39/62 BMW Spy Car

Decided to spend the day on Stelvio again and came across these two chaps.

If you are wondering why they have these rather cool but odd graphics it's because these are late development vehicles, usually sent out to test various things, like airconditioners and such like. But they may have new restyled parts, and these patterns hide that.

Rarely is it to do with handling as that's been done long before they get to this state.

The pattern is merely to fool the eye/camera into seeing what the shape is - remember this is a product not yet released yet, so still very much under wraps. But there is only so much real world testing you can do on a track.

Personally, I don't believe these are development cars in the slightest. Quite simply you don't take them to Stelvio to test in full public glare. More likely these two are merely on the road to stir up some free pr "oo look what we saw on Stelvio".

And there are better times to test on Stelvio than at the height of summer.

The graphics are also quite superfluous these days as the points of interest (eg the restyled bits) are all hidden under plastic panels. The pattern is merely to make these late development vehicles very obvious

So, in closing, it would be nice to think that I saw something really special, I just figure I saw a crude attempt at pr. Spy cars are all over the Alps so this is not that unique.

However, none of this dissuaded the kid who spotted them a mile off, and was hiding round corners thinking he got the scoop of his life. Frankly, he should have just asked the drivers for a lift down Stelvio.