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E46 BMW M3 Gets Super-Tall Grille Inspired by Classic 1930 Design

The super-tall grille design of the all-new BMW M3/M4, recently revealed in leaked photos, displeases purists. But, predictably, car designers liked the creativity exhibited by their counterparts working for BMW, and they can see the connection with the iconic 328 models from the 1930s.
E46 BMW M3 Gets Super-Tall Grille Inspired by Classic 1930 Design 4 photos
Photo: YouTube screenshot/TheSketchMonkey
E46 BMW M3 Gets Super-Tall Grille Inspired by Classic 1930 DesignE46 BMW M3 Gets Super-Tall Grille Inspired by Classic 1930 DesignE46 BMW M3 Gets Super-Tall Grille Inspired by Classic 1930 Design
In his latest video, The Sketch Monkey tries to redesign the famous E48 BMW M3 based on a scenario he created in his head. Basically, the artist goes back to the Bangle era, remembers how controversial the 7 Series was at the time and yet still managed to sell incredibly well. So what if instead of pure Bangle design, this generation of cars was actually the one to take inspiration from the 328.

Its always fun to see an actual process video for one of these renderings, not just the end result. Using an affordable Chinese tablet screen that you too could buy, he blocks out some tall, black blotches of a blue E46 M3, gently sculpting them to the desired shape and color.

It's not a case of photoshopping the grille from the Concept 4 onto the old model because they are too different. The redesign is not to improve on the perfection that is the E46 but to see what it would look like in a different Spider-Verse.

The inspiration doesn't just come from the 328, but also the 327 Coupe or the 335 sedan from the early 1940s. Even in the 1960s, BMW put tall grilles on the 3200. It wasn't until the famous 2002 model that the grille became truly small and later started to widen. We can only imagine what customers felt at the time since there's was no internet for them to vent their frustration on.

People would/will have a negative reaction to the revised E46 as well. The artist explains that this shape from three generations ago is embedded in our mind and any drastic change registers as a deformity in our brains.

A bit of criticism though: Marouane, you could have just repeated the grille bars in a pattern and clipped them to the frame instead of warping them at the bottom. BMW grilles don't work like that.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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