BMW bringing a mystery M car and a one-off droptop to Villa d'Este

It's almost time to gather on the shores of Italy's Lake Como again for the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2023. The event, May 19-21 at the Grand Hotel Villa d'Este, is a staple on BMW's calendar, the Munich automaker have marshaled the event for more than 20 years. As usual, the Germans will bring several specials to park on the grounds, and as usual, we have nothing more than one-line hints about what they'll be. BMW M's showcase is going to count at least two new cars, one of them the new 3.0 CSL, an original 1973 BMW 3.0 CSL tagging along to keep the modern coupe honest. Guests are going to see another "very special M car" as well, and the BMW i7 comes dressed in M Performance trim with a new two-tone livery. We expect the battery-electric sedan to be the i7 M70 long promised to be the most powerful BMW 7 Series with more than 600 horsepower.

BMW's going to straddle several eras with the "premiere of an elegantly sporty, one-off homage to motoring for two." Based on where the industry's gone lately, this could be anything from a concept that will never leave Munich display rooms to an extravagantly precious customer commission.

The Europe-only Mini Cooper SE Convertible is making the trip to Italy 125 miles at a time, as is an electric scooter from BMW Motorrad. The motorcycle arm already had the C 400 GT electric scooter and debuted the CE 04 electric scooter in 2021, so it sounds like we'll either see a third model join the range or a new take on the CE 04.