If you discount the 507 since just 252 examples were built, then BMW’s E9 was the concern’s first truly good-looking postwar car. Yes, the New Class sedans had a certain gawky charm, the licensed-and-improved Isetta was fabulously wacky, and the little choptop 700s had a look that sugggested a modernized Amphicar stripped of maritime pretense. But the E9 coupes, consisting of models that ranged in displacement from 2.5 to 3.0 liters—in guises that ranged from the elegant to race-inspired—were certainly the first sexy mass-market four-wheelers from the Bayerischen Motoren Werke. And at this year’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, the company will reveal a tribute concept: the 3.0 CSL Hommage.
-The CSL, of course, was the highest-zoot of the E9s, a homologation special built so BMW could take the car racing. CSLs actually displaced shade over three liters, allowing BMW to enter them in the over-three-liter class and then punch the engines out further for competition. They also wore aerodynamic enhancements, though nothing as wild as the toolshed-size box flares the cars wore in competition trim. The “Batmobiles”, as those versions were known, won the European Touring Car Championship in 1973 and again from 1975 through 1979. Dutchman Toine Hezemans teamed up with Dieter Quester and hustled a 3.0 CSL to a class victory at Le Mans. The race-only 3.5-liter cars were also very competitive on our side of the pond during the 1975 IMSA GT Championship.
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All this, plus the first two BMW art cars, painted by Alexander Calder and Frank Stella, were CSLs. Also, BMW Motorsport GmbH cut its teeth on the CSL program; now their little logos are all over your M3. In short, if the 2002—itself a jumped-up 1600—established BMW’s performance credentials, the CSL cemented them. As for the 3.0 CSL Hommage? BMW’s merely released a teaser photo, showing the prominent Hofmeister kink, the necessary sail-panel roundel, what seems to be a pronounced flare of the rear haunch, a CSL-style black stripe, and an intricate taillight design that folds upward into the rear wing. Back in 2011, BMW built the 328 Hommage for Villa d’Este. A tribute to the company’s prewar sports success, the concept was perhaps slightly overdesigned. In spite of its fussiness, it still stood as a Neat Thing™. Given the wacky taillight, we won’t be surprised if we wind up saying the same of this new concept. We’ll know for sure on May 22, when BMW is due to unveil it to the world.
-from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/1EDIPVK
via Agya
