2025 BMW Concept Speedtop First Look: The Last Grand Tourer Standing
By Nik Miles – TestMiles.com
What happens when a brand best known for Ultimate Driving Machines decides to build the ultimate weekend escape pod for two? You get the BMW Concept Speedtop: a three-door, V8-powered shooting brake with more swagger than a Milan runway and more leather than a Saddleback catalog.
Debuting at the 2025 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este—where the wine flows like water and most attendees can pronounce “heritage” in at least four languages—the Speedtop isn’t just another concept car designed for Instagram clout. It’s a rolling contradiction: old-school luxury meets modern minimalism; handcrafted elegance strapped to 600+ horsepower of Bavarian thunder.
Let’s unpack it.
Why does this car matter right now?
Because BMW is quietly reminding the industry that not everything has to be electric, digital, or democratically priced. While the world frets over range anxiety and subscription-based seat warmers, the Speedtop arrives as a good old-fashioned indulgence—with an exhaust note to match.
It also shows BMW still understands desire. Not the algorithmic kind that optimizes clicks, but the irrational, heart-thumping kind that causes grown adults to ask if the luggage is made of actual Schedoni leather (it is). It’s a throwback in the best possible way—limited production, V8 under the bonnet, and just enough room for two people and one very expensive weekend bag.
What exactly is it?
Think of the Speedtop as the love child of a BMW Touring wagon and a Bentley Continental GT, conceived on the Italian Riviera and born in Bavaria. It’s a three-door “Touring Coupé” that blends the practicality of a shooting brake with the profile of something that should come with a cigar humidor in the glovebox.
From its V-shaped shark-nose grille (which, yes, lights up) to its sloping roofline finished in a gradient of Floating Sunstone Maroon to Floating Sundown Silver, this car doesn’t whisper luxury—it projects it through a megaphone shaped like a kidney grille.
Inside, it’s all tailored brogue leather, two-tone seats in “Moonstone White” and “Sundown Maroon,” and the kind of ambient lighting that would make a yacht jealous. The boot is wrapped in stitched leather, naturally, and split into compartments for weekend luggage and—presumably—a bottle of something prohibitively expensive.
How does it stack up against rivals?
It doesn’t. Because there aren’t any.
The Speedtop doesn’t compete with Audis, Mercs, or Porsches. It competes with the idea of rarity itself. Only 70 units will be built, making it more exclusive than most modern Ferraris. It’s not trying to dominate a segment—it’s trying to create one.
Could you compare it to something like the Aston Martin DB12 or even a Rolls-Royce Wraith? Technically, sure. But spiritually, the Speedtop exists on its own island, somewhere between the Alps and Lake Como, accessible only by invitation and a well-documented love of gran turismo.
Who is this really for—and who should skip it?
This isn’t your next daily driver. If you’re hunting for EV range, towing capacity, or a place for your golden retriever to sprawl out, move along.
The Speedtop is for collectors, design nerds, and people who still read the specs printed on the inside of bespoke luggage tags. It’s for those who think of driving not as commuting but as ceremony. The kind of buyer who has a dedicated watch winder and probably uses the phrase “my residence in Sardinia.”
Everyone else can wait for the next M3 Touring and pretend that’s the same thing.
What’s the long-term significance here?
The Speedtop signals something quietly radical: that BMW isn’t done with combustion, craftsmanship, or charisma.
In a world where most concept cars are made of recycled promises and digital renderings, the Speedtop is analog in all the right ways. It’s loud, rare, absurdly detailed, and gloriously impractical. And that’s precisely why it matters.
BMW knows it can make EVs that sell by the container-load. What it’s showing here is that it still knows how to make a car that seduces.
Final verdict?
The BMW Concept Speedtop is less about transportation and more about temptation. It won’t save the world. It won’t solve traffic. It probably won’t even fit in your garage.
But it will make you fall in love with driving again—which, frankly, is more than most cars can claim these days.
Like what you’ve read? Stay in the driver’s seat with more insider automotive insights. Follow @NikJMiles and @TestMiles for stories that go beyond the press release.
