Updating a winning formula
BMW placed the modifier of its Detroit show
car’s name ahead of the number: Concept 4-series coupe
sounds as if the name is the concept and that BMW could change its mind one
more time and stick with “3-series coupe.” Don’t count on it. The automaker has
gone to great lengths to tie its new, longer, lower, wider coupe to the
6-series.
BMW
4-series
“The current car is on the short side of
the segment,” BMW Group design director Adrian van Hooydonk says. The new
coupe’s wheelbase is 110.6 inches, 1.9 inches longer than the car it replaces,
with shorter overhangs. It’s also 1.7 inches wider and 0.5 inch lower. Overall,
it’s a shade longer than the 3-series sedan.
BMW’s description of the 4-series reads
like a Biblical chapter describing the second coming of the 2002, albeit with
that car’s Teutonic flavor replaced with tasteful dollops of satin-finish
aluminum and leather from the world’s most supple cows. Lots of cows. Even the
concept’s cupholders are covered in leather. This, from a German automaker that
as recently as the Gerhard Schroder administration was loath to give American
consumers cupholders of any substance at all. Is it kosher to drink milk from
leather-covered cupholders?
BMW
4-series’ interior
Call it what you will: the 4-series is a
relatively conservative redo of its maker’s most iconic and successful car -
BMW has sold nearly nine million of them globally since 1975.
“There are many players in the premium
segment who dream of such volumes,” notes marketing chief Ian Robertson.
The 4-series is very appealing, with a very
modern sort of opulence. Expect a 428i, a 435i, and possibly a diesel. The M4
will follow about one year after launch.
The
4-series is 1.7 inches wider, 0.5 inch lower, and1.5 times more luxurious than
the 3-series coupe.
A closer look
The show car is liquid metal silver with
black and Schiaparelli brown leather. Hand-braided leather trim runs vertically
down the seats and on the doors. Clearly, someone has been vacationing in Santa
Fe.
The
show car is liquid metal silver with black and Schiaparelli brown leather.
The full-LED headlamps get an interesting
fiber-optic line that forms a visual link between the lights and the kidney
grille. A large intake at the lower fascia is for “extra air required by the
powerful engines."
The
full-LED headlamps
Two flanking vents on each side of the
front fascia's lower Maw differ in thickness, for brake venting or oil cooling,
and for the Air Curtain, an engineering feat that channels air around the
outside of the front wheels to aid fuel economy.
That large, C-shaped accent behind the
front wheels is the Air Breather. It works with the Air Curtain at the edges of
the lower front fascia to reduce drag.
The 4-series has pronounced front and rear
wheel arches, the latter marking the widest point on the car, under which are
twenty-inch aluminum wheels.
The 4's profile borrows the 3's
double-swage line, with BMW's latest iteration of the Hofmeister kink, which in
this application emphasizes the car's long, low roofline.
