BMW i8 by Garage Italia
Seeing the scion of the Fiat empire
rolling in to BMW headquarters in Munich, you might think that the two
companies were in discussions over a merger. After all, FCA chief Sergio
Marchionne has been advocating another merger to anyone who'll listen. But on
the surface at least, that's not what Lapo Elkann was doing at BMW this week.
Instead he was delivering a car to the design department.
For those unfamiliar, Lapo is the
grandson of late Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli and brother of current FCA chair
John Elkann. He's served in various capacities within the family company,
ushering such special projects as the Fiat 500 Gucci edition and Ferrari Taylor
Made program into fruition. He's a noted fashion design as well, but he also has
his own car customization outfit called Garage Italia Customs.
Most of the Garage's projects to date
have, naturally, been based on Fiat Chrysler models, but it recently branched
out in designing an art car for BMW. Based on the i8 hybrid sports car, the
Futurism edition draws its inspiration from the work of Italian painter Giacomo
Balla.
The project was first revealed last
month, and now Lapo has delivered it to the German automaker – straight into
the hands of BMW design chief Adrian van Hooydonk.
