This Futuristic BMW Prototype Was Shaped in a Wind Tunnel Back in the '80s

The '70s and '80s are commonly seen as BMW's golden years of design. Those decades brought us sweet-looking cars like the 3.0 CSL, 2002, E28 M5, E24 6 Series, and the E30 M3. But there was one design that unfortunately never made it out of the concept stage and was only used as a technical aerodynamic test bed: the BMW AVT.

In 1981, BMW opened a new aerodynamic wind tunnel facility and it needed a PR vehicle to go along with it. As a result, BMW developed the AVT, which stood for Aerodynamischer Versuchsträger (aerodynamic test vehicle in German), and it looks like the car that inspired the Volkswagen XL1 more than three decades later. It had neither an engine nor an interior, it was just a body made to test the wind tunnel. However, it was a super cool design that I wish BMW dared to turn into a production vehicle.