The 10 Greatest BMW Concept Cars Ever

BMW has treated us to some of the greatest road cars of all time across its long history, but it’s also long had a talent for knocking out a fantastic concept car, even if it ultimately remains a one-and-done show car.

With the stunning Vision Alpina adding its name to the long list earlier this month, we’ve rounded up our 10 favourite BMW concepts from over the years, from V12 supercars to mad motorbike-powered Caterham rivals.

Garmisch (1970)

Named after a German ski resort, 1970’s Garmisch was the spectacular modernist creation of Italian design maestro Marcello Gandini – he of Miura and Countach fame, among others. Using the underpinnings of the zippy little 2002 tii as a base, Gandini clothed them in a striking new body defined by a repeating hexagon motif, with a shape that glimpsed ahead to the BMWs that would follow throughout the 1970s and early ’80s – its influence is clear in the first 5 Series that debuted two years later.

The concept, created independently of BMW by the Bertone design house where Gandini worked, was warmly received by the Munich company, but it vanished after making its rounds on the 1970 motor show circuit. That seemed to be that until 2018, when BMW decided to pay tribute to the lost original by building a faithful recreation.

E25 Turbo (1972)

You’ve seen bits of this car before – its styling went on to greatly influence the first M car, 1978’s gorgeous M1. But the E25 Turbo, unveiled in 1972, was quite different in many ways from the eventual production car. For one, it was based around a 2002 platform, reworked to be mid-engined, and that engine wasn’t a straight-six, but BMW’s legendary M10 2.0-litre turbo four, as seen in the 2002 Turbo and several F1 cars. It had gullwing doors, too, per the official early ’70s concept car guidelines.

But where the E25 really differed was that safety was as much of a focus as performance. Safety rules were getting tougher, especially in the US, and BMW wanted to demonstrate that this didn’t have to lead to boring cars, so the E25 got features like neatly integrated impact-absorbing bumpers, anti-lock brakes, an engine that wouldn’t start unless the seatbelt was buckled, and even a radar-based brake distance monitor – seriously forward-thinking stuff for 1972.

Nazca (1991)

One of several what-might-have-been supercar concepts over the years hinting at an M1 successor that never was, the first Nazca concept, the M12, arrived at the 1991 Geneva Show. Styled by Giugiaro, it had the 5.0-litre V12 from the 850Ci mounted amidships in its dramatically low, wide body which, along with much of the chassis, was made from carbon fibre, keeping weight down at roughly 1,100kg. Top speed was estimated at 184mph, which would have placed it right at the sharp end of the supercar market at the time.

The following year, an updated version called the Nazca C2 arrived, now with an Alpina-fettled version of the same engine, followed by a Spider version in 1993, but ultimately, the economy of the early ’90s wasn’t particularly conducive to building expensive, low-volume supercars. There was one exception, though – at least one fully functioning version of the original M12 concept ended up in the infamous car collection of the Sultan of Brunei.

Z18 (1995)

What exactly is going on here? The Z18 is a product of BMW Technik, a skunkworks within the main company that was tasked with coming up with innovative and forward-thinking technologies and concepts and existed from the mid-’80s to the early 2000s. Only one of its concoctions, the Z1, ever ended up making production, but there were plenty more, including the 1995 Z18.

Effectively, it was part two-seater roadster, part jacked-up desert racer. It had four-wheel drive, a meaty 4.4-litre V8 under the bonnet, lightweight plastic body panels mounted to a steel spaceframe chassis and, since it had no roof at all, a fully waterproofed interior. It also looked… different. We can see why this one never made production, but we’re still a little sad it didn’t.

Just 4/2 (1995)

This is another creation of Technik, which was firing out wild ideas left, right and centre in the early to mid-’90s. Also known as the Z21, its public-facing name, Just 4/2, makes more sense when you say it out loud, because this car really was just for two. In many ways, it’s like a ’90s futurist take on a Caterham, complete with lots of exposed aluminium showing off how much of the stuff was in the chassis. 

The engine was a 1.1-litre four-pot borrowed from a BMW motorbike, and it only made around 100bhp, but with lightweighting measures like the aforementioned chassis and kevlar body panels, it only weighed around 550kg, meaning performance was still sprightly. Debuting at the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show, reception was so positive that BMW apparently began testing it with a small production run in mind, but sadly, that never materialised.

328 Hommage (2011)

With such a long, rich history to cherry-pick from, it’s no wonder BMW’s carved out a nice niche in concepts that reference its past. That kicked off in 2011 with the simply beautiful 328 Hommage concept, an ode to the equally stunning 328 roadster from the 1930s. Launched at Villa d’Este in 2011, it’s packed with lots of neat period-referencing features like those multi-hole wheels and leather bonnet straps.

Like the original, it was powered by a straight-six, an unspecified 3.0-litre unit from BMW’s then-current range – possibly the same 335bhp turbo mill from the 1 Series M Coupe. Other nods to modernity included a pair of specially modified iPhones mounted on the dash that doubled up as a stopwatch and a navigation system, and a full carbon body that helped keep weight down to an impressively lithe 780kg. Sadly, production was never on the cards.

2002 Hommage (2016)

Another sensational Hommage concept came along in 2016, this time winding the clock back to the early ’70s and the punchy little 2002 Turbo, the first turbocharged production car to come out of Europe. Its overall shape didn’t do too much to hide the fact it was based on the then-new M2 – spiritual successor to the 2002 Turbo – but its pumped-up, boxy bodywork was utterly delicious, as were the yellow tinted headlights and mirrored ‘turbo’ graphics that referenced the original.

Underneath, it was all standard M2 – no bad thing, since that meant a 3.0-litre turbocharged straight-six with 365bhp, all sent to the rear wheels. We never got to see an interior, and there was no mention of which gearbox it had, but we have to assume and hope BMW based it on a six-speed manual M2 rather than a seven-speed DCT one. Like the other Hommage cars, a production run was never likely, and the 2002 Hommage sadly remained a one-off.

Vision M Next (2019)

Although BMW’s only ever built two mid-engined production cars – the M1 and i8 – it’s flirted with the idea a lot more than that, most recently in 2019 with the Vision M Next concept. This was right as the first wave of plug-in hybrid supercars was in development, and with a PHEV powertrain anchored around a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-pot, the M Next was a hint at BMW’s ambitions to join them.

Total system output was given at 591bhp, with a projected 186mph top speed and 3.0-second 0-62mph time, while all-electric range was said to be 62 miles. This one came closer than most to production – it had been given the green light, and development was apparently well underway, before high R&D costs compounded by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic forced BMW to pull the plug.

Concept Touring Coupe (2023)

Another recent concept that came tantalisingly close to production, 2023’s Concept Touring Coupe didn’t break any moulds – it was essentially a third-generation Z4 clothed in a shooting brake-style coupe body, a throwback to the Z3 M Coupe of the late ’90s.

It didn’t need to be radical, though, because it was gorgeous, and arrived at a time when the BMW range was in dire need of some aesthetic loveliness. A fully functional car, built to full production standards, it was met with exactly the sort of reception you’d expect a brown six-cylinder shooting brake to receive from enthusiasts: a good one. BMW openly considered a small production run, but it never happened. Sob. The only upside is that the equally stunning V8-powered Speedtop shooting brake shown off two years later is being built in small numbers.

Vision Alpina (2026)

At the start of 2026, long-time BMW tuner and coolness injector Alpina became a fully-fledged part of the Munich company, leaving plenty wondering what its future models would look like. The answer, happily, is this.

Revealed at Villa d’Este in May 2026, the Vision Alpina doesn’t preview any specific future models – the first fully BMW-developed Alpina will be ‘inspired by the 7 Series’, whatever that means, although like the Vision Alpina, it will be V8-powered – but that doesn’t really matter, because just look at this thing. If even just a few elements of it find their way into the next batch of Alpina models, we’ll be very happy indeed.