Take one look at this X7 that's been chopped to create a luxurious pickup truck, and you might just want to get a petition going to get them to build it. Based on the new and seriously opulent X7 SUV, this version wasn't built by some third-party shop but by BMW themselves. But instead of coming off the factory line in Munich, this one was designed and built by young students enrolled at BMW's vocational training center nearby. It's the kind of vehicle that makes us want to shop for fancy bespoke duds and a family-size bag of pork rinds at the same time.
We're happy to say this pickup is not just some rendering done by a talented graphic artist, but instead it's a bona fide drivable SUV that can transport five occupants in style along with a BMW F 850 GS motorcycle in the fancy truck bed. The third-row seats and the cargo section have been removed and replaced by carbon fiber panels for the roof, rear doors, and tailgate. The lightweight material enables the pickup truck to drop 440 pounds compared to the SUV. The GS 850 motorcycle you see here weights about 504 pounds wet, so the tradeoff is a good one.
The X7's taillights don't fit on the tailgate, so the new pickup gets custom LED taillights, as well as new rear glass. Superb levels of detailing include beautifully curved brushed chrome grab handles that are beveled and curved, and there's gorgeous genuine wood lining in the truck bed and around the top edge of the bed, as well. In the bed, there are tie-down loops to secure the motorcycle.
Under the hood, things remain very much the same, but nothing really needed to get modified since the 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six engine is good for 340 horsepower. There's no documented changes to the performance of the pickup truck, and there's no tow rating, even though the published tow number for the six-cylinder X7 is 5,400. The power-to-weight ratio for the pickup is a little bit better, though.
Instead of putting something this cool into production, the exercise was simply to show how great the training program is. It's deemed a special project that won't see more than a singular model. And that's too bad because we could see this thing sell really well among the well-heeled who need hauling capability more than they need room for seven. "Series implementation is not planned. Special projects such as this serve during training to convey and deploy the required capabilities in practice," BMW stated. Maybe the company should create a special project department for customization projects like this.
If BMW isn't going to return to its driving enthusiast roots and build more stick-shift sports coupes and sedans, then at least they should do something like this. We've kinda had it with their weird crossovers like the X4 and the X6. We miss the purity of cars like the E30 M3 and the 2002. But a pickup truck like this could really win us over in ways their crossovers are not.
