BMW 2800 Spicup

BMW 2800 Spicup: The Bertone design is a reworking of the glorious 507 Spider produced by the German carmaker. It is based on the chassis of the 2500 saloon, shortened from 269 cm to 234 cm, with a 2800 cc. engine, which was already being mounted on the coupé presented by BMW in the same period.  The considerable dimensions of the mechanical components were handled by creating almost excessively fluid vertical lines. At the same time, the relatively important tail and wings become the car’s focal point. The rollbars had to satisfy a combination safety needs and design criteria, and Bertone solved the problem with an automatic mechanism which also contained the elements for the transformation from spider to coupé and back again. The BMW 2800 Spicup was presented at the 1969 Geneva Motor Show. After premiering on Carrozzeria Bertone’s stand, the Spicup was exhibited at the Concorso d’Eleganza in Alassio in June and finally at that year’s Frankfurt Motor Show. Its subsequent whereabouts are not totally clear, though it appears that the car was sold to a private owner shortly afterwards. Several sources have reported the Spicup being present in the mid-1970s at the German mega-dealer Auto Becker in Düsseldorf, which had a special showroom devoted to exotic cars at that time. A few years later, the Spicup was purchased by a Dutch motor dealer who decided to keep the car and obtained regular road registration. The exterior colour was changed from green to orange and the elaborate multi-hued green and silver interior was sprayed over – in black. In this configuration the car was used as a daily driver for the next 10 years, covering some 100,000 kilometres, which makes it probably the most-used one-off show car in the world! The Spicup was sold by Auction House Bonhams in 2011.