BMW wows at 2025 Concorso d'Eleganze Villa d'Este with three stunning new vehicles

Every year, the world's elite auto enthusiasts gather at the Concorso d'Eleganze Villa d'Este, on Lake Como in northern Italy. It's perhaps the most prestigious and historic Concours event in the world, dating back to early gatherings in 1929. While the focus of the event is on heritage, it has increasingly become a place to debut new models, too, often wild concepts that aren't so much about honoring the past as they are about pointing to the future.

This year was no different, with BMW rolling out two new concepts plus a production car. And, unlike the wild flights of fancy that typically show up at auto shows, one of those concept machines is going into production — very, very limited production and at a ridiculously high price, but production nevertheless.

That car is called Concept Speedtop, and it's a variation on a very similar machine that the company debuted last year. But, where 2024's Concept Skytop was all about open-air motoring, this year's Concept Speedtop is more about long weekend getaways and the like.

It's a two-door coupe with a long-roofed shape, what's known as a "shooting brake" in the industry. The hatch in the back creates room

for a bespoke set of luggage designed to match the two-tone, brogued leather interior. Instead of rear seats, a pair of shelves with straps hold those bags in place even when you're perhaps driving a little too aggressively.

And that'll be easy to do. Under the hood is a 4.4-liter, twin-turbocharged V8. It's the same motor found in BMW's M8, where it makes upwards of 617 horsepower. It should be putting out more or less the same here, but BMW didn't quote any figures.

One figure they did quote, though, is production volume: 70. Yes, where BMW often sells thousands of most of its models every year, just 70 Concept Skytops will be built for a price somewhere around a half-million dollars each.

BMW M2 CS: 523 horses roaring out of the gate

The other car BMW unveiled at Villa d'Este this year will be more readily available and also more affordable, but only slightly. It's the new 2026 BMW M2 CS, a higher-power, lighter-weight version of the company's high-performance coupe, the M2.

CS stands for "Competition Sport," and here it means a car that's even more optimized for performance. BMW's engineers sliced away about 100 pounds of weight from the base M2 thanks to a carbon fiber roof, trunk, and rear diffuser. Forged wheels save more mass, as do optional carbon-ceramic brakes.

The 3.0-liter inline-six engine under the hood has been massaged up to 523 hp, up 50 from the regular M2, and the 0-to-60 time is said to drop 0.2 seconds to 3.2. Top speed is limited to 188 mph.

The M2 CS's interior has been zhuzhed up a bit, too, with racing seats of the same sort found on this car's bigger brother, the M4 CS. They're certainly dramatic looking and the CS logo is a nice touch, but unfortunately they feature an annoying carbon-fiber hump placed in the center of the seat bottom, between your legs. Having spent some time on the track in seats like these, I can confidently say I'm not a fan.

But I love pretty much everything else about the car other than its price: $98,600. That's an eye-watering 50-percent premium over a regular M2. As ever with these things, that's not a lot of return for a lot of extra cost, but then value isn't usually a priority when you're talking about high-performance, limited-production motoring. Of course, BMW didn't say exactly how limited. While it's sure to be more than the 70 Skytops the company will produce, BMW will surely make far fewer examples of the M2 CS than the market desires.

Motorrad Concept RR: Superbike of the future

That leaves us with BMW's third concept, which is the only one rolling on fewer than four wheels — two to be exact. It's called the BMW Motorrad Concept RR, and it's something of a celebration of the brand's victory in the 2024 World Superbike Championship.

There, the BMW M 1000 RR bested the competition on the track, but this Concept RR is meant to give a preview of the company's next street-going superbike. The idea here is that they've brought the race bike to the street, with power somewhere in excess of 230 hp to the rear wheel, paired with advanced traction control and other digital rider assistance systems to keep them from flipping themselves into the ditch.

There's also a big focus on aerodynamics on that gorgeous, bare carbon fiber fairing that's littered with winglets, again just like modern racers.

Again, all this is meant to hint at what the company's next-gen, road-going superbike will look like, but of the three models unveiled in Italy, this is the only one that isn't available for purchase for any price. At least, not yet!