The elusive Nazca M12 is lastly tangible, offered you’re keen to pay the BMW Museum a go to. This carbon fiber-bodied stunner is a part of the Belle Macchine exhibition celebrating Italian design and its ties to BMW. Designed by the son of Giorgetto Giugiaro, the massively gifted man behind the M1’s styling within the Nineteen Seventies, the low-slung spaceship on wheels stays a panoramic sight, even 34 years after its debut.
Fabrizio Giugiaro was solely 26 years previous when he penned the Nazca M12his first automotive design. He drew inspiration from Formulation 1 and Group C race automobiles, and though the car could have appeared to have gullwing doorways, that wasn’t the case. The doorways opened conventionally, as solely the home windows rose individually and have been removable for open-air driving.
Formally, the Nazca M12 by no means reached manufacturing. That’s regardless of the existence of two follow-up automobiles: the C2 and C2 Spider. Nonetheless, legend has it that no less than one automotive was bought to the Sultan of Brunei. In actual fact, photographs have surfaced on social media exhibiting a black, right-hand-drive instance. I bear in mind reaching out to BMW Basic when the pictures surfaced, however to no avail. The corporate sadly had no details about the mysterious car.
Tucked beneath the curved glass is BMW’s M70, sourced from the 7 Collection (E32 750i) and eight Collection (E31 850i). ALPINA used it as properly for the B12 5.0 based mostly on the E32. Within the Nazca M12, the longitudinally mounted, naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V12 produced 300 horsepower, despatched to the rear axle via a six-speed handbook transmission. Whereas that won’t sound spectacular at this time, it’s price noting that the supercar weighed simply 1,100 kilograms (2,425 kilos) or about as a lot as an E30 m3.
The automotive stands just one.1 meters (43.3 inches) tall however spans practically 2 meters (78.7 inches) vast, giving it a commanding stance. Regardless of what the pictures would possibly recommend, it’s comparatively quick. At simply 4.37 meters (172 inches), it’s roughly so long as an E30. The glossy physique achieved a drag coefficient of simply 0.26, a exceptional feat in 1991 and nonetheless spectacular many years later.
Even BMW admits it was a “disgrace” the Nazca M12 by no means made it to manufacturing. And in 2025, we’re nonetheless ready for a non secular successor to the M1…
Pictures: BMW / Instagram
