Book Review: BMW Milestones

This is a coffee table book. The production values are high, meaning hardcover, large format, high quality printing, heavy paper, and not much text to get in the way of the beautiful art.

Most of the book, about 190 pages out of 220, is taken up by what is called “The Catalogue,” which is sort of a BMW’s Greatest Hits. Each vehicle has one paragraph explaining its importance in the BMW story, with the text in English first and then German. The rest of the ‘chapter’ is all photos and graphics. You won’t learn much new about BMW, but it is beautiful.

The last 25 pages cover the BMW Art Car collection. All 20 cars are covered, although Car #20, the Julie Mehretu BMW M Hybrid V8, is shown in ‘naked’ form before the artist painted the car. Still, that’s pretty up to date. This is the car that raced at Le Mans in June, with the artwork applied.

There is one more chapter with a bit more text and that is a short interview with Domagoj Dukec, Head of Design for BMW. The interview was conducted by the author, Michael Köckritz. If that name seems familiar, it is because he was involved in a couple of publications covering the Christian Zschocke collection of BMW E3s, which made an appearance in Seattle, then the BMW CCA Foundation Museum, before heading to the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles.

It's a very nice coffee table book with a stunning photo of a red M1 on the cover. You’ll be proud to have is prominently displayed in your home.

Data

Title: BMW Milestones

Author: Michael Köckritz

Publisher: teNeues

9.5” x 12.0” x 1.0”

Hardcover

Text in English and German

€46.73 from Amazon.de, €19.48 delivery, available 6/20/24

£31.75 from Amazon.co.uk, £18.31 delivery, available 7/15/24

$70.00 from Amazon.com U.S., free delivery, available 9/3/24