Ever wondered what a modern take on the iconic 3.0 CSi from 1970s would look like if BMW started developing one today? Designer Jang Hun Choi took a stab at it, bringing to life a racy vision that is half retro, half electrifying futurism, and all concept car gloriousness. Choi describes the CSi concept as a blend of the BMW i Series (electric vehicles) and the CS (retconned by BMW themselves to mean Competition Sport) cars. Importantly, the car retains a classic three-box shape – as all the most iconic BMW cars from the CSi’s era did. Current design nods include an indented area for the front roundel to sit and modern DRL signatures. You’ll spy usual concept car bits, like imperceptible side mirrors.
An Electrified, Modern CSi
The rear end does a good job of modernizing the CSi’s sleek trunk area – even if there’s something borrowed from the contemporary BMW X2. The taillights and high-rising integrated spoiler seem to draw from it, but that’s okay – it works there and it works here. After all, the X2 itself draws inspiration from BMW sports cars of yore. Supposedly, anyway. From the side angle of the car, you can see that the three-box principle was a core concept. The car looks handsome, resembling a Lucid Air with a seriously aggressive tire and wheel package.
The wheel designs are central to the design, too. Committing even harder to the retro theme, Jang Hun Choi created wheels that pay homage to the turbofan designs popular in the 1970s and 1980s racing world. The wheels essentially relied on a flat plate design that supposedly created less drag and improved underbody aero. Vanes in the wheel ensure air still reaches the brakes for cooling purposes. Of course, on this design, the primary “cooling purpose” is aesthetics, but we think it works.
There are some things we might not have done the same way as Choi. For example, the illuminated BMW roundels on the side and rear feel a little gimmicky for us. The front bumper is a bit over styled for an electric vehicle. Its aggressive air inlets imply a combustion engine under the hood, but that’s apparently not the case.
We’d grow the upper grille – between the headlights – vertically just a smidge and shrink the lower one to create a more readily-identifiable BMW face. To keep the 3.0 CSi heritage strong, we’d also reduce the grille horizontally by maybe 25 percent. Overall, though, the concept certainly works. Do you think this looks better or worse than some of the stuff coming out of Bavaria today?
[Top image shows the original lines of the BMW 3.0 CSi]
First published by https://www.bmwblog.com