Doom approves.
BMW’s Shanghai Surprise
By PHIL PATTON
BMW lit a firecracker at the Shanghai auto show last week, unveiling a design study called the Concept CS that not only signaled an evolution of the company’s designs, it suggested a possible future sedan that would be bigger and more expensive than any existing model.
The Concept CS, which takes its name from highly styled BMWs of the 1960s, is longer, wider and lower than BMW’s current flagship sedan, the 7 Series.
In a telephone interview shortly before he left for China, Christopher E. Bangle, director of design for the BMW Group, said the choice of location for such an important debut reflected the Shanghai show’s rise to world-class status.
Such flattery of the hosts may be smart: Asia is likely to account for a big piece of any future growth in sales of high-end luxury cars.
The CS’s most striking feature is a long, low, flowing roof, which inevitably leads to comparisons with recent “four-door coupes” — notably the Mercedes-Benz CLS, Aston Martin Rapide and Porsche Panamera.
But the CS, Mr. Bangle insisted, is neither cut nor stretched. “It was conceived holistically as a four-door saloon,” he said, using the common European term for a generously proportioned sedan. “It is not a chopped or stretched anything.”
The CS’s long hood suggests a powerful engine. The face is aggressive, with a hooded, intent look to the headlights.
Large air openings below the front grille seem connected to like-styled apertures for the exhaust in the rear. In between, swollen rocker panels leave the impression that the entire body rides on twin tubes.
Other details are more delicate. There is an echo of BMW’s hallmark roof-pillar shape — called the Hofmeister knick — impressed in the sheet metal. There is a reference to the Z8 in the front lights. The area around the stylized kidney shapes of the grille is delicately modeled; the taillights are stretched and lightened.
There’s a trick side vent that moves when the door opens. The well-known creases of Bangle-era BMWs turn into a play between a long side line and a rear hip line, emphasizing the car’s considerable length. Over all, aggressiveness plays off delicacy. The car mixes sport signals with luxury signals.
Mr. Bangle said the CS grew out of a long study of package and proportions. The car was designed under the direction of Adrian van Hooydonk, who as director of design for the BMW brand sets the hands-on direction for the cars. Mr. Bangle is in charge of design for all the company’s brands.
The lead exterior designer was Karim-Antoine Habib, and the interior was done by Nadya Arnaout.
Mr. Bangle acknowledged that the overall shape had a romantic or sensual quality. But “it’s not going to win a teddy bear contest,” he said. “It retains enough hard lines while also conveying some sensuality and sex appeal. Aggressiveness should not be the only way to convey power.”
The designers were asked to capture a feeling summoned by a scene in a James Bond film. “You know the moment when Caterina Murino, the actress in ‘Casino Royale,’ gets into the Aston Martin?” Mr. Bangle said. “She does that with such assured fluidity. That is what we were shooting for.”
