BMW has a bunch of wild stuff in store for Monterey Car Week 2019
Most of it isn't new to the world, just the US, but there are still some amazing cars in the lineup.
We're about a month away from the annual Monterey Car Week festivities, where automakers, collectors and regular ol' car geeks from around the world get together on California's central coast to peep some of the most interesting metal to grace the planet. BMW's not wasting any time this year, having already laid out its plans for the weeklong car party, and the automaker is going all out.
BMW on Thursday unveiled its plans for Monterey Car Week 2019. It will bring a variety of concepts and production cars, including vehicles from its sibling Mini brand. Most of the vehicles are just North American premieres, so if you went to Lake Como or something like that already this year, it might not be new to you, but for most of us, it will be our first chance to poke around these cars in real life.
Two concept vehicles will make their way to the Pebble Beach Concours Reviewing Stand. The first is the BMW Garmisch concept, which debuted at the Villa d'Este in Italy. Even though it doesn't look like it, this is a brand-new recreation of a one-off concept from design house Bertone. It was painstakingly built using a few photos and documents BMW had lying around, because the original car itself was lost to the inexorable march of time. The automaker will also show off its Vision M Next concept, a much more futuristic concept that envisions a sports car for drivers that would live alongside advanced autonomous vehicles.
BMW also said it would bring a production version of a concept previously on display. That's possibly referring to the M8 variant of the 8 Series Gran Coupe. We've already seen the M8 Coupe and 8 Series Gran Coupe in production guise, but the two have not yet been combined. Expect a whole lot of power, a whole lot of tech and a whole lot of pretty. Alternatively, BMW might just bring the M8 Coupe and the 8 Series Gran Coupe without merging the two, we're not quite sure.
That leaves us with Mini. The British automaker will bring two new vehicles to Monterey. The first is the Mini Cooper SE, its first all-electric offering that combines the Hardtop's classic shape with a battery-electric powertrain that's good for about 150 miles of range. The second is a preview of the upcoming Mini John Cooper Works GP, a 300-plus-horsepower hot hatch that's just about the exact opposite of the SE. A little variety never hurts.
But that's not all! BMW will also have a heavy presence at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. The automaker will bring four iconic racers to Laguna Seca: The 1975 Group 4 3.0 CSL, the 1999 V12 LMR, the 2001 E46 M3 GTR and the 2011 E92 M3 GT. They'll compete in the 2019 Masters Endurance Legends class, comprising two 40-minute races. That's a whole lot of action.
