There is always something fascinating about concept cars, they pop up at just about every major motor show around the world in some form or another.  You can chart the design ideas of the time and see if they bled into production cars.  Right now it is all alternative fuels and recyclable materials, back in the 70's it was very much wedge shapes.  The 80's though saw a number of aspirational soft top designs hit the show floor in concept form.

The problem with concepts is that they get watered down a lot before they make it into production, as designers have to think beyond their own selfish world of ideas into the practicalities of actually delivering a car the public can drive reliably and safely.  Often the car that starts out as an exciting concept is almost unrecognisable by the time it hits the street.  Not so for the BMW Z1 though, this had a different route to the road.

In 1985 BMW set up an internal company to push forward developments in car design and technology in order to 'reset or modify the basics of automobile design'.  Asuch it had no commercial commitments, it was an ideas pool and some very clever people swam in it under the guiding light of Ulrich Bez.  The first design they worked on was under the label "Freedom on four wheels", it became the BMW Z1.

When the concept hit the pages of "Auto Motor und Sport" the response was strong, in fact it was so strong that BMW agreed to build some more prototype cars.  When the desire for the car didn't let up the decision was taken to put it into full production, essentially unchanged, literally from concept to show room.

Production wasn't cost effective for BMW and the life cycle was fairly short, from 1986 until 1991, with just 8,000 cars being built.  It paved the way for many cars that came after, not least of which was BMW's own Z3.  Sadly one of the most striking features of the Z1, it's drop down doors, haven't really caught on, even though they feel like they may have come from the future.

Technically the Z1 was at the cutting edge, multiple construction materials make up the body work, hugely efficient aerodynamics aided by the flat underbody.  The use of aerodynamics in the car to aid road holding and agility, creating low and high pressure areas to pull the car down onto the road in all the right places.  Whilst it is essentially 'based on' a BMW E30 325i, the Z1 shares almost no components with the car except the engine and gearbox.

Performance was pretty good, the 168 horse power engine powering the rear wheels and pushing the car to 60 in 9 seconds, then on to 137 mph at top speed.  Alpina, Hamann-Motorsport, Schnitzer and Kelleners all made modified version of the Z1 with subtle styling mods and more power.  In more recent years an E34 M5 engine has been squeezed into a Z1, which sounds like a lot of fun.

You can read more about the Z1 at this UK site.

One of the things that constantly amaze us is the anger generated when someone modifies their car.  It is even more baffling when someone has done something that is temporary to their car that is should raise people’s hackles.

Take for example this E28 BMW that has been on a few forums this week :

It has, as is the fashion, a rusty bonnet, a roof rack and various other "rat" touches.  For some reason this has caused sections of the retro community to decry it for ruining the car, or that it would look better without the roof rack and whatever else.  Maybe they are right, that is not really the discussion, the fact is they owner can rock up to a show with it looking like that on a Saturday, pop home, take off the roof rack, swap the bonnet for his spare one and next day be rolling looking like this :

In fact, that is the same car at a different point in its life.

It is a great way to keep yourself fresh and have fun with your car to create a nice temporary look for a show.  Our very own Rmad did his Cressida in a Bosozoku style for the Retro Rides Gathering, he just un bolted his exhaust, took off his Shakotaxi sign and put his normal number plates back on and he is rolling in a more conventional style.

Having fun with temporary looks can make showing your car all the more enjoyable, every time you turn up you've got something new to show off.  Or maybe your budget doesn't extend to that LS1 conversion for your Capri, so a different set of wheels or a bunch of themed accessories will have to do.  Just think as we approach winter (here in Europe at least) and you are working out what you want to do, perhaps it is worth thinking of a few fun styles that it is easy to swap around to keep things fresh.

More pictures of the Black E28 can be found here, which is part of the Blank Media Group website which has some great photography on it.

Usually I'd do a rare car entry about something there is only one or two of, they are often relics of great ideas that didn't pan out, or were ahead of their time.

This isn't a rare car in the same way, it is more a car of interest, something that should be more than a footnote in the history of classic cars.

Glas would already be known to anyone with an interest in microcars as the company that bought us the Goggomobil.  Founded by Andreas Glas the company’s primary business was sewing machines, at least until the end of World War 2.  Post war they produced the Goggomobil, but more interestingly for us in 1964 they started building the Glas 1300GT.

The 1300GT was a very pretty car, designed by Frua, powered by an inline 4 1290cc, single overhead cam engine.  Later the 1300 was beefed up and available as a 1700.  In 1966 the cars had a facelift and in which the round headlights were replaces by sharper rectangular lights, the lines of which created a more angular wing profile too.

Glas became part of BMW pretty soon after with the Glas 2600 GT being produced as a BMW and later beefed up to 3 litres with the 3000GT, essentially the design was the same but with BMW badges, if you line up the BMW cars from 1967 together you'll notice one stands out from the crowd, the Glas.

What piqued my interest in this car is this photo of a 1300GT racing, it is apparently taking part in Group 4 1970, however that would seem a bit late for it to be in international competition, does anyone know any more?

More information on the 3000GT can be found here

You can find out much more about this cool car on the Glas Club website