Coming up at auction this week at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este at Lake Como, Italy, will be a one-of-a-kind BMW. Well, technically it's a BMW, because it has the BMW roundel logo and kidney grilles, but without them, it could easily be taken for an Italian car.
The 1967 BMW-Glas 3000 V8 Fastback, being auctioned by RM Auctions, is unique: It is the only BMW-Glas 3000 V8 built with a custom body designed by Pietro Frua. Frua was a prominent Italian designer in the 1940’s, 50s, and 60’s. He is probably best known for the work he did with Maserati.
Frua worked with Glas in the 1960s and penned the GT Coupe and Cabriolet, which were both sold as BMW’s. The fastback version—the auction car this week—was a one-off created by Frua himself, according to RM Auctions.
Glas was acquired by BMW in 1966 and continued to produce its Glas GT, albeit with a three-liter engine instead of the original 2600 cc motor. The BMW roundel logo was applied to the hood and the car was sold as a BMW-Glas. Interestingly, BMW did not put kidney grilles on the car.
But BMW did allow the kidney grilles to adorn Frua’s BMW-Glas 3000 V8 Fastback, making it the only Glas to have them.
The car was shown at a number of auto shows, with different paint jobs, but was never put into production. It was restored inside and out and will cross the auction block with 64,950 original miles. RM Auction's estimate of the selling price is between $428,000 and $540,000, which might be a bargain for this one-of-a-kind BMW with such a unique German-Italian pedigree.—Scott Blazey
[Photos courtesy of RM Auctions.]
