BMW finally released its official 2-Series coupe images today, giving us a chance to see in slightly higher resolution the pictures we’d already shared with you earlier in the week.

But contained in BMW’s media pack were a handful of images we hadn’t seen, but which definitely stopped us in our tracks.

The most striking, and most colorful is labelled ‘character sketch’, and appears to be from very early in the design process. This is where designers are just laying down basic ideas for a car, exaggerating the most prominent characteristics and letting their imaginations run wild before the practical realities of making a car kick in and much of the craziness gets toned down or dumped altogether.

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You can see basic shape of the production 2-Series, the fat wheelarches, the basic outline of the rear panel and the M240i’s ducktail spoiler. But the rear lamps in the dead-on rear, and rear-three quarter sketches are far more interesting than the production car’s light units.

One features circular lamp units, a nod to the early 2002, the 2-Series’ 1960s ancestor, that are struck through with hockey-stick LED lights that cut into the rear panel. The second is a rounded triangle shape that looks very different but equally stylish.

But it’s the front-three quarter sketch that’s the most eye-catching. The triangular intakes at either side of the bumper closely mirror the design of the production car’s, but the headlamps, with their pronounced DLR brows look like half an E65 7-Series light chopped in half.

And then there’s the grille. The production car’s is surprisingly conservative by current BMW standards, but the sketch car’s is bigger and much bolder. There are no vertical vanes, and no chrome surround, but it’s clearly a BMW. Or maybe a Pontiac. And it’s interesting to note where the designer has placed the iconic BMW propeller badge: not above the grille where it’s lived for decades, but in the lower left side of the bumper.

A second set of drawings are marked ‘ideation sketches’ and appear to integrate some of those first ideas into a more angular coupe that looks closer to the real thing, but featuring a giant double kidney grille.

Maybe these ideas were too bold to make it to the showroom, but much as we like the muscularity of the actual 2-Series, it’s hard not to wish BMW had been a bit braver and implemented a few of these details given this is supposedly the one car in BMW’s range aimed at a younger audience.

But another idea strikes us. The proportions of the car in the full-color sketches look suspiciously Supra-like, and the Toyota, of course, shares its platform and running gear with the BMW Z4. Who else thinks they’d be perfect for a reborn BMW Z4 M coupe?

The BMW Z4 M Coupe (E85) was offered between 2006 and 2008 and sported a 338hp 3.2-liter naturally aspirated straight-six