BMW Z3 V12 shown in museum

Recently, BMW has unveiled some outstanding prototypes, and now the time has come for BMW to open the doors of its museum and show some of the prototypes that never went into production. One such is the BMW Z3 V12 which was built with the intention of testing whether the car is capable of withstanding the V12 engine taken from the BMW 850 CSi.

This is not the only model from the BMW range that attracts attention in the museum. There is also the E34 M5 convertible which was produced in only two copies and never went into mass production because it was thought that it would affect the sales of the 3 Series convertible. Based on the M5, M6 and M8, this concept doesn’t seem too radical, but it really was in its day. It was the first car with variable convertible top compartment.

The E34 M5 was the last hand-built M model, and was powered by an inline-6 engine with 266 hp (196 kW) while power was sent to the rear wheels via a five-speed manual transmission.

There is also the BMW M8 Prototype which, unlike the modern M8 model, is powered by a V12 engine with 640 hp (471 kW). The engine was based on the one used by the cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and unfortunately the prototype never went into production. The current BMW M8 is powered by a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 engine with 617 hp (454 kW) and 553 lb-ft (750 Nm) of torque.