Detroit – BMW held a pattern workshop for the 6 Series convertible on Tuesday morning. The process started with an explanation of why a soft top was selected over a metal folding tiptop. In talking to Adrian van Hooydonk in the customer lounge prior to the issue, he explained that the customers of the 6er have multiple cars, basically one for every occasion, that the demand for a hard roof was not necessary.

The fabric peak was made esthetically possible thank you to the 'fins', the buttress supports on either side of the roof, that allowed information technology to exist a 'fast' shape. The soft top so can follow the same shape every bit the coupe. The top is synthetic of multiple layers of fabric and is said to be quite quiet in operation. There is also a classical elegance to the meridian being synthetic of fabric.

The 6er has a purposeful resemblance to the 7 and 5 Series. Adrian van Hooydonk explained that the automobile has been lengthened and widen from the previous 6. This has allowed for a more optimal rear seat back angle and sightly more than commodious accommodations.

adrian van hooydonk 6 series 1 655x438 There are two lines that sweep from the front of the car back. 1 at the shoulder line and i that runs from the chrome jewelry in the fender dorsum through the door handles and onto the rear fenders (and is visually reminiscent of the line on the 7 Series).

BMW 6 SERIES belt line 655x438

As nosotros reported yesterday (and Adrian von Hooydonk reiterated in the workshop), the front fenders are injection molded plastic, the door skins are aluminium, and the rear fenders are steel. Three disparate materials that have dissimilar responses to the process of shaping them. Adrian von Hooydonk emphasized that the designers worked with those properties and designed and exploited the capabilities of the fabric to the do good the pattern.

The projected customer for the 6er is looking for sporty elegance and BMW considers the 6er to be the 'top of the range'. In explaining how elegance was projected in the design with the minimal amount of lines, Adrian von Hooydonk said, ". . . lines are graphics, sculpture uses fewer lines, everything else is light and shadow" And the surfaces of the 6er are definitely sculpted. The shadow of the line that runs through the door handles is manipulated from front to rear. It casts a deeper shadow along the doors and so tapers to a much smaller shadow over the rear fender. This imparts a feeling of speed to the motorcar.

Then at that place are a lot of smaller details that catch attention upon closer inspection. The headlamp clusters comprise a series of iii lines that run from top to bottom of the lens shrouds and onto the inner surface nearest the kidney grilles. Further LED illumination of both the tail lamps and 'affections eyes' is incorporated. The kidney grilles are lower and wider on the 6er and the vertical grille slats intermission backwards two thirds of the way up in the grille opening. It's some other item that provides a hint of motion.

Speaking of lighting, Adrian van Hooydonk pointed out that BMW prefers to use the LED every bit a source of illumination for a strip of material that can deport the low-cal wherever possible rather than as a point source. They are less garish when used in that manner.

In the interior LED illumination is connected in a small-scale strip near the top of the door trim. Using the LED every bit a source of light for a strip softens the impact and can exist considered 'mood' lighting. The interior lines are designed to menstruum from the dash through the door panels and into the side panels at the rear of the interior. The notion is to impart a sense of motility in the design. And the separation of the driver's space from the front passenger's infinite is accomplished with a difficult to build merely sensuous curving surface that tumbles from the peak of the dash and downward beyond the passenger's edge of the center stack. This is a nifty design detail. And Adrian van Hooydonk pointed out that the nav screen was designed to emulate the look of a flat screen Idiot box. But the beauty of this is that the top surface of the dash, behind the nav screen, can be positioned lower making the glazed area larger in front of the driver's eyes.

All in all the new 6er is a styling home run. Information technology represents what BMW tin can do with sculpting surfaces that bring visual life to the engineering depth of the vehicle itself. BMW's applied science prowess is well served and much more marketable when clothed in designs equally sporting and elegant every bit the new 6 Serial.