There are always automotive “what ifs” that are really entertaining to consider. What if Audi had continued its Group B development mule which moved the turbocharged inline-5 to the middle of the car in order to better combat the likes of Lancia, Ford and Peugeot? Might the R8 have become a reality two generations earlier? What if Porsche had fully sussed out the Audi V8 in the back of the 964 instead of sticking with the flat-6? What if Mercedes-Benz hadn’t bought Chrysler and made a conscious decision to make their cars worse? These are but a few of interesting plot developments that could have spawned a Watchmen-esque alternate reality. The automotive landscape we look at could be entirely different. And to add one more potential to the plotline, what if BMW’s traditional design language was completely different? It’s pretty easy to spot the influences of the E9 and E10 in today’s car even though there have been massive changes. BMW even went to great lengths to try to convince consumers of today that there is lineage between the 2002 and the newly renamed 2-series. But what if BMW relied on Italian designer Pietro Frua to design their cars? Well, we would have gotten the 1971 Mustang a few years early, for one:
