- The previously concept-only BMW Skytop is becoming a material (and purchasable) reality.
- This coveted roadster houses the same 4.4-litre V8 in the M8 Competition.
- Limited to just 50 examples.
Clearly, executive management at BMW has taken the phrase “the customer is always right” to heart.
In a bout of good news for clamouring Beamer fans (who have deep pockets to match), the German automotive marque has recently announced that its previously concept-only ‘Skytop’ will be going into production. Well… kind of.
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Modelled after the same 8 Series-inspired roadster BMW unveiled at the annual Concorso d’Eleganza earlier this May, the road-ready Skytop will be made in a small global production of 50 examples.
None of which — surprise, surprise — you’ll be able to buy (particularly if you’re learning of the Skytop’s entry into serial production through this article).
That being the case, the silver lining is we get to dedicate more page space to actually gawking at the Skytop Roadster’s design: one that is bound to induce a chorus of “awooga” type exclamations wherever its lucky owner drives it. But particularly, from passersby overhead.
Covering the unveiling of the original concept car earlier in the year, Top Gear noted — tongue firmly in cheek — that the Skytop seemed to be a vehicle whose “elegant design touches” are “best enjoyed from directly above.”
“[It’s] a concept made for drones,” noted veteran motors writer Jason Barlow. “Or birds if you want to be more romantic about it.”
Notable design codes include the car’s sharklike front (many have noted, with relief, the absence of the controversial ‘beaver tooth’ grille), lamella-style rims, and rear-bisecting ‘spline’. Not to mention: the pronounced wheel arches, which we expect the more churlish of s**tposters to begin describing as “dummy thicc.”
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Despite declarations by BMW personnel (e.g. Adrian van Hooydonk, the group’s Head of Design) that the Skytop road car driving experience will be all about “elegance at the highest level,” you can rest assured that the design’s lineage — descending, most famously, from the Z8 — still has a whiff of the ol’ Munich muscle car about it.
That’s because, under the bonnet, BMW has decided to outfit the Skytop with a 4.4-litre V8: the same one drivers will find in the M8 Competition that makes 100km/h in a fleet-footed 3.3 seconds.
Suddenly the whole shark-like description seems spot-on.
