Skip to main content

1969 BMW Spicup Convertible Coupe

In the early 1960s BMW has unveiled the 3200CS - a coupe developed in cooperation with Carrozzeria Bertone. But Giorgetto Giugiaro wanted to prove he can do even more than that. The result of this desire was the "Spicup" concept. The concept was unveiled at the 1969 Geneva Salon and in the same year was exhibited at the Concorso d’Eleganza in Allassio in June and finally at that year’s Frankfurt Motor Show.

After that it is believed that the concept was sold to a private owner and in the mid-1970 it has been spotted at the German mega-dealer Auto Becker in Düsseldorf.

After that the car has been registered in the Netherlands and used as a ’daily driver’. Now the concept has been restored to concurs condition and has been auction at the Bonhams auction for an impressive €460,000 or about $600,000 at the current exchange rates.

Hit the jump to read more about the BMW Spicup Convertible Coupe.

Standard Concept

The concept unveiled in the 1969 was powered by a 2.8-litre version of the SOHC straight-six engine and came with a chassis numbered ’V.0010’ – the V standing for Versuchswagen (experimental car).

One of the most impressive feature of the concept was its novel roof, which consisted of stainless steel panels that retracted into the hefty roll bar.

The concept’s design has been started by Giorgetto Giugiaro and finished by Marcello Gandini who has added his signature front end with its part-concealed headlamps.

Popular posts from this blog

Porsche 913

Forgetting the Panamera, Cayenne and Macan, Porsche offer a pretty well-rounded sports car range. Starting with the Boxster and Cayman, and moving up the multitude of variations of the Porsche 911, all the way up to the 918 Spyder supercar. But there is a HUGE price gap between the top of the range 911 Turbo ($250,000 will all the options ticked), to the 918 Spyder ($800,000). Somewhere in that range Porsche could surely offer something to compete with the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. Something like the 913 possibly? Conceived by the fertile mind of Rene Garcia, a professional 3D modeller who has created conceptual vehicles and highly detailed models for some of the biggest movies of the past decade, including the Matrix Trilogy, Transformers, the latest Star Trekthrillers and The Avengers, the Porsche 913 is an exquisitely rendered design in every detail. It has a bit of the 918 Spyder about it, but there’s also a lot of originality to the design. It looks like a Porsche, but a

Lamborghini Canto – What the Murcielago could have been?

Back in the late 1990s, when Lamborghini were starting to realise they needed a replacement for the ageing Diablo, they started reviewing design proposals from various automotive design firms. Zagato’s offering was the Zagato L147 SuperDiablo, or as it was to be later known, the Lamborghini Canto. The Lamborghini Canto first appeared in 1998, it arrived only two years after another Zagato designed Lamborghini concept had been unveiled, the Diablo-based Raptor. The cars shared a number of similar features, including the wraparound windows, triangular lateral air intakes, and trademark double-bubble roof. However of the two, the earlier Raptor was probably the better looking. Clearly Ferdinand Piech – head of the Volkswagen Group – thought so too. After VW bought Lamborghini in 1999, one of his first decisions was to review the Canto’s development and redesign the concept. The car was re-engineered and the rear extensively restyled to include smaller air intakes. The engine was also up

BMW GINA

The BMW GINA changes the design rulebook concept which features clever use of materials and technology. The GINA acronym stands for 'Geometry In "N" Adaptions'. The 'N' stands for infinite. Quite logical really... While at first glance the BMW GINA appears to be nothing more than a modified and stretched BMW Z4. As soon as the doors are opened it reveals its true nature. Covering the lightweight spaceframe of the BMW GINA are not conventional metal bodypanels, but instead an elastic, rubber-like material is stretched across the structural members and wire frame to form an attractive design which follows BMW's flame surfacing styling philosophy. This elastic material has given BMW's designers more options when designing various moving parts of the GINA concept. The doors for example have no shut line along their front edge as the material just moves with the door. At the rear the electro-hydraulic adjustable spoiler rises and lowers under the skin of