27 April 2020

Familiar monikers become even more evocative in the world of Rolls-Royce. The Corniche is a typical example of this phenomenon. The owner forgets the price tag after a couple of years, but the car provides immense joy throughout its lifetime. The classic#heart blog has taken this adage to heart and has pleasure featuring the Rolls-Royce convertible. It had been built on the basis of the Silver Shadow Coupé since 1967 and was relaunched in 1971 with the evocative name “Corniche”. The homage to this combination of open-hearted athletic prowess and majestic noblesse reads as smoothly as a road trip along the eponymous coastal roads between Monaco and Menton must feel. 

The BMW R 80 G/S in rally trim is a truly powerful machine. This is highlighted by the moderators presenting the third episode in the series of video clips Inside BMW Group Classic. One of the motorcycles in the Collection of Classics in Munich is the machine which Belgian motorcyclist Gaston Rahier – just 1.64 metres tall – rode to victory in the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1985. Rahier only had one means of mounting the BMW R 80 G/S at the start of the race: let out the clutch and swing his leg over the moving motorcycle in the style of a western rider. The clip also has the answer to a fantastic home quiz question: What on earth would Gaston Rahier want with a standard bicycle pump in the middle of the desert?

When a number of the fabulous BMW Art Cars come together, the occasion is inevitably a blue-riband art event – since 1975, some of the most illustrious contemporary artists have created a design for an automobile from Munich. In 2012, 16 Art Cars came together in London and browsing through the gallery of photographs continues to be an awesome pleasure. Alongside Warhol,Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein and all the other famous names, the very first BMW Art Car also shines out as a beacon of the personal friendship between racing driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain and pioneer of “Kinetic Art” Alexander Calder. 

A true classic that will become the stuff of legends in decades to come is not always immediately obvious at the moment when its first life comes to an end. However, sometimes this rise to eminence is blindingly obvious. And this is undoubtedly the case for the BMW i8, which comes to the end of its production run this month. The car’s greatness is already now defined by its iconic status in the roll call of BMW sports cars, the exciting design but most importantly its status as a milestone in automobile engineering. The first plug-in hybrid model of the brand defined benchmarks at all levels and especially in the sphere of sustainability. BMW Group Classic has already allowed the pioneer of electromobility to drop by in the historic collection of vehicles. With a bit of a wink, but without any trace of hubris, the BMW i8 is unquestionably a future classic.