Sold between the 1996 to 2003 model years, the fourth-generation 5 Series was available as a sedan and wagon. A coupe wasn’t offered since the original 8 Series was still around for the most part, with the E31 discontinued in 1999. The German luxury brand also had the M3 E46 Coupe roughly around the same time, but what if BMW had another sports coupe to bridge the gap between the two?
Independent artist Abimelec Design has imagined a past in which the M6 never went away by rendering an E39 M5-based M6 Coupe to fill the void between the E24 M6 discontinued in 1989 and the E63 M6 launched in 2005. Such a car would’ve gone up against the AMG versions of the Mercedes CL, but it never happened. However, the digital design exercise serves as a “what if” scenario.
Hypothetically carrying the E40 codename, this imaginary M6 has been rendered as a classy coupe with no B-pillars to echo the E9. Coincidentally, the Mercedes CL also did away with the B-pillars. It might’ve been an unnecessary model at that time, but it’s interesting to see how the sports sedan’s body style could’ve been changed had BMW decided to build a coupe.
Abimelec Design remained as faithful to the original as possible to give the illusion of a real M6 E40 made by BMW in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The front end has been largely carried over from the donor car, while all the other body panels have been modified without straying away too far from the design language of those days.
As great as it looks, a slightly lower roofline would’ve made the rendering even more appealing by enhancing the coupe silhouette, but to each his own. The second-generation Mercedes CL had a significantly more inclined roofline and its design has aged well, and we would’ve probably said the same about an E40.
Additional renderings are available at the source link below.
Source: Abimelec Design / Facebook
