BMW’s first-ever collaboration with renowned Italian design house Pininfarina resulted in the Gran Lusso Coupe, a luxury grand tourer that was displayed at this year’s Villa d’Este Concorso d’Eleganza.

As we find out from Pininfarina’s design director Fabio Filippini, the concept’s styling was entirely the Italians’ job, with the Bavarian carmaker only checking from time to time that the project would fit its design DNA.

The following video tells the interesting story of how the BMW Pininfarina Gran Lusso Coupe was born and how two major automotive companies with strong design identities compromised on a common project.

Scroll down to hear Fabio Filippini and BMW’s design boss Karim Habib talk about the genesis of the Gran Lusso Coupe in the video that follows.

By Dan Mihalascu

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