The BMW Leprechaun

Between the all the popular German car manufacturers (including BMW - Bayerische Motoren Werke or Bavarian Motor Works), the famous Autobahn, and various other car things I am clueless about, Germans are known for their love of everything auto.  While it is all pretty lost on me, I was intrigued when I heard about these rare concept cars you might chance to glimpse every so often on the Autobahn.

Basically car manufacturers will paint their next generation car models with all kinds of swirly paint meant to act as camouflage so that they can drive them in public without competitors or the media discerning what they are working on.  As you can imagine, these car manufacturers aren’t constantly driving these things on the roads– giving them an elusive quality, like a leprechaun.

As Noah and I don’t really spend too much time on the road, I was excited to spot one of these motor-leprechauns on our drive back from Dresden.  I urged Noah to rush to get closer after it passed us, but this thing was flying.  Below is the best shot I was able to get as it sped away.  I figured this would be the one picture I would get of a concept car, though it is hard to tell what it is.

So you can imagine our surprise when we stumbled upon a parked concept car just a few blocks from our apartment as we were walking the dogs.  I ran back home to grab our camera, hoping the car wouldn’t drive away in the meantime.  I quickly snapped a few shots – all the while afraid the driver would see the flash going off and run out and smash the camera.  Ok, maybe I have seen too many spy movies.   Noah told me to calm down, as I was simply taking photos in public, and I relaxed enough to pose the dogs next to the car (they weren’t impressed).

Thanks to car-people on facebook, it looks like I photographed the BMW 6 series Coupe concept car.  Though to me it will remain an elusive swirl-painted leprechaun car.