The Shape of Speed

The shark-nosed E24 was my first ‘wow!’ moment

do not remember the first M car I saw, but I remember the first BMW: it was an E24 635 CSi, on the way to school. I was, maybe, eight years old or so and this shark nose looked fantastic. I was always comparing the cars I liked to draw, like the Mercedes W115, the Paul Bracq car, and they were so nice but somehow heavy. Then suddenly this shark nose [Bracq also penned the E24] was so impressive. It was my first ‘wow!’ moment as a child, because the car had