The BMW Gran Lusso Coupe is the first official concept created by the Pininfarina design team for BMW. Why did we say ‘official’? Because somewhere in the Pininfarina archives lies an alternative proposal for the BMW 501 the Italian design firm created for the Bavarian automaker in 1951. The general public has just never had occasion to set eyes on it. So that leaves us with the Gran Lusso concept – Pininfarina’s vision of what a two door flagship based on a shortened BMW 7 Series chassis.
Created entirely at Pininfarina’s studio on the outskirts of Turin, the exterior design was penned by Felix Kilbertus who liaised with BMW designer Joji Nagashima to keep the essence of BMW’s design language intact. Pininfarina design director Fabio Filippini, with his rich background as interior design director for Renault, created the revised 7 Series-based interior.
BMW design director Karim Habib and Group design director Adrian van Hooydonk were consulted on occasion during the development of the project, which began in September 2012, running in parallel with the Pininfarina Sergio concept which made its debut at the Geneva motor show earlier this year.
In the video above, Fabio Filippini and Karim Habib discuss how Pininfarina and BMW collaborated on the design of the Gran Lusso Coupe, which was made its first public appearance on the eve of the Concorso d’Eleganza at Villa d’Este, on the shores of Lake Como in Italy this past weekend.
