The stunning new BMW Speedtop is a £500k V8 shooting brake spun off an M8

When is a BMW Touring not a Touring? When it’s a Speedtop, an M8-based, £500k limited run special that’s just been unveiled at the annual festival of loveliness that is the Villa d’Este Concours d’Elegance.

“The BMW Concept Speedtop is characterised first of all by its profile,” head of BMW Group Design Adrian van Hooydonk explains. “It is unique in the automotive industry. In this way, we have created an exclamation mark for our entire line-up of vehicles, especially for the Touring models.”

BMW, of course, has a long history of rolling out emotionally resonant one-offs at the historic event on the shore of Lake Como. More recently, though, the company has showcased its bandwidth by putting them into production. In 2015, the 3.0 CSL homage blew a fair few minds and 50 were eventually made. Last year it was the turn of the Skytop, an elegant coupe/convertible with a subtly eye-popping graduated paint-job, 50 of which are coming to life in a special facility within BMW’s Dingolfing plant in Bavaria. The paint-shop there has phenomenal capability and there’s even a saddlery for the finest in leathery interior makeovers. 

The Speedtop leans into all the possibilities while doffing its cap at the mysteriously alluring Shooting Brake idea, while perhaps permitting echoes of the eternally cool late Nineties M Coupe. (Quick note: a brake was a form of carriage back in the 19th century, and the shooting bit references adaptations to the body to suit hunting parties. Now you know…)

A clear evolution of the Skytop’s look and feel, it has the same sharky prow, the lights are slimmed down to the point of barely being visible, and the signature kidney grille is illuminated and prominent – though rather less so than on other current high-end BMWs. The eye is quickly drawn to the central ‘spline’ on the bonnet which is picked up again and continues along the roof.

And, as on the Skytop, the Speedtop looks resplendent in its expensive paint job, which magically morphs from ‘floating Sunstone Maroon’ to ‘floating Sundown Silver’. This is not a car you want to park under any trees for fear of despoilment by berry-consuming avians.

Other exterior highlights include the bespoke alloy wheels, with their turbine blade look, and the way the full-length glasshouse blends into the propulsive rear shoulders. In the past, BMW has worked with Italian carozzeria such as Pininfarina and Zagato to create cars like this, but the Speedtop suggests that the company is rather enjoying being its own coachbuilder.

It’s actually more difficult to reconfigure the interior, so the kinship with the 8 Series is easier to detect inside. But the Speedtop still pushes the limits of BMW’s personalisation/bespoke programme. There’s brown ‘Sundown Maroon’ leather inside that swathes the dashboard, door tops and centre console. That’s strongly contrasted with the ‘Moonstone white’ leather that covers the seats, dividing the dynamic and functional areas of the interior. Although we’re not sure how functional white leather really is. Never mind the birds wrecking the exterior, you’d think twice about parking denim-clad posterior in here.

As on the outside, there’s a ‘spline’ inside the car, illuminated within the two-tone leather in the headlining. There are shades of Art Deco here, another nod to the late Twenties masterpieces that enliven concours lawns. The rear seats feature bespoke luggage from Italian specialist, Schedoni, held in place with leather straps.

Then there’s the, erm, boot. Can we call it that? Again, we’re talking Prada shopping bag rather than Lidl here. It’s split level, the upper lid covered in the same leather that’s used elsewhere, the lower one surprisingly spacious. The storage compartment is lit throughout. Nice touch.

It’s also a BMW M8 underneath the bespoke bodywork, so motive force comes from the 523bhp, 4.4-litre, twin-turbocharged S63 V8 engine as used by the previous gen M5. So it has the guts to go with the visual glory, should the owner ever feel the need to bury no doubt bespoke brogue into the carpet.

We suspect collectors will be adding the Speedtop to their Skytops, though there will be 70 of the former rather than the latter’s 50. A curious imbalance that might push up Skytop values. Imagine both parked up with a Riva Aquarama bobbing gently on the lake beneath. Aaaand… you’re back in the room.