You already knew the BMW E32 'Project Goldfish' with wild indentations in the body and V16 under the hood. But BMW secretly has another special Siebener built with V16, which is only now seeing the light of day.
Last week we presented you with an article about the potential death of the top limo sedan. A development that we would very much regret. Partly because it would mean the end of the BMW 7-Series. Now it would of course not be a big deal if the brand new 7-Series disappeared from the face of the earth. But the past has shown several times what a Siebener can also be and perhaps one day can be again. A sleek, almost Italian-looking, stretched sedan. The BMW E32, for example, and the subsequent E38. Beautiful.
It is not surprising that the E32 exudes a bit of an Italian atmosphere. The car was designed by Ercole Spada. And it was a blepper that, with its double piercing headlights, beautiful proportions (especially as a short version) and L-shaped taillights, certainly had its place next to the legendary S-Class. That S was still a bit better. But at that time it was really a battleship with a hoop. You could actually drive the BMW with some fun.
BMW also had a real trump card. It came up with the first German post-war twelve-cylinder car. Secretly, an E32 with an I6 or V8 is probably better. But the V12 had prestige and Mercedes was (briefly) trumped. A V12 was also developed in Stuttgart. The engine that eventually ended up in the Pagani Zonda. Thanks to BMW, sort of.
But BMW had even wilder plans. Under the motto 'more is better', a V16 was also developed, better known as 'Project Goldfish'. Connoisseurs immediately recognize the E32 equipped with this engine by the wild indentations in the body that were necessary to accommodate and cool all the hardware.
Ultimately, probably partly due to this 'lack of space', a production model did not materialize. But now it appears that BMW has made a second attempt. From the depths of Munich, the curtain has now been pulled off a prototype from 1990. So, the V16.
What is special is that the car clearly resembles the BMW E38 7-Series that only came onto the market in 1994. However, the successor to the E32 was still in early development four years earlier. It is a nice insight into how things worked at the time and how model cycles worked. The car seems to be the missing link between the E32 and E38. At the front, the dual headlights are not yet behind glass, but in a separate housing. At the rear you practically have the taillights of the E38, but with a bar next to them to maintain the L-shape.
In this case, the engine sits without any wild indentations under the extremely long hood. The front overhang is neatly short. The mirrors and door handles still scream '80s BMW, but the rest of the car hangs out in the '90s. Apart from the steering wheel, the interior is not immediately recognizable and almost looks Jaguaresque. But the real thing Sahnestückis of course under the hood.
Compared to the first goldfish, the engine is somewhat less impressive. Remarkably, the engine capacity is slightly smaller, at 6,646 cc. The first was rounded to a 6.7 and was therefore also called the 767i. The power is also 348 hp, less than the 408 hp of the first version. Perhaps because they did not want to use wild cooling, as in the earlier model. Finally, the second is linked to a five-speed automatic transmission, instead of a six-speed manual (!).
Perhaps due to its modest output and gigantic size, the V16 did not reach its full potential. The real advantages over a V12 would probably have been minimal. It was actually just cool to have a 'V16', for the prestige of the brand.
Nice detail: the car is still in Essen at the Techno Classica this weekend. BMW has taken it out of mothballs to show it to the public. Understandable. The people behind organizing BMW's PR would of course rather be at a trade fair with this colossus than with a new Siebener. Plus it saves some statues having to be cleaned up, because if you get the new one straight into the grille, you will turn to stone. Whose deed.
This article Bizarre: there is another BMW 7-Series with V16 from the factory first appeared on Autoblog.nl.
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