One of Munich’s architectural highlights, the BMW Museum stands right next to the world famous BMW Group Head Office Four-Cylinder Building. It was here that the Chairman of the Board of Management of the BMW Group, Dr. Norbert Reithofer, officially reopened the Museum last week.
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The much anticipated new BMW museum the BMW Welt has just opened in Munich and is one of the world’s most amazing archetectual spaces as our You Tube video will show you. The Welt is more than a museum it is also a distribution point where you can pick up your spanking new BMW. Designed by Coop Himmelb the facility took nearly four years to construct using some amazing construction techniques. The huge roof is home to over 3600 solar panels and many other substainable items are used in the structure. The facility includes the premium lounge for new car owners, a public gallery, conference suite and children’s center. The huge Double Cone will act as a media dome for exhibitions and events accommodating up to 450 people. BMW anticipates over 800,000 visitors per year.
We were visiting http://news.windingroad.com earlier and found this interesting spy shot. it is believed to be a test mule from BMW. From the picture it is easy to see the front is very mini like- the body looks all wrong to be a Mini, and we just had the new models released- could it be the return of the Moke? There has been rumors doing the rounds for some time now that BMW were working on a 4×4 crossover style Mini- the return of the Moke would be the perfect vehicle. Imagining what’s under this yellow camouflage its not hard it think there might be an open top buggy- time will probably tell. The original Moke was designed by the then Mini owner BMC from about 1964. They became extremely popular as a low cost and rather rugged little car. They were later built in Portugal and Australia where they were very popular. Australia even exported the Moke, the Israeli Army were one of their major customers where machines guns were mounted to the front of the car.
After the second world war there was a great need for small cheap transportation and there was a boom in what we now call microcars. The Isetta was one of the most successful being originally designed in Italy but being built in several European countries and even Brazil the vehicle was infact licensed to the car manufactures from Iso SpA. in Italy which was more familiar with making fridges and scooters. BMW made the car its own and did some innovative design changes and today it is the classic Isetta including making it more reliable. The thing that made the car so popular you only needed a motor bike license, because under the skin that’s really all the vehicle was. Transeum took this photograph of this lovely example of the Isetta at the amazing BMW museum in Munich, Germany.