BMW 328 Hommage: Respect for a legend

The 328 Hommage traces its roots to the original 1936 BMW 328 race car. Photo / Supplied

BMW pointed to the future design direction of its roadster Z4 with the 328 Hommage show car it unveiled at a classic car event in Italy.

The concept is a 75th anniversary tribute to the original BMW 328 race car of 1936, which set an average speed record in Italy's historic Mille Miglia endurance race.

The Hommage is built mostly of carbon fibre and hailed as an interpretation of how the designers of the original 328 might have built the car using today's technology.

BMW said the high-strength, low-weight carbon fibre in the Hommage showed how the brand's lightweight construction would develop.

It is an obvious reinterpretation of the Vision ConnectedDrive concept from this year's Geneva show. The Hommage shares the same overall shape and the silhouette of both cars is almost identical, with just details giving the 328 Hommage its retro appeal.

The bluff front end and the general shape and surfacing of the two cars is shared, with the 328 Hommage echoing the circular headlights of the original and a pronounced old-style kidney grille thrusting forward.

Where the Vision ConnectedDrive featured a windscreen that cascaded forward along the bonnet, the Hommage stays faithful to the current BMW styling language, but finishes off with an asymmetrical windscreen, bonnet-fastening straps and clips to pay respect to the car that inspired it.

BMW provides little technical information but indicates the Hommage is powered by a 3-litre straight-six engine.

Around the rear, fat exhaust tips protrude each side of the number plate. The Hommage and Vision ConnectedDrive share scoops behind the seats but, apart from a retro-styled protruding filler cap, the rear-end treatment of the Hommage is more resolved.

The Hommage's interior is a further source of similarities. Both cars feature an identical gearlever and iDrive controller and cocoon the driver in an upholstered cell.