idtourist.com: BMW Zagato Coupe injects sexy into the BMW Z4

Thứ Hai, 28 tháng 5, 2012

BMW Zagato Coupe injects sexy into the BMW Z4

This is the BMW Zagato Coupe, a collaboration between BMW and Italian styling house Zagato, marrying Italian design flair together with German engineering, thanks to the friendship between BMW and Zagato’s designers Adrian van Hooydonk and Norihiko Harada.

Sounds perfect, no? It’s based on the E89 BMW Z4 Roadster, but with a fixed roof. Perhaps this is the Coupe body that this current generation Z4 never had, as the E89 Z4 is offered only with a folding metal top.

If you say the F30 looks like the F10 went to the gym and shed a few pounds, then the Zagato Coupe looks like the already lean Z4 went to the gym and pumped up those muscles with the help of protein powders, health supplements and what not.

It’s got beautiful proportions – a short front overhang, sizeable wheels, a sleek long hood, and a muscular Kamm tail body with big arches over the wheels and a double bubble roof – it all makes the sexy car have a stance like it’s ready to pounce. Kinda reminds me of a Ferrari FF.

Other than the Z on the fender, Zagato also puts its mark on the kidney grille – this is one part of the car that I don’t really get. Instead of typical vertical slats, Zagato had kidney grille designed as an alphanet soup mesh of little interlocked Zs, said to be inspired by American designer/architect Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes.

That gorgeous red paint is called Rosso Vivace, and to get it to look how it looks, BMW started off with a black base coat, on top of which a metallic silver coat was applied, followed by six coats of red and topped with two clear coats.

Will there be a production version of this car? I certainly hope so! The car itself can be driven around as it’s registered with a number plate – it’s a Z4 after all so the underlying engineering work is done – Zagato essentially reskinned the car with a sexier outlook.

The Zagato Coupe will be shown to the public at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este at Lake Como in Italy.