BMW Italia and Garage Italia Customs present the BMW i8 Futurism Edition
The initiative is part of the 50th anniversary celebration of BMW history in Italy.
San Donato Milanese, 16th May 2016 — The opening press conference for the presentation took place at the BMW Milano City Sales Outlet, with Sergio Solero, President and CEO of BMW Italia, and Lapo Elkann, President and Founder of Garage Italia Customs.
BMW Italia and Garage Italia Customs have created a special Edition model to celebrate the 50 years of BMW history in Italy. The Edition combines the icon of future mobility with the Italian art of Giacomo Balla. The car will run in the Mille Miglia 2016 following the BMW 328 driven by Sergio Solero, President and CEO of BMW Italy.
“Lampada ad Arco”, the work of Giacomo Balla, is replicated on the car. The original painting hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It represents a street lamp powered by electricity under moonlight. The revolutionary color technique and the advent of electricity in the 1900s are strictly linked to the future technology of the BMW i8.
BMW i stands for visionary vehicle concepts and technologies and connected mobility services, as well as a new understanding of premium that is strongly defined by sustainability. BMW i is represented in 50 countries with the BMW i3 (electric car for metropolitan areas) and the BMW i8 (plug-in-hybrid sports car). The BMW i8 is the world’s best-selling hybrid sports car and represents an icon of future mobility.
Gallery
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All photographs Copyright © 2016 BMW Group
“There was immediate synergy with BMW Italia” stated Lapo Elkann, President and Founder of Garage Italia Customs “the very first time we met for the i8 Futurism Edition project. Garage Italia Customs and the BMW brand both share, in fact, all the values connected to technology evolution and the continuous search for innovation in their specific sectors. The BMW i8 Futurism Edition is a practice of style. It gave the Garage Italia Customs Maestros a chance to celebrate a car which is projected towards the future of mobility. At the same time, it honours Italian art with Giacomo Balla, who is a prominent figure of the Futurism movement.”
“The BMW i8 Futurism Edition,” said Sergio Solero, President and CEO of BMW Italia, “represents the pairing of a sports car of the future with Italian creativity and art. For this occasion, we have devised a project with an important partner like Garage Italia Customs, one of the best specialists in car customization. This initiative is a perfect fit with the cultural program which, on the occasion of our celebration of the 50 years of BMW history in Italy, we have developed even further in order to witness to our commitment to and integration in the fabric of the country.”
Garage Italia Customs
The main aim of Garage Italia Customs is to place its clients and their creative requirements back “in the spotlight”, in a world that has been more and more standardised and where number prevails over subjectivity.
Just as a tailor-made outfit follows the lines of the body harmoniously, Garage Italia Customs aims at making any vehicle unique, be it a car, a motorbike, a plane, a helicopter or a yacht. It re-elaborates the clients’ very wishes with a tailor-made service that involves the study of detail, balance of the components and research of materials.
The team working at Garage Italia Customs is made up of the group that created the Tailor Made service for Ferrari and the best technicians specialised in the automotive sector, specifically in the field of wrapping, painting and upholstery of interiors. They are the “Maestros”, as Lapo Elkann himself defines them, and their unique skills are of absolute excellence in this work. The “Maestros” are backed up by the Style Centre, which is the pulsating heart of all the activities. It is a meeting place for the design team, where the ideas and dreams of clients intersect with the aesthetic taste of the experts of the Garage.
Here, the abstract concepts are elaborated into digital images by use of the most modern technologies. The clients are guided in the choice of the right chromatic combinations and the most refined materials; their taste and needs are respected. While waiting to move to Piazzale Accursio in Summer 2016, the Garage Italia Customs operative headquarters are located at 1 Alfredo Pizzoni street, Milan.