I hadn’t realized when I started making this YouTube video just how much BMW’s most formative and iconic designs had been shaped by Italian hands. I knew about Giovanni Michelotti and his Neue Klasse in 1962, and his 2002 in 1966, and the BMW Garmisch concept by Marcello Gandini in 1970, but as I dug a little deeper the broader picture beyond a few “Italianate” cars here and there became clear.
Learning that Bertone Design is credited (by BMW) with the design of the first BMW 5-Series, which replaced the Neue Klasse in 1972 and continued until 1981, was a big piece of the puzzle. Bertone had designed the “original” CS coupe which immediately preceded the Neue Klasse in 1961, so Bertone’s cars bookend Michelotti’s, giving us twenty years of “Italian” BMWs. Plus add to the mix BMW’s walks on the wild side with the BMW M1 by Giorgetto Guigiaro and Gandini’s Spicup concept in 1970.
I don’t know how transparent BMW design had been about directly attributing these cars (particularly Bertone and the 5-Series) to external designers prior to showing the Garmisch in 2019, itself a love letter from Adrian von Hooydonk to Marcello Gandini, and the first clue that BMW Design was looking back to its roots in Italian design to inform its future. That picture (another one!) became clear last year with the debut of the Vision Neue Klasse, which calls upon this era of Italian BMW’s and Michelotti specifically for its inspiration. BMW is looking to recapture the spirit of design leadership which first put it on the map, and I’m thrilled. I think great design is polarizing and the love it or hate it reaction to the Vision Neue Klasse bears witness to that! As did the reaction to Chris Bangle’s prescient 7 and 5-Series in the 90s.
To that point, Michelotti’s son slid into my DM’s a couple of years ago to inform me that his father - who is no longer with us - did NOT pen my much-derided Neue Klasse Coupe, but DID pen all the other (beloved) BMW’s of the era including the E9 Coupe. Only Giovanni knows for sure, but people still really don’t like those headlights!
