People who are really into BMW may be looking at this strange E32-generation 7 Series with their heads tilted, like a confused puppy, because they didn’t know it existed before. Those clueless fans knew that BMW had given up on the project before it could be made, and in 1988, they made a test 7 Series with a V16 engine that was called “Goldfisch” because of its color. The Germans made another one and didn’t tell anyone about it, which shows that BMW didn’t give up on the idea completely. That is, until recently, when BMW showed off their secret second try at a V16 7 Series at the 2024 Techno Classica historic car show in Essen, Germany. The first Goldfisch was a very badly broken car. Of course, there were worries about how well the huge 6.7-liter V16 engine would fit in a 7 Series that was only meant to have 12 cylinders. To make room for the V16 and make the cooling system work, the radiator was moved to the trunk, and huge air intakes were added to the back fenders. The Goldfish project was never done because it needed a working trunk and looked like it had gills, which is how it got its name. That being said, BMW tried to make an identical car again two years later, and this time it did much better. The 1990 BMW 750iL Goldfisch was a much more cohesive and production-ready car than its predecessor. BMW changed the front end so that a radiator and cooling system could fit. They did this by taking the radiator out of the trunk and the intakes in the back fenders. Since that wasn’t there, the second V16 7 Series looked like any other car. In fact, only the biggest BMW fans would be able to tell it apart from a regular 7 Series if they saw it on the street. However, the long-wheelbase E32-generation 7 Series and its Goldfisch replacement do look a little different. The Hofmeister kink, windshield, and C-pillar are all a little different, as is the front end. The Goldfisch II has a bigger, more noticeable bulge in the hood, kidney grilles that are wider and farther apart, and totally redesigned headlights. The front end was changed to fit the huge engine. The inside was also redone, with a dashboard that looks fancier and a lot more wood trim. The biggest change is that there is no gear knob that you have to turn by hand. The first Goldfisch had a huge V16 engine matched with a five-speed manual transmission. The second model came with an automatic transmission with five speeds. The back wheels of these cars only had power because they were made before BMW added “xDrive” to all of its models. Also, the Goldfisch could go faster than 155 mph thanks to its 348-horsepower V16 engine. At the time, that was a good amount of power, but now that you see how small the engine is, it could be more impressive. The BMW M5 from 1990 had a 3.5-liter inline-six engine that made 315 horsepower. That means that the Golfisch could only make 33 more horsepower, even though it had ten more cylinders and 3.2 liters of displacement. This shouldn’t make it less cool, though. If BMW had planned, made, and sold the second-generation Golfisch in 1990, it would have joined the ranks of famous 16-cylinder production cars like some Bugattis and Cadillacs from before the war. The world would have been a better place if there were V16 7 Series cars, but they would have been so expensive to make that they probably would never have been made.
