'Normal' grille could become hugely popular refit for polarising BMW M model.

BMW has garnered a lot of the wrong kind of attention, with the controversial grille design on its new M4.

For those followers of all things M-car, the latest version of BMW’s most iconic driver’s car looks a bit too daring. Although the car’s overall proportions are fine, it is the grille design in isolation which is considered completely undesirable.

Controversy begets opportunity and triggers innovation, which is definitely proving the case with BMW’s new M4. Those ever industrious German aftermarket auto fabricators have already responded with a possible solution to the new M4’s ungainly centre-front styling issue.

Prior Design has now released some rendering of what it suggests the latest M4 should ideally look like. The German company produces an array of widebody and aero kits, for most leading automotive brands.

With the G82 series M4, Prior has not focused on making the car appear wider but solving its elongated kidney grille problem. The solution is a new front-section, encompassing the bumper and grille surrounds.

The Prior Design concept shrinks those huge M4 kidneys by more than half, neatly grouping them above the licence plate. If you recognise some aspects of this design, that is not accidental, as Prior’s designers have basically copied the current M8front-end.

A range of grille surrounds are suggested too, including colour coding and a grey border option. Beyond the notably more subdued grille size, this Prior design study also reshaped the entire bumper and its air intakes.

Whereas the new M4 has very slim air intakes at each corner of its front bumper, the Prior design upgrade features huge ducts. These are essentially a copy of the current M8’s front-end.

There is no pricing or production schedule available for Prior’s M4 replacement front-end, but we imagine that demand could definitely trigger a production run. Especially judgingfrom the panic amongst loyal M-car enthusiasts, which has followed BMW’s second-generation M4, since its reveal.

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