The Jaw-Dropping BMW Concept Touring Coupe Is The Only New BMW That Matters

Earlier today, I pondered whether BMW would ever be cool to enthusiasts again. The M3 and M4 look like a dog’s dinner, the M5 is too stiff for road use, the less said about the XM the better, and the new M2, well, it’s a great M4, but none of the M2 Competition owners I know are itching to upgrade. Thankfully, BMW seems to have almost redeemed itself because it’s rolled out a concept that is unmistakably inspired by the sub-zero clownshoe Z3 M Coupe. Yes, it’s an actual shooting brake called the BMW Concept Touring Coupe, and it’s gorgeous.

The BMW Concept Touring Coupe is, without a doubt, a Z4 shooting brake. That means you get a very close cousin to the Toyota GR Supra with a practical, distance-oriented wagon-like form. It’s in a neutral grey-brown with a sumptuous tan leather interior and a breathtaking gold set of wheels, and the only ways it could be cooler is if 1. BMW put it into production, and 2. BMW made it with a manual gearbox. This car is the internet’s wet dream in an era when it almost felt like BMW was incapable of producing something this awesome ever again.

Power comes from an inline-six, although BMW is coy on which. I reckon there’s a good chance it’s the B58 turbocharged three-liter unit found in the Z4 M40i, seeing as this stunning one-off is based on a Z4. As is BMW tradition, all that inline-six goodness goes to the rear tires, although it appears to do so through an eight-speed automatic gearbox. I know this is a concept car and costs have to be kept reasonable, but would it have really been so hard to gently tap Toyota’s shoulder and ask to borrow the ZF GS6-45BZ and pedal setup found in the GR Supra? Then the Concept Touring Coupe wouldn’t have just broken the internet, it would’ve nuked it from orbit.

The interior feels very four years ago, but in the best way possible. The current iDrive 8 system found in models from the 3-Series all the way up to the XM is horrendous, ditching buttons and burying functions like heated seats in touchscreens. In contrast, the Concept Touring Coupe appears to use iDrive 7 with its magnificent physical presets and climate controls, then drapes the dashboard and the rest of the interior in hide with a perfect satin sheen. All that leather, by the way, comes from Italian tanner Poltrona Frau, and the baseball-stitching on the seats and console gives just the right Mk1 Audi TT vibes without being entirely derivative. The tone is closer to the caramel heritage leather that was optional in the E39 BMW M5, a car that’s near and dear to pretty much every gearhead’s heart.

Circling back around to the styling, holy moly, is this thing every jaw-dropping. The iconic Hofmeister kink is loud and proud in the greenhouse, and the haunches on this thing are sensational, imbuing the shape with a massive sense of drama. The rear glass to ducktail transition is gawky in the best way possible. True beauty isn’t perfection from every angle, and this element seems fittingly function-over-form. Those multi-spoke wheels really remind me of Alpina designs, but they’re finished in what looks to be the same gold as the wheels on the M2 CS. Call them perfect reminders of the recent past. Oh, and that multi-slat grille pattern is excellent, a subtle evolution of the popular M double-slat grilles found on cars like the F10 M5.

Maybe BMW is making money on their limited-edition XMs, who knows, but wouldn’t we all be happier with this and a manual gearbox? We, the enthusiasts who helped build BMW’s rep in America. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of incredibly wealthy people with Z8s and old M3s and even 3.0 CSLs in their garages, clamoring for something like this. I don’t care if a production version would be well-optioned Porsche 718 GT4 money, I wouldn’t even care if it picked its nose and ate its own snot. I just want the chance to see one of these cars in the wild. The BMW Concept Touring Coupe is what the fans wanted all along. Now take the “Concept” out of the name and do what’s cool.

(Photo credits: BMW)

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