Where would the Bavarians be today had they gone in this direction?
Instagram account carfrontswaps has a pretty self-explanatory name and this time it has mashed up the BMW 2000 with the classic Dodge Challenger. The result is interesting and has led us to wonder what would’ve been had the Bavarians decided to actually make a muscle car back in the late 60s. It could’ve changed everything about Bimmers today.
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Obviously, if BMW had chosen to go this route it wouldn’t have just ripped off the design of the Challenger and slapped a 2000 front end on it for good measure. The dual kidney grilles would’ve been present, of course, but we hope the design team would’ve dreamt up something more aggressive. After all, the BMW 2000 wasn’t exactly known as some fire-breathing performance car.
While BMW was gaining a reputation for using small-displacement engines in cars which handled crisply (the 2002 Turbo being a rare exception) that doesn’t mean the Germans couldn’t have produced something with a big, powerful V8 in the front. After all, they figured out how to make an exotic supercar which was a surprisingly good performer. Making a muscle car is much easier and obviously could’ve been done.
Keep in mind that a German muscle car would’ve faced the same fate as all other muscle cars when oil prices rose and emissions regulations kicked off. In other words, BMW like so many other automakers would’ve jumped into the horsepower wars just in time to see everything run off the cliff, but think about the memories it would’ve created. Not only that, but what would such a move have done to influence future Bimmer designs in the 80s and 90s? Maybe an M3 with a V8 would’ve happened sooner, a thing which will get people either excited or feeling enraged.
Not all of the front end swaps featured on this account turn out looking so nice. Even if you’re not a fan of this rendering, there are others which look like some creature engineered by Doctor Moreau, a thing which should not be and must be put out of its misery.
