The BMW Group recently told twelve of its vocational
trainees to come up with something special for this year’s BMW Motorrad Days.
What they came up with is something that is both intriguing and rather
exciting, so say hello to the BMW X7 Pick-up! The one-off vehicle is exactly
what you expect it to be, where a standard X7 gets chopped up so the third-row
seats no longer exist, and in its place is a flatbed that will accommodate an F
850 GS motorcycle.
With the transformation, the pick-up’s body is 100
mm longer than the standard SUV, but the use of carbon-fibre reinforced polymer
(CFRP) for the roof, rear doors, rear lid, as well as removing certain
structures do help to cut 200 kg. Teakwood is used for the loading
area, which varies from 140 cm with the lifegate closed, and up to 200 cm when
open. Supplementary items like the handgrips and trim strips are made from SLS
3D pressure parts, while the entire vehicle is finished in BMW Individual
colour Tanzanite Blue metallic.
According to the company, the entire process from
conceptualisation to the show car you see here took just ten months, and it
involved trainees from the occupational sectors body and vehicle mechanics, vehicle
mechatronics and technical model construction. The entire project was completed
without any expert assistance normally provided in concept car construction, so
the show car quality that resulted from the team’s efforts is rather
remarkable. Oh, it’s apparently legal for use on the road too, and the trainees
hope to take the X7 Pick-up for a spin or even on a trip to the mountains.
The pick-up concept uses the running gear form an X7
xDrive40i, and is powered by a 3.0 litre turbocharged in-line six cylinder
engine with 340 PS and 420 Nm of torque. Other driving-related
features include an eight-speed Steptronic automatic transmission, xDrive
all-wheel drivey system and adjustable two-level air suspension.
