BMW lost this concept car for 50 years then rebuilt it using just old photos and a designer’s memory

After vanishing from the face of the earth 50 years ago, this one-off BMW Garmisch concept car has been remade by the Classic team using nothing but memory and an old photo.

We often hear of cars being lost to time, only to be restored decades later.

But this one-off classic was never seen again after its first appearance in 1970.

So, as a restoration was out of the question, the German marque just decided to remake the Garmisch – except, they had no blueprints or plans aside from a few old photos.

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Weirdly, BMW wouldn’t be what it is today without this unsung hero, as it paved the way for the design of the 5 Series that spearheaded the brand throughout the ‘70s.

But very few had ever heard of this BMW concept car.

That’s because it was featured at the Geneva Motor Show convention and then never seen again. Not even BMW knows of its whereabouts.

But in 2019, designer Marcello Gandini and the Classic team recreated it as another one-off showpiece.

Loosely based on the earlier BMW 2002, which first arrived in the late ’60s, the Garmisch is everything that a vintage European car stands for.

But while not having much to go from, the design process took a full six months to complete, as they reverse-engineered the photos of the final product from 1970 and stripped it back to the 2002 chassis.

From then on, it was the memory of Gandini that did the magic.

With a rather Italian elongated front nose being backed by prime German quality, the Garmish also has a magnificent interior that the company couldn’t resist bringing into the modern day.

In a press release, the German marque said:

“Building the BMW Garmisch for a second time gave us the opportunity to pay tribute to Mr. Gandini, recall one of his lesser-known cars, and highlight Bertone’s stylistic influence on the evolution of BMW design.” 

Many manufacturers are now in the business of remastering their old classic cars, and for the German marque, the Garmisch is the driving force of the whole company that will go down as a true unsung hero.

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