BMW Mille Miglia Concept, Matte White

The Mille Miglia Concept grew out of BMW's relationship with its own past. In 1994 the company formed BMW Group Mobile Tradition to look after its historic collection and archive (it became BMW Group Classic in 2008), and each May it sends cars from that collection to the Mille Miglia, the thousand-mile event now run for the kinds of car that raced between 1927 and 1957. In 2002 it brought home the 328 Mille Miglia Touring Coupé that had won the 1940 race. For the 2006 event, when 22 of the 375 cars accepted to start wore the BMW roundel, the company presented this concept in Brescia as a tribute to that car and its engineers.

This piece is finished in matte white, a soft, chalky satin that removes reflections altogether and lets the shape read as pure form. Against it, the cabin is trimmed in red, with seats, steering wheel, door panels and gear lever set off by a silver dashboard and console, and the red returns outside in the gill inserts and the lamp strip across the tail. The black kidney grille, frosted round headlamps and red tow eye give the nose its definition. The model is built at 1:18 and mounted on a grey stitched base; the black plaque bears the BMW roundel and reads 'Limited', one of 7.