For more than 25 years, the BMW Individual Manufaktur customisation facility in Garching, near Munich, has been producing exceptionally high-quality equipment features, extraordinary specialedition models and spectacular one-offs.
ONE-OFF FROM OUTER SPACE!
All its products have displayed a highly distinctive design, and been further enriched by the world’s fi nest, most precious materials. Now things have been taken to a new level, with the BMW Individual M850i Night Sky G15, aspects of which are, literally, out of this world. This one-off model (which surely has Brian Cox’s name written all over it!), features selected control surfaces that have been enhanced with genuine meteoritic material, and illuminated constellations on the centre console. The designers have also taken inspiration from celestial bodies to assist with the design of the car’s trim finishers, seat backrests and exterior add-on parts.
The BMW Individual M850i Night Sky was presented during the run-up to the intense meteor shower that happened early in January, and features a centre console trim plate that’s covered in fragments of meteorite. Pieces of this rare material are also used on the start/stop button, the gear selector and the Touch Controller for the iDrive system. You also find meteorite material inlays incorporated in the door sill finishers.
The distinctive, geometric structure found within iron-rich meteorites has the appearance of ice crystals, but can’t be reproduced on Earth, making it an unmistakable signature of extra-terrestrial material. The unique pattern is reflected in the car’s hand-stitched headlining, and on the centre console’s trim finishers.
It’s also been milled into the brake discs, and used on the exterior mirror caps, the front splitters for the side air intakes, the centre mesh plate and the surrounds for the air breathers on the front side panels. These exterior components were all manufactured using a 3D printing process.
The same additive manufacturing technique was used to make the brake callipers, with 3D printing and ‘bionic design’ producing aluminium units that are 30% lighter than those made using conventional methods. This approach also allows the brake fluid channels to be incorporated into the actual structure of the brake calipers.
This striking model is finished in a special paint that combines two colour tones. Black non-metallic was used as the base colour, over which San Marino Blue metallic was applied in a graduated effect, from the bottom of the body up to the top of the wheel arches. The finish was completed with three coats of clear coat, with varying pigment particle sizes, to enhance the sense of depth.
No hint has been given about the likely price of this extraordinary creation, but it’s probably safe to assume that it’ll be out of this world!
