October 16: Kinky?

Hofmeister kink?

What is that? A thought to be extinct, small amphibian, found on an even smaller, never before visited, island off the coast of Africa by a naturalist, who by chance was shipwrecked nearby? Good guess, but no, not correct. Does this picture ring a bell.......

Now, you get it. This is the now famous, or at least very well known, and ubiquitous Hofmeister kink, used on BMW's since way back when. Attributed to their design chief Wilhelm Hofmeister (1955-1970), it has been a BMW design feature forever. A little sampling, please.......

See? It goes way back. This is a good look and it has been adopted (copied?) by almost everyone over the years........Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, etc, etc. But, and this is a big BUT, BMW's designers didn't originate this feature, they just embraced it and made it their own, so everyone else appears to have copied BMW's roof design. So who was first?

Surprised?

Now the 2020 models are appearing and one would expect BMW's latest to carry on with this tradition. Well, maybe, maybe not. Checkout the soon to be released (and beautiful) M8 Gran Coupe (ok, it's a sedan, but I digress).........

Not quite the famous kink. See anything else about this car that looks familiar? Not sure? Ok, take a look at this other recent model.......

Almost the same roof line, the vent on the front fender and the lower body line. Looks like the tables have turned. Companies that once might have copied BMW are now being copied by BMW. Or, at least in this one case. The white car is, of course, the Kia Stinger. Lauded for it sparkling BMW like performance, so maybe not so much a stretch, that the M8 should appear to copy this car. Just unusual. A wonderful coincidence, at least for the Kia driver, whose ride might be mistaken for a car, that is kissing three times its price.

So back to that ages old kink...........BMW copies Chevrolet, everyone copies BMW and now BMW copies Kia. And the car world goes around and around.

Until next time........