Belle Macchine. Italian Automotive Design at BMW

Marcello Gandini drew the BMW Garmisch as a wedge of clear, straight lines, and it fed into the first 3 Series and 5 Series of the 1970s. It is one of 23 historic cars here that Italian studios such as Bertone, Pininfarina, Frua and Italdesign shaped for BMW.

You start with Italian fashion and product design, then climb the spiral ramps of the museum's round "Bowl" past production cars, one-offs and archive sketches, while a 360-degree projection of Giorgio de Chirico's paintings wraps the walls. Related cars sit close together: the Italdesign-built M1 is a short walk down the ramp from the Nazca M12, a show-car idea for a modern M1.

Steve Saxty, who wrote a trilogy on BMW's design history, called it the most compelling show he'd seen in the Bowl, with "just enough" text. His one instruction: don't race past the opening panels on the seven studios, because they explain who did what. Entry is included in the BMW Museum ticket, until the end of 2026.