW sedan in the year 1970, the car was supposed to be a concept. This concept showcased what the future sedans were going to be. But what happened later makes this car more interesting.

About the designer

Marcello Gandini was born on 26^th august 1938 in Turin, Gandini approached Bertone group of design for a job but was denied. Gandini’s design extends beyond cars as he is also an industrial designer and a home accessories. He was the head designer until 1980 in Bertone, after this changed his path to become a freelance designer.  

BMW has had a long history with Italian design houses such as the BMW 328 mille miglia designed by Peter Szymanowski

The BMW Garmisch was an idea that originally came from Nuccio Bertone himself who wanted to showcase this car as a surprise car at the Geneva motor show to mark the positive relationship between Bertone and BMW. The design language was to follow that of BMW which meant it was going to be very dynamic, and proactive. The Garmisch was a sleek and clean design with Gandini’s signature honey-comb mesh covering the rear glass. The two door midsize sedan was finished in this champagne color. The vertically stacked kidney grill is a first and a pretty attractive twist on the traditional kidney grill.

The interior was pure perfection and met the demands of the 1970’s. The passenger side of the dash opened to a large mirror, vertically stacked AC controls and radio controls made up the middle of the dash, followed by the gear shifter.  The re-created model of the Garmisch was built on the BMW 2002’s rolling chassis.

The only proof that such a concept existed was word of mouth and five sketches of the concept, the actually car is nowhere to be found, BWM chose to rebuild this particular car as it a true stand out in the modern range of BMW cars and even in the present SUV dominated era. The car is named after a once-prominent upper-crust German ski village that played host to the 1936 winter Olympics, the car stands out to me and many others not just with modern BMW’s but with old one’s as well, because it looks like a fish bowl from certain angels. Over all it still remains a car with a very murky background and remains an oddball in BMW’s lineup of cars, an oddball that has a story to tell. The car also shows us the era when BMW relied on the big Italian design houses.