Meet the BMW Skytop; a two-door open-top sportscar concept with a smooth flowing design. And before you think it’s just another EV concept, BMW has a surprise for you; the Skytop concept features a 4.4-litre V8 powertrain under the hood! That should excite you, right?
Well, yes and no. Yes, because this concept car also receives interiors which appear nearly production-ready. We also say no, because the concept cars shown at Lake Como before the Skytop concept have never seen the light of the day, having been termed as ‘design exercises’ by the Bavarian car maker.
But let’s still take a closer look at the BMW Skytop concept; there’s an angled kidney grille with illumination, along with the shark nose design treatment up front. The profile is clean and minimalistic, with winglets integrated discreetly onto the shoulder line doubling up as door handles. It also gets a unique 12-spoke alloy rim setup. Towards the rear, you’ll see a roll-over bar which receives leather finish and a retractable rear window. The smooth, flat deck at the rear divided by a crease, along with sleek tail-lights and twin exhaust tips further round off the design bits, making the Skytop concept look like a modern rendition of the Z8 roadster from back in the day.
You’ll be surprised to see the interiors do not follow the design language of newer BMW cars, featuring the Curved Display setup. Instead, the Skytop concept features a conventional digital cluster and a regular touch screen, while the centre console gets physical buttons for the A/C and other things. There is also a conventional gear selector and what appears to be an xDrive controller as well. These interiors certainly look production-ready, but we think BMW would rather align them with the setup from its newer cars, that is if the Skytop enters production.
Not much has been said about the mechanicals, although it does get a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 powertrain, in the same state of tune as its other cars with the same powertrain. Whether it receives all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive could be anybody’s guess.
BMW hasn’t given us any hints of its intentions, and at the moment, things do not seem very optimistic about the possibility of a production-spec Skytop. However, the saying goes ‘never say never.’
