*** New BMW Museum - Colin's Report, Part 3 ****

[Colin]

The main hall of this area was dedicated to the M Cars. Again - and we kept saying this to ourselves, and to each other! - just "wow"!!



































A small display area adjoining this had just 2 cars in it - a 1960 2002Ti and a 1955 Isetta, but what made the display really impressive was that surrounding each were whole series of contemporary photos of each model, from all over Europe, showing proud owners with their BMW pride and joy on vacation. These shots were just fabulous. Made me think that some of my pictures might have this sort of interest in 30 years time!

















Another hall for motorsport. This time, celebrating BMW's activities in Touring Car championships around the world. I was intrigued to learn that the rather ungainly looking "Neue Klasse" was the first production car to lap the 'Rring in under 10 minutes!















We paused to look at the H2R concept car. Dating from 2004, this is a hydrogen powered vehicle. Hmm!





A room all to itself for the 327 Coupe.







The next hall was a celebration of "design", and at various points in the room, you could (in German or English) various designers talking, including Chris Bangle.



 

The 1999 Z9 concept car was shown in here, and it showed very clear influences on the current 6 Series:





There was also another example of the 328 Mille Miglia - the roadster this time:





At this point, we concluded we had probably found everything, but then we remember that we had not got close to one of the famous 1975 "Art Cars". So we found our way upstairs to that:





In so doing, we got another look at the sports cars from up above. There were big crowds around here, so patience was called for in getting the shots we wanted!





   

A long escalator then took us up above the entry level floor, to an area reserved for "temporary exhibitions". At present, it contains a show of some of BMW's notable concept cars:

The 1970 Turbo - inspiration for the M1. Sadly challenged by the lighting!







The Z22 - a sort of BMW precursor to the Mercedes R Class, you could say.







The Coupe Concept that shocked us all with its flame surfacing, but which hinted strongly at the Z4





 

The concept Mille Miglia:





A concept that now looks awfully like the 1 Series Cabrio:



 

And finally, the Gina! Revealed 2 weeks ago:







And that, sadly was it. Probably all our brains and our memory cards could take in. But what a display. Everything is bi-lingual in German and English, and there were loads of staff on hand, who were not pushy, but very friendly and there to talk to if you wanted to do so.

Munich is a great city. The sights are impressive (see separate thread, coming up soon!), and with a lot of affluence in the area, the streets were great for spotting luxury and supercars.... but this museum topped it all. One of the best I have ever visited. Highly recommended, even to those who are not true PropellorHead fans (like Christian and me!).