BrandsBMW Speedtop — The Most Beautiful BMW in Years Has a 617HP V8 and Only 70 Will Be Built
AI-generated concept illustration of the BMW Speedtop — not an official BMW image. | Rev N Rise
BMW has been building some extraordinary cars recently — the iX3, the M3 CS Handschalter, the i4. But nothing it has shown in years looks quite like the Speedtop. A three-door shooting brake based on the M5 Touring, with a 617hp twin-turbo V8, a shark nose inspired by the Z8, a flowing silhouette that references the legendary 328 Touring Coupé — and production limited to just 70 units. It is the most compelling BMW in a generation. And it starts production at Dingolfing before the end of 2026.
The BMW Concept Speedtop is a production-confirmed ultra-limited special edition built on the platform of the BMW M5 Touring — the brand's most powerful estate car. But where the M5 Touring is a practical, family-sized performance wagon, the Speedtop is something else entirely: a three-door shooting brake with a dramatically sculpted roofline, coachbuilt proportions and the kind of design ambition that BMW's regular production cars rarely achieve.
The shooting brake body style — a two-door or three-door car with a raised rear roofline and hatchback loading — has a long and distinguished history in European coachbuilding. Ferrari, Volvo, Aston Martin and Jaguar have all produced celebrated shooting brakes. BMW's last serious attempt at the format was the 2013 Pininfarina-designed Gran Lusso Coupé concept. The Speedtop is the production realisation of that ambition — and it is being built not by an outside coachbuilder but entirely in-house at BMW Group Plant Dingolfing, beginning before the end of 2026.
The Speedtop's design draws deliberately and explicitly from BMW's own heritage. The shark nose — low, long and pointed — references the BMW Z8, the roadster designed by Henrik Fisker in the late 1990s that remains one of the most celebrated BMW designs of the modern era. The flowing silhouette references the 1939 BMW 328 Touring Coupé — the aerodynamic masterpiece that won the 1940 Mille Miglia and has influenced BMW's design language for 85 years.
Running from the bonnet over the roof and down to the rear spoiler is a central spline — a raised ridge that divides the car's upper surface into two flowing halves. This detail references the BMW 503 of 1956, where a similar central element defined the car's profile. Two framed air outlets on the long hood flank the spline and provide visual tension between the front axle and the windshield. The result is a silhouette that feels simultaneously historical and completely current — recognisably BMW, unlike anything BMW currently sells.
The exterior paint is a two-tone combination of Floating Sunstone Maroon on the body and Floating Sundown Silver on the rooftop — a pairing that highlights the Speedtop's dramatic roofline profile. The wheels are bespoke 14-spoke fan design in a two-tone finish, exclusive to this model. The wide stance — inherited from the M5 Touring platform — gives the Speedtop a planted, purposeful presence that is rare in a car of these proportions.
The Speedtop uses the same 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 that powers the BMW M5 Competition — BMW's most powerful V8 engine, producing 617 horsepower and 553 lb-ft of torque. It is paired with an eight-speed M Sport automatic transmission and BMW's xDrive all-wheel drive system. The combination launches the M5 Touring from 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds — and the Speedtop, sharing the same drivetrain in a similarly heavy platform, should deliver a near-identical performance figure.
In an era when BMW is launching electrified everything — iX3, i4, AMG GT EV rivals — the Speedtop's decision to use a naturally powered V8 without any hybrid assistance is a deliberate and welcome act of defiance. This is a car for people who want the engine to be the point — who want the V8 noise, the V8 feel and the V8 soul that no amount of electric power can fully replicate. In that sense the Speedtop is BMW doing exactly what the BMW M3 CS Handschalter did: acknowledging that some things are worth preserving precisely because they are becoming rare.
Inside, the Speedtop deliberately avoids the screen-heavy maximalism of BMW's current iDrive 8 generation. BMW's choice to use the older iDrive 7 interface from the 8 Series rather than the curved display of the latest M5 is significant. It says that the Speedtop's interior is intended to feel like a driver's cockpit — analogue, tactile, instrument-led — rather than a rolling technology demonstration.
The cabin is trimmed in premium materials throughout — a combination of leather, Alcantara and metal that befits a car of this exclusivity and price. The shooting brake body style gives the Speedtop a generous rear loading area — more practical than a traditional coupe, less bulky than a full estate — making it a genuinely usable grand tourer rather than simply a collector's static display piece.
| Full Name | BMW Concept Speedtop |
| Body Style | 3-door Shooting Brake |
| Based On | BMW M5 Touring platform |
| Engine | 4.4L twin-turbo V8 — BMW M TwinPower |
| Output | 617 hp / 553 lb-ft torque |
| Transmission | 8-speed M Sport automatic |
| Drive | xDrive — all-wheel drive |
| 0-60 mph (est.) | ~3 seconds |
| Design Inspiration | BMW Z8 (nose) + BMW 328 Touring Coupé (silhouette) + BMW 503 (central spline) |
| Exterior Paint | Floating Sunstone Maroon + Floating Sundown Silver roof |
| Wheels | Bespoke 14-spoke fan design — two-tone exclusive |
| Central Spline | Runs bonnet to rear spoiler — BMW 503 reference |
| Hood | Long — two framed air outlets flanking central spline |
| Infotainment | iDrive 7 — deliberate choice over curved display |
| Interior | Leather + Alcantara + metal — driver-focused |
| Units | 70 only — ultra-limited |
| Production Location | BMW Group Plant Dingolfing, Germany |
| Production Start | Before end of 2026 |
| Price | Undisclosed — ultra-premium |
BMW's decision to limit the Speedtop to 70 units is both a practical and a philosophical choice. Practically, the shooting brake body requires significant additional engineering and manufacturing work compared to the standard M5 Touring — unique roof pressing, bespoke door structures, custom interior panels and exclusive exterior components that cannot be shared with any other model in the BMW range. Building 70 of them is already a substantial commitment for a coachbuilding operation within a volume manufacturer.
Philosophically, 70 units places the Speedtop firmly in the realm of the genuinely collectable. There are approximately 70 Porsche 918 Spyders for every Speedtop that will ever exist. When production ends — and it will end quickly — the Speedtop joins a very short list of BMW production cars that were built in numbers small enough to guarantee that most people will never see one in person. That exclusivity is not incidental. It is designed in.
The three design references that BMW has cited for the Speedtop deserve individual attention. The BMW Z8 of 1999 — designed by Henrik Fisker and recently revived as a concept — is one of the most celebrated BMW designs of any era. Its long hood, short overhangs and deeply sculptured flanks defined what a BMW sports car could look like when design was allowed to lead engineering rather than follow it. Using the Z8's nose as the starting point for the Speedtop immediately communicates something about the car's ambition.
The 1939 BMW 328 Touring Coupé is the car that won the 1940 Mille Miglia — driven at an average speed of 166.7km/h over 1,600km of Italian mountain roads — and influenced BMW's understanding of aerodynamic efficiency for decades. Its flowing single-piece body, built by Touring of Milan, is one of the most beautiful automotive forms ever created. Connecting the Speedtop to this lineage is not marketing hyperbole. It is an explicit statement of design intent.
The BMW 503 of 1956 — designed by Albrecht von Goertz — was one of BMW's first genuine grand touring cars of the postwar era. Its central spline, now carried through to the Speedtop, was a defining visual element that gave the 503 a sense of purposeful tension from bonnet to tail. That same tension is present in the Speedtop — and it works.
The BMW Speedtop is the most compelling BMW unveiled in years. A three-door shooting brake based on the M5 Touring, with a 617hp V8, a design that references the Z8, the 328 Touring Coupé and the 503, and production limited to 70 units beginning at Dingolfing before the end of 2026. It is not the fastest BMW. It is not the most technologically advanced BMW. It is simply the most beautiful BMW in a very long time — and one of only 70 people in the world will ever own one. That combination of beauty and rarity is something that no specification sheet can fully explain. But it is exactly what makes the Speedtop extraordinary.