I still think the 507 hardtop is the prettiest BMW ever made but the original 8 Series is a close second. The E31’s design has aged like fine wine, and if there’s a trait that stands out immediately, it’s the pop-up headlights. Those were all the rage back then when pedestrian protection regulations weren’t as strict. However, the company’s outgoing design boss Domagoj Dukec has unearthed some early sketches in which the first-gen 8er looked a lot different.
The soon-to-be Head of Rolls-Royce Design shared on his personal Instagram account some interesting sketches of the E31. The ones that caught our attention portray the luxury grand tourer with fixed headlights flanking a small grille. Remember those days? Good times. I don’t recall seeing those sketches before, and the one with quad lights is the most intriguing. It reminds me of the third-generation Maserati Quattroporte.
Klaus Kapitza entered an internal competition with four other designers and emerged as the winner. We can all agree the higher-ups from Munich made the right call. BMW started thinking about replacing the E24 6 Series as early as 1981 but it wasn’t until 1984 when the development of the E31 started. After Kapitza’s design was approved, another two years passed until the first prototype was built. The German luxury brand wanted to make sure the design was the best it could be.
That sleek body was perfected using CAD tools, which was almost unheard of in the automotive industry during the 1980s. This computer-aided design process, along with wind tunnel testing, helped BMW lower the drag coefficient to 0.29. The Paul Bracq-penned E24 it replaced had a much higher Cd of 0.39.
The first-gen 8er went on sale in 1990 and BMW took the title for being the first automaker to combine a V12 engine with a six-speed manual gearbox. It wasn’t a roaring commercial success as only 30,609 E31s were ever sold until production ended in May 1999. That’s despite a strong start considering BMW got 5,000 orders within eight days of the 1989 Frankfurt Motor Show at the car’s official premiere. Why wasn’t it a strong seller? The high price tag and the early 1990s economic recession are considered to be the main factors.
Source: Domagoj Dukec / Instagram
