For the third straight year, a BMW was awarded the EuroCar Body Award, the world's leading award for innovation in body construction. The BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo was chosen by an international jury of automobile construction experts for the car's efficient development and production concept, and also for the customer benefits made possible by the body's construction. The 2015 EuroCar Body Award understandably went to the highly innovative BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports car, and the 2016 award was made to the BMW 7 Series with its Carbon Core body. Now the BMW 6 Series GT snags the 2017 award.
The BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo was introduced this year as the direct descendant of the BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo, which had received criticism about the looks of the back half of the car. The EuroCar Body award is not about looks or design, however. Car bodies in this competition are evaluated on efficient development and construction concepts, effective material developments and applications, production efficiency, customer benefit conveyed by the bodywork, and completeness and engineering orientation of the presentation.
The 6 Series GT body utilizes lightweight construction with an abundance of aluminum and high-tensile steel. The overall weight decrease of the car over its immediate predecessor was 330 pounds, of which almost 100 pounds came from the body alone.
The back of the 6 Series GT is not universally admired by BMW enthusiasts, but the EuroCar jury was impressed with the body beneath the design. From the jury's rationale for the award, "Based on a large, single-section pressure die-cast aluminum tailgate frame and an innovative rear design which does without a water drainage channel, it was possible to achieve a very large, convenient rear opening with a maximum view through the rear window—combined with a luggage compartment volume increased by 110 liters as compared to the predecessor model" The jury also like the vehicle's weight reduction over the last GT, especially in spite of the body being bigger and subject to more stringent crashworthiness standards.
The 6 Series GT is actually a pretty good grand touring machine. The front seats are raised for excellent visibility. Three full rear seats and good legroom make for a nice passenger experience on trips. The rear tailgate opens and closes electrically, revealing a cargo space of 610 liters; 1,800 liters if the rear seats are folded
More than 500 body experts convened in Bad Nauheim in Germany for three days at the 19th EuroCar Body conference to discuss the technical benchmarking of car bodies and body production—and to pick the 2017 award winners. This year, for the first time, vehicles were entered in one of two categories: volume-production models, and premium vehicles.
The BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo prevailed in the premium segment but most likely would have won under the previous system since it received the highest point score overall among all cars entered in both classes.
In all honesty, the BMW 6 Series Gran Turismo looks better than the original 5 Series GT. But regardless, under those looks is a car body that won the respect of some of the world's most knowledgeable experts in the field.—Scott Blazey
[Photos courtesy of BMW AG.]
