BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer (in passenger seat) circles the test track at the automaker's Frankfurt Motor Show stand in a classic Bavarian roadster.

Among automotive aficionados, you’ll frequently hear it said that this model or another “looks different” on the road from how it appears at the auto show.  There may be a good reason, considering that cars are meant to be driven, rather than worshipped, like sheet metal art, sitting atop a turntable.

BMW is trying to put things into a more real world perspective, at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show.  The Bavarian maker relocated from its normal display near the front of the Frankfurt Messe, but it’s betting potential customers won’t complain too much once the walk nearly a kilometer to the back of the sprawling convention center and look inside the newest pavilion, Halle 11.

As Ken Zino previously reported, in a corner of the BMW stand, which fills the entire building, the automaker has created a circular track, on which it will continuously run its latest offerings, for the excitement and amusement of visitors.

The 2010 BMW X1 circles the stage at the automaker's stand.

“We will be interpreting the BMW brand’s motto of ‘Sheer Driving Pleasure’ quite literally,” explained Thomas Muderlak, the man in charge of the BMW Group’s exhibition at the 63rd annual Frankfurt Motor Show.

Thousands of automotive journalist got a taste of the unusual display during the opening news conference at the show, also known as the IAA.  As BMW Chairman Norbert Reithofer took to the stage, a classic BMW race car soared past him on the steeply banked circuit, which measures just a few hundred yards in length.

Then, one-by-one, and occasionally in groups, the automaker’s new offerings, from the 2010 BMW X1 Sport-Activity Vehicle to the futuristic 2010 BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics, a diesel-electric hybrid concept, shot by before completing a loop and parking on the track.

How much the display cost, no one is saying, though it appears to be even more lavish and difficult to execute than the $30 million display Ford built for the 1999 North American International Auto Show, in Detroit.  During the automaker’s heyday, when it was spending billions on the acquisition of brands like Land Rover and Volvo, it routinely flexed its muscle with its auto show displays.  At one point, Ford even cut into the steel super-structure at Geneva’s PALExpo center, which hosts the big European auto show, each spring.

In truth, BMW isn’t the first maker to try to display its products as they’re intended to be used.  Chrysler has set up displays at several auto shows, in recent years, giving potential buyers the chance to experience its Jeep models in simulated off-road conditions.  That’s included not only an outdoor set-up at the New York International Auto Show, but an indoor Jeep drive in Chicago.

But it appears no one has actually created a relatively high-speed indoor road circuit.  Whether others copy BMW – indeed, whether the Bavarian automaker repeats the costly experiment again – remains to be seen.