Before BMW launched the second generation of the 8 Series in 2018, the company teamed up with Pininfarina for a special concept car. The pair created the BMW Pininfarina Gran Lusso Coupe, a stunning one-off designed to foreshadow the brand’s next flagship offering. Although BMW never intended to make the Gran Lusso Coupe a production model, it shares many similarities with the G81 8 Series which would be launched five years later.
BMW gave Pininfarina “total freedom” for the project, the brand’s design director, Fabio Filippini, said in 2013. “They really trust our skills, our ability to interpret their identity and their values in design material. The German manufacturer sometimes intervened to ensure that the concept did not go against BMW’s identity, but this was a project led by Pininfarina.
Photo: BMW
The Gran Lusso was presented with BMW’s signature kidney grille, finished in matte aluminum, with a shark nose slant and design lines extending from the grille and badge. Simple lines form the coupe’s face, with a wide lower grille opening hiding the subtle Pininfarina branding, and sleek LED headlights on top. The car’s high beltline sits beneath a sleek, rearward-positioned greenhouse, accented by a unique Hofmeister curve and a bold V-12 badge on the C-pillar.
The coupe rode on 21-inch wheels with a two-tone finish, transforming the 15 spokes into a five-spoke design. The rear, which resembles the 8 Series launched a few years later, features trapezoidal exhaust tips and L-shaped LED taillights linked together by the trunk.
Photo: BMW
Photo: BMW
Photo: BMW
“They really trust our skills, our ability to interpret their design identity and values.
Inside, Pininfarina improved on BMW’s design language of the time, orienting the controls towards the driver. An oblong opening in the roof allows light to enter the cabin, while the manufacturer claims that the coupe’s rear seat offers legroom “almost equivalent to that of a large luxury sedan.”
Pininfarina added premium tobacco brown leather from the Foglizzo leather factory, a virgin wool headliner and deep pile carpeting. Pininfarina also sourced 48,000-year-old kauri wood, “one of the rarest woods in the world,” for use throughout the cabin. This wood, native to New Zealand, has a unique grain that can change color, from gold to red and brown, depending on the light and viewing angle.
Adrian van Hooydonk, senior vice president of BMW Group Design, said during the car’s presentation that the concept expressed “the characteristic values of BMW.”
The manufacturer never detailed the twin-turbo V-12 engine that equipped the concept, contenting itself with mentioning the number of cylinders hidden under the hood. It likely used the eight-speed automatic transmission and 6.0-liter V-12 that powered the 760i of the time, which made 535 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque and drove only the rear wheels.
Since the Gran Lusso, other beautiful concept cars have seen the light of day: the Skytop, the Touring Coupé and the Vision Neue Klasse. But the Gran Lusso was really the last vestige of clean, minimalist design in the BMW lineup. It joins a long list of beautiful BMWs that were never produced.
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