BMW released this short, cryptic video that's 90% darkness and headlights, with one brief flash of a little bit of car. They're calling this a "sneak peek," but what do we think it's a sneak peek of, exactly? (UPDATE: It's the new 1-Series)
The top image up there is a still of the brief moment of (limited) light in the 14-second video; if you've got the quarter-minute to spare, you can watch the full video right here. All we can definitively say is that it appears to be a car, with headlights — BMW Angel Eye headlights, specifically — and there's a hood, A-pillars, and a windshield. From this I think we can safely extrapolate it'll be a fairly conventional car.
So, what cars might BMW be unveiling? The only one we can think of is the M2, which is now showing up as a 2015 model in dealer computers, and would likely start production in November.
Still, those headlights are not 2-series lights. Could a whole new front fascia, complete with lights, be part of the M2? Could this be something else?
The proportions don't seem to be anything within BMW's i-series of hybrid cars, and there's that strange shadowed area on the hood. So I'm going to go out on a limb and make a wild prediction: this will be BMW's most radical departure from the traditional kidney grille.
Thanks to the sophisticated hyper-compumath of the JalopHance Image Enhancement Algorithms we were able to scream "ZOOM, AND ENHANCE" at the image until we got this fascinating look at what's going on: they're going to try out a Lincoln-style grille, with a nod to the kidneys on the upper hood, in the form of a wide, siamesed-kidney hood scoop.
What do you think? Are we on the right track? Any guesses of your own?
Update: According to tweets on Twitter, it's the refreshed 1-Series.