The ultimate adventure setup? X7 pickup concept carries F850GS Sport

Is this the ultimate adventure setup? BMW’s trainees have built this special concept to showcase skills learnt in both bikes and cars – an F850GS Sport mounted on the back of a bespoke X7 pickup.

There’s no indication quite how you’re supposed to get a 244kg bike into the wood-lined, yachting-inspired, 200cm-long load area, or indeed how you’re meant to close the tailgate given the bike seems to be roundly in the way, but this X7 features two-stage height-adjustable air suspension that’ll allow it to squat over the rear axle. Presumably you’ll need a matching ramp… and a long one at that.

Power comes from the firm’s xDrive40i drivetrain, which produces 335bhp, while the donor car was a pre-production X7 that would otherwise have been scrapped. Total weight is 200kg less than the standard SUV, thanks to less metal in the body and liberal use of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic.

Displayed at the BMW Motorrad Days at Garmisch-Partenkirchen over last weekend, it’s highly unlikely this rig will find its way into showrooms any time soon. BMW have a rich history of building concept pickups – in the past using M3 super-saloons as base vehicles for a pair of design studies, which were then subsequently used at the firm’s Bavarian HQ in Munich to transport engines around their factory.

BMW don’t have a production pickup in their lineup and we don’t know about any plans to change that, despite recent platform-sharing with Hilux-building Toyota.

Still, it’s an interesting exercise for the trainees, who hand-finished the Tanzanite Blue X7 with assistance from the Concept Vehicle Construction and Model Technology divisions at the BMW Munich plant. And as a bonus, the more interesting rear end saps attention from the front grille, which is among the more ‘distinctive’ of any SUV on sale.

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