The shape of speed
BMW HEAD OF DESIGN DOMAGOJ DUKEC TALKS ‘JAMES BOND’ M5s, SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE JOY OF M
THE SHARK-NOSED E24 WAS MY FIRST ‘WOW!’ MOMENT
“I don’t remember the first M car I saw but I remember the first BMW: it was an E24 635 CSi, on the way to school. I was maybe eight years old or so, and this shark nose looked fantastic. I was always comparing the cars I liked to draw, like the Mercedes W115, the Paul Bracq car, and they were so nice but somehow heavy. Then suddenly this shark nose [Bracq also penned the E24] was so impressive. It was my first ‘wow!’ moment as a child, because the car had such a strong character. With M I think the first to make an impression was the E30 M3, sketching one for a friend.”
EVERY BMW IS THE ULTIMATE DRIVING MACHINE – THEN M IS THE ULTIMATE VERSION OF THAT MACHINE
“So, when we do a new 3 Series, the best 3 Series is the M3. It’s different. We very rarely do M-only cars, because mostly M is so closely linked to BMW – its cars are just the best BMWs you can have, and that started with the E28 M5. That was the most sporty sedan you could buy. It had 282bhp, so the same as the CSi, but nothing else to show off its performance, just the exhaust pipes. So it was quite subtle, even though it had the race engine [the M88 unit] of the M1. It was so minimalist, just really the badge, and that was the beginning of what M stands for.
“With the M5 now, some people who are not customers complain that the M5 doesn’t differentiate itself enough in terms of design. But actually our customers appreciate this. The character you’re looking for in a new M5 is contradictory. You think of James Bond, in a suit first and then all beaten up after a fight. This is the M5; the glamorous bastard.”
THE ONLY REASON TO DO ANOTHER MID-ENGINED CAR WOULD BE FOR OUR IMAGE – AND WE DON’T NEED IT
“Mercedes, for example, was seen as this very comfortable company; not sporty. They wanted to change, so they started doing everything very, very sporty. Then you need also a pinnacle, so Formula 1 and a hypercar [the long-awaited AMG One]. But BMW has never had this issue; of not being seen to be sporty. Quite the opposite in fact. Our brand monitors were saying we were seen as too aggressive, too sporty, and not luxurious or practical enough. So we offered more leisure and lifestyle products, and suddenly we’re doing cars like the Active Tourer. BMW has never had the issue of not being seen as sporty, and this would be the reason to do another M1. So, as things stand the board will always say, ‘We don’t need it.’”
WE DIDN’T SIT HERE AND THINK, ‘LET’S BE PROVOCATIVE’
“The XM’s grilles will be slightly smaller for production. But actually all the negative comments prove that we achieved what we wanted to achieve. Obviously it would be nice to always be getting compliments, you know; ‘Oh, you’re so pretty; you’re so nice; you’re so intelligent.’ But whether the comments bother me or not depends on the car. In this case [the XM] they don’t. But if people were calling a 5 Series ugly that would be bad, because a 5 Series should never be ugly.
“With the kidney grilles on the M3/M4 it bothers me only if they are an M customer. If they are not an M customer now it doesn’t bother me what they think. We know the customers for this car want to stand out. We are not doing this just for our own sake. We didn’t sit here and think, ‘Yeah, let’s do something provocative.’ It’s because we listen. And of course our sales figures are improving. So, you can read many bad articles or comments on social media, ‘Oh, you’re going to ruin this!’ But from the sales figures you can see we’re not ruining anything.”
THE SPECIAL M ROUNDEL FOR THIS YEAR IS COOL, NO?
“It’s a nice idea that came from us here in design. We thought, ‘Why not offer this?’ It’s quite an effort to do this, given it can be ordered on any [M or M Sport] car from the factory. It will be collectible I’m sure, or maybe it’ll go the other way and a car will be more collectible if it doesn’t have the roundel – ‘Oh, it’s a 2022 car without the M roundel, it’s so rare!’”
M CARS ARE ALWAYS NICE FOR A DESIGNER
“Designing an M car is like designing a concept car – you exaggerate. This is very exciting to work on. It’s always fun to design cars for a customer base which is more opinionated. Take the XM. You look at it and you see that it’s polarising but the reality is this car was so lean in its process. We just did this car and it went straight through [approval], first time. No changes. Incredible. We made this car, we showed it to the board, and they just said, ‘Yeah, exactly.’ This is incredible because nobody at BMW – especially not on our board – is a customer of this car. But they said, ‘It’s not our taste, but it’s exactly what we need to hit the mark.’
“This is the joy of designing M cars; no clinics. Take the M5. You finalise a new 5 Series and you think, ‘Okay, that’s really nice.’ Doing a car like that is exhausting, with so many people and committees involved. But then it’s done, everybody’s happy and you get to do the M5; bigger wheels, maybe a wider track, exaggerated features. And you think, ‘Oh yeah, this is cool.’”