After a seven-year run, BMW is getting ready to replace its successful 3 Series coupe. Codenamed E90 and pictured here with minimal disguise hiding its production head and tail lamps, the new car will not be displayed at next week’s Geneva motor show as largely anticipated. Instead, the automaker says it plans to wait a few more weeks before revealing the car in a series of official photographs.

Based on the same platform as the sedan launched last year, the coupe’s styling isn’t radical but does offer a fresh athletic appearance. Hints of design director Chris Bangle’s infamous flame-surfacing treatment appear, but not to the degree seen in the past. One peculiar touch begins at the sills, which rise up markedly into the rear fenders behind the long doors.

Aimed to counter the Mercedes-Benz CLK in both image and accommodation, the new BMW is bigger than today’s coupe, with a longer wheelbase and wider track. To keep weight in check, it uses aluminum in the MacPherson strut (front) and multi-link (rear) suspension.

It will have BMW’s Active Steering system, though it remains to be seen whether upper-end models will offer the Dynamic Drive adjustable antiroll bar system and EDC-adjustable dampers. BMW is also considering at least one four-wheel-drive version using the same xDrive arrangement as is in the 330iX.

Inside, the cabin adheres closely to the 3 Series sedan’s, with what one high-ranking BMW insider described to AutoWeek as “a modern furniture look.” The double binnacle dashboard housing the instruments is accompanied by a color monitor that works in tandem with iDrive. The heavily contoured rear bench seat can seat three if required, but was designed with two occupants in mind.

BMW is also close to finalizing a cabriolet for revealing at the Paris show in September. It ditches a traditional cloth roof for a folding hardtop developed by German specialist Edscha, essentially providing BMW with two coupes in the same segment.

This coupe will be one of the first BMWs to use an advanced twin-turbo 3.0-liter inline six. To be introduced in a range-topping 335Ci model, it gets new direct injection technology, unveiled in Geneva and dubbed HPI (High Precision Injection) in combination with BMW’s existing Variotronic system. The engine betters today’s naturally aspirated 3.0-liter inline six by 41 hp at 306 hp. Torque peaks at a solid 300 lb-ft across a band of revs stretching from 1500 to 5800 rpm.

Other engines include a range of carryover four- and six-cylinder models, likely mated to either a standard six-speed manual, optional six-speed automatic or a new double-clutch system BMW has under development at its FIZ R&D center in Munich.

Tradition dictates that the coupe will form the basis of the new M3. That car will abandon its long-serving 343-hp 3.2-liter six in favor of an all-new 400-plus horsepower 4.0-liter V8, and will likely debut around this time next year.