We’ve been saying all along that BMW is serious about putting the Skytop into production. Earlier this month, BMW Group design boss Adrian van Hooydonk strongly suggested it’ll happen in an Instagram post. Now, we’ve learned through our own sources that prospective customers are receiving emails. The German luxury brand is asking whether they’re interested in buying the car.
From what we’ve been told, BMW intends to limit production to 50 cars at approximately €500,000 a pop, including value-added tax (VAT). That would make it the second-most expensive new car to ever carry the famous roundel. Although never officially disclosed, the 3.0 CSL was supposedly offered for an eye-watering €750,000. The ultra-exclusive coupe was also limited to 50 cars to celebrate half a century of M.
Half a million euros for the Skytop would represent a massive premium over the donor car. In Germany, the M8 Convertible kicks off at €191,500. Then again, the gorgeous vehicle we first saw at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este aspires to be more than just a reskinned F91. The coachbuilt car with a manually removable targa top also attended the Goodwood Festival of Speed earlier this month.
If it remains unchanged from the one-off showcar, the limited-run Skytop production version will be strictly a two-seater affair. We’re hoping that BMW puts more work into tweaking the cabin so that it’s not so obvious it’s directly taken from the M8 Convertible. For a car that is supposed to be timeless, we’d honestly get rid of the iDrive screen altogether. That center display will look dated in just a couple of decades from now.
We’re not expecting any modifications underneath the hood where the Skytop had BMW’s most potent V8 engine ever. An exact horsepower figure was never disclosed but we’ll remind you the beefiest eight-cylinder unit was the twin-turbo 4.4-liter “N63” in the M5 CS. The limited-run super sedan special edition had 626 hp on tap.
If BMW is indeed selling the Skytop to customers, an official announcement should be made soon. The targa beauty could be the last hurrah for the 8 Series lineage since reports state the whole family will be dropped in a couple of years.