{"id":359976,"date":"2026-04-02T08:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/359976\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T08:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:08:15","slug":"bmw-6-series-turns-50-with-museum-showcase-celebrating-sharknose-icon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/359976\/","title":{"rendered":"BMW 6 Series turns 50 with museum showcase celebrating \u2018sharknose\u2019 icon"},"content":{"rendered":"

BMW celebrates 50 years of the 6 Series with a new museum exhibition.
\nOriginal 6 Series (1976\u20131989) defined BMW\u2019s \u201csharknose\u201d design era.
\nIconic coup\u00e9 featured in motorsport, film and BMW Art Car history.<\/p>\n

BMW is marking 50 years of its 6 Series<\/a> with a new exhibition at the BMW Museum in Munich, celebrating one of the brand\u2019s most recognisable (and enduring) coup\u00e9 nameplates.<\/p>\n

The display, now open and running through to January 2027, traces the lineage of the 6 Series from its 1976 debut through to its cultural and motorsport highlights. It replaces a previous special exhibition and follows a record-breaking year for museum visitors, with more than 847,000 guests passing through in 2025.<\/p>\n

Sharknose, style and staying power<\/p>\n

\"BMW<\/p>\n


\n Read More
\n <\/p>\n

The original 6 Series made its entrance in the mid-1970s as a sleek grand tourer, borrowing its underpinnings from the 5 Series while carving out a more expressive identity. Its defining \u201csharknose\u201d front end that’s sharp, low and unmistakably BMW quickly became a signature design cue.<\/p>\n


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Produced exclusively as a coup\u00e9 from 1976 to 1989, the first-generation model also holds the distinction of being one of BMW\u2019s longest-running nameplates, with a 13-year production span. Over time, it evolved into a benchmark for combining long-distance comfort with sporting intent.<\/p>\n

Helmut K\u00e4s, Head of BMW Group Classic and BMW Museum, sums it up neatly: \u201cFor five decades now, the BMW 6 Series has been a paragon of elegance, sporting potency and long-distance comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

From racetrack to silver screen<\/p>\n

\"BMW<\/p>\n

The exhibition also dives into the 6 Series\u2019 wider cultural footprint. A dramatic \u201cfloating\u201d body installation outside the museum sets the tone, while inside, the car\u2019s appearances in film and television take centre stage.<\/p>\n

The 6 Series has featured in productions ranging from Back to the Future II to Dallas, earning a reputation as a car with presence rather than pure aggression. As the exhibition curators note, \u201cIt is no \u2018off-the-peg\u2019 solution\u2026 rather, the 6 Series is a car rich in character.\u201d<\/p>\n

Motorsport also forms part of the story. The 635CSi competed in Group A touring car racing, securing major titles in the mid-1980s, while road-going variants like the M635CSi pushed performance boundaries for four-seat cars of the era.<\/p>\n

Icons on display<\/p>\n

\"BMW<\/p>\n


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Among the highlights are several key models, including a 1982 628CSi, a 1985 M635CSi and early examples like the 633CSi. BMW\u2019s Art Car programme also gets a nod, with specially commissioned 635CSi models by artists Ernst Fuchs and Robert Rauschenberg forming part of the rotating display.<\/p>\n

Together, they paint a clear picture: the 6 Series helped define BMW\u2019s approach to style, performance and identity across decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BMW celebrates 50 years of the 6 Series with a new museum exhibition. Original 6 Series (1976\u20131989) defined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[18237,189832,189835,189834,189833,9719,4915,31365,30445,593,1861,2027,409,3586,111,43,139,69,145,27627],"class_list":["post-359976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-bmw","tag-bmw-6-series","tag-bmw-6-series-50th-anniversary","tag-bmw-6-series-turns-50","tag-car-museum","tag-cinema","tag-classic","tag-classic-cars","tag-classics","tag-film","tag-history","tag-ice","tag-movies","tag-museum","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology","tag-vintage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}