davintosh

I want this car. The price is right, and it has most everything I’m looking for in an e28… the 211 HP M30B35 motor (same as in my 735i), 5 speed, Style 5 wheels (best looking wheels on an e28), 3.73 LSD, upgraded suspension & torsion bars, Euro bumpers and headlights… it’s actually a grey-market European import, so not only are the bumpers & headlights original, everything in the cabin is in German! Basically, all of the hard stuff is done, just a few minor annoyances to sort out.

Here’s the seller’s ad from mye28.com:

1983 BMW Euro 528i – FOR SALE – Los Angeles

Saphirblau paint

M535i Gray Cloth herringbone interior (Manual sport seats)

M30B35 engine transplant from 89 735i donor with correct motor mount from Koala MotorSport.- Preventive maintenance at time of transplant: GMB water pump, water wetter, New Coolant Reservoir, oil pan gasket, crank seal gasket, OEM pilot bearing, plugs & wires. Head had DOT-r sticker but fell off after steam clean. Recently passed CA smog with no problems. Does need valve job adjustment, can have done before sale.

BMW e39 528i sport rims, professionally taken apart, all barrels straighten and polished by Al Reed in Anaheim (Plastic hub centric up front) – 235/45/17 Dunlop SP Sport 2000 E all around with good tread.

Hartge replica front spoiler (Paul L.)
Alpina replica rear spoiler

3.73 Limited Slip diff.

Bilstein Sport struts all around- BavAuto springs

Racing Dynamics (Green) adjustable swaybars front and rear (Part #196.81.28.010).
Front Racing Dynamics strut bar. Although the suspension is solid the lower control arms are in need of replacement. Upper control arms in March 2010 (Mayle Heavy Duty). Still has front end shimmy but not as bad.

5 speed manual transmission / shifter needs new bushings to have tight feel.

CARB Sticker, EPA & DOT importers paperwork in file, currently registered until July 2010.

Brand new not installed Blaupunkt Sydney R126 with Pioneer 4×6 front speakers and OEM premium rears.

Since purchased the OD (176k) hasn’t worked but roughly under my ownership (2/2007) the car has traveled about 4-7k miles. The paint is in decent shape with exception to the Hood and roof. The interior is in great shape also with its exception to the driver’s seat. Car is in storage in Gardena CA. Thanks for looking, please PM me with any questions or suggestions.

Sweet specs on that car, and lots of positive comments from the guys who know on mye28.com. The only things that could be done to make it better is to paint it and fix the upholstery. With the cloth seats, that’s done much more reasonably than with the leather that’s usually found in these cars. Adding a turbo to this car would be the absolute ultimate! But I’m getting ahead of myself… One goofy thing with it is that sunroof; most (if not all) e28s sold in the US came with a sunroof standard. Having a factory sunroof is great, but its presence does intrude into the passenger compartment a bit, making headroom a little short. The few cars that made it to the US without sunroofs are highly prized for that extra bit of headroom, especially on cars that find themselves being tracked or autocrossed regularly; those helmets can make a low roof feel even lower. I guess the nice thing about this particular car is that the aftermarket sunroof that was installed gives it some of the function of the stock sunroof without the headroom detraction. Plus I’ve been told it’s not your run-o’-the-mill J.C. Whitney cheapo, and is nicely installed. I guess I could live with it.

The seller started out at $5,900, but wasn’t able to find a buyer at that price, and has since dropped it to $5,000. The only things separating me from this machine is that — the price — and about 1,600 miles. sigh.

I still want this car.

I can’t say that I’ve ever seen one of these in the flesh (metal?) before, but that’s probably a good thing because I probably would’ve drooled on it. Yvonne was asking yesterday for hints on what I wanted for Fathers’ Day, so I pointed this car out. Something in her reaction tells me it’s not happening.

Although I’ll not likely ever have a chance at owning a car like this, it’s hard not to want it just a little. From the specs, the 507 is one awesome car, and the one pictured here, offered for sale by Fantasy Junction, is a drop-dead gorgeous example of the model. 3.2L OHC V8… 150 HP… 4-speed manual… 140 mph top speed… It was originally built to go compete for sales with the Mercedes 300SL Gull Wing coupe; the Merc ended up being the more successful car as measured by sales numbers, but I think the 507 is a much cleaner & handsome design.

Some of the guys over on mye28.com, where I first heard of this car, kinda pooh-poohed it because of issues they saw with the exhaust, the cheapo stereo (can’t disagree with that criticism), the missing spare and the dirty carpet. I say the rest of the car makes up for its shortcomings. But then again if I were in a position to shell out the $850,000 asking price (yes, that’s the correct number of zeros!), I think I would expect it to be much closer to flawless than it is now. But like they say in the ad for the car, “Cosmetically, it is attractive and makes a strong impression, but it is not perfect, which makes it an ideal car to use and enjoy.” Cars are made to be driven, not parked in a garage and endlessly polished.

My first thought when seeing that dollar figure was, no flippin’ way will they get that… But then I take a look at the eBay auction going on for it right now, and the price has topped $400,000 already with four days left for bidding. I’m guessing the reserve is somewhere north of $700,000. Time will tell…

This is the car I want. It just came up for sale in an ad on MyE28.com, and it’s all I can do to keep myself from calling the seller right now…

1983 BMW Euro 528i – FOR SALE – Los Angeles

• - Saphirblau paint
• - M535i Gray Cloth herringbone interior (Manual sport seats)
• - M30B35 engine transplant from 89 735i donor with correct motor mount from Koala MotorSport.- Preventive maintenance at time of transplant: GMB water pump, water wetter, New Coolant Reservoir, oil pan gasket, crank seal gasket, OEM pilot bearing, plugs & wires. Head had DOT-r sticker but fell off after steam clean. Recently passed CA smog with no problems. Does need valve job, can have done before sale.
• - BMW e39 528i sport rims, professionally taken apart, all barrels straighten and polished by Al Reed in Anaheim (Plastic hub centric up front) – 235/45/17 Dunlop SP Sport 2000 E all around with good tread.
• - Hartge replica front spoiler (Paul L.)
• - Alpina replica rear spoiler
• - 3.73 Limited Slip diff.
• - Bilstein Sport struts all around- BavAuto springs
• - Racing Dynamics (Green) adjustable swaybars front and rear (Part #196.81.28.010).
• - Front Racing Dynamics strut bar. Although the suspension is solid the lower control arms are in need of replacement. Upper control arms in March 2010 (Mayle Heavy Duty). Still has front end shimmy but not as bad.
• - 5 speed manual transmission / shifter needs new bushings to have tight feel.
• - CARB Sticker, EPA & DOT importers paperwork in file, currently registered until July 2010.
• - Brand new not installed Blaupunkt Sydney R126 with Pioneer 4×6 front speakers and OEM premium rears.

Since purchased the OD (176k) hasn’t worked but roughly under my ownership (2/2007) the car has traveled about 4-7k miles. The paint is in decent shape with exception to the Hood and roof. The interior is in great shape also with its exception to the driver’s seat. Car is in storage in Gardena CA….

$5900

The 528i was a European market model; it was originally equipped with the M30B28 motor, a version of the big-six that was for Europe-only. This car was imported after manufacture and federalized to meet US emissions standards after the fact. This one is a bit special though, as someone went to the trouble of swapping the 2.8L motor with the 207 HP M30B35 3.5L engine from a later-model 735. That’s the same motor I have in my 735i!). The 735i gets around pretty well with that engine in it; put it in a car that weighs about 1,500 lbs. less, and it would be amazing.

And then there’s the whole Euro look… The Euro bumpers look so much better than the 5 mph diving boards you find on the US-spec cars, and the headlights really dress up the front end. A lot of people convert their US cars to have the Euro bumpers & lights, but I doubt I’ll ever fall into a set that could be used on my 528e without paying through the nose. A lot of the hard stuff is already done on this car!

It does need a little help in a few departments; the paint on the hood & roof looks like it’s seen too much of the California sun (Rustoleum anyone?), and the driver’s seat shows the same wear pattern that so many sport seats display, so it could use some new upholstery. But re-doing cloth seats would be a fraction of the cost of leather! The shifter linkage needs replacing, but since I’ve already been down that road, that should be no problem. Or so I’d tell myself up until crawling underneath the thing to actually do the deed.

And it’s only $5,900 and 1,600 through-the-desert miles away. I wonder how well the A/C works…

I downloaded the latest Nordstrom’s vehicle list last night, and for once there was a new addition to the BMW section…

1991 BMW 735i, RED, 4DR, 3.5L, AT4, BAD MOTOR

Cool — another e32! My first thought was about whether there were any parts I could grab from it. The “BAD MOTOR” part told me that it wasn’t wrecked and hood might be a possibility. But the “BAD MOTOR” part also told me it was probably a Cash For Clunkers victim, and made me wonder if it was the same poor unfortunate I had seen at Graham Automotive last summer… I decided I’d head over to check it out the first chance I had.

Well, this afternoon’s weather was better than was forecast, so I went. And sure enough, that was the very same car. A little rougher around the edges, but I’m pretty sure it’s the same car.

The car has only been on the yard for a couple of days, and hasn’t even been moved into one of the lanes yet, but it’s already been picked over pretty heavily. The passenger door was gone, two of the door panels had been taken off, who knows what parts had been scavenged, lots of stuff gone from under the hood, tool kit emptied, dents & scratches all over… And of course the engine is toast, as is anything in the engine that would’ve been touched by the sodium silicate. Life in the yard is hard, especially for a Clunkers victim.

There were a couple of parts that I needed from under the car, but couldn’t get because it was still sitting on its wheels. I’ll have to come back for them. I did manage to get a coolant level sensor — mine has been reporting a low coolant level ever since replacing the coolant expansion tank two weeks ago — and a new glovebox — mine is missing a couple of pieces and doesn’t like to close without a fight — and a lower dash kick panel to replace the slightly ratty one in mine. I was surprised to find that the driver’s side floor mat was in decent shape, and it matched the color of the mats in my car, so I grabbed that as well. There were a couple of other guys grabbing parts off of it too. They didn’t care that it was a BMW at all; they were after speakers & stereo gear. I felt like chasing them off, but I guess it’s not my car…

While finding a car like that in the self-serve salvage yard, and being able to scavenge some parts from it is nice, knowing what that car looked like before and seeing what it’s become kinda breaks my heart a little. The car was incredibly well preserved; all of the interior bits were in good shape, and there was no rust on the car. If it weren’t for that stupid Cash For Clunkers program, that car would still be on the road. What a shame.

Here’s something you don’t see every day:

One of the Fastest M5’s in the country

1988 E28 M5 VIN# WBSDC9305J2791570 prod date 6/87

Just in time for the racing season. This Race Car needs nothing to be raced next weekend.

Top Speed Over 170 Mph

3.9 6 Cylinder w/ over 370 rear wheel horsepower

• Weighs Just under 2500 LBs
• All Receipt’s and Complete Build Sheets Fresh S38 Motorsports Engine only 1 Race
• Comes With lots Spares
• Comes AMB transponder and lap timer
• 2 Rear Ends 3:91/3:73 Precision Engineering Built
• 8 Fiske and 4 BBS Lightweight Wheels
• Wolf 3D+4 Fully Programmable Engine Management
• Ground Control Double Adjustable Shocks & Struts
• Fully Adjustable Suspension Front And Rear
• AP 6 Piston Calipers Front and AP Rear Calipers
• Carbon Fiber Hood
• Carbon Fiber Air Intake
• Carbon Fiber Air Damn

This is A Completely Sorted Race Car, Campaigned in Scca and BMWCCA. Will pass all tech inspections. Holds Many Lap records and Many Overall Wins.

S38 b38 BMW Engine, Balanced and Blueprinted, Head match ported and polished. Stillen Crankshaft, ARP Bolts and Studs Throughout. Over 370 RWHP.

Has New FIA 6 Point Schroth Belts, Current Window Net, Momo Seat and Steering Wheel. Comes with Spares. Spare Carbon Fiber Air Damn, Spare Rotors w/Hats for Front and Rear. Back-up Master Cylinder, Hydroboost, Brake lines, Various Rate Coil Springs

Comes w/2 Sets Full wets and 1 Set Intermediate wets, 3 sets of slicks; 24 tires total.

The car is (was?) owned by David Daniels, and is pretty well known to people in the E28 community. For a non-turbo engine, it’s HP output is as high as I’ve ever seen in an E28. And stripped down to 2,500 pounds? Wow. The E28 is notoriously heavy and difficult to strip down for racing, but Daniels used a lot of carbon fiber & fiberglass to help keep the weight down. Here is a video of it going up against an E36 M3 (owned & driven by Brian Watts.) In the video, the M3 can outrun the M5 in the straights, but the M5 walks right on by in the corners. Tells a lot about the work that Daniels put into the chassis and suspension! And about the driver!

The car was up for sale on eBay, but the auction ended with the final bid at $21,100, and the reserve not met.

A 1982 320i just came up for sale on eBay that just happens to have been previously owned by Jean Stapleton, aka Edith Bunker, aka Dingbat.

Looks like a nice car; very clean, and only 85,000 miles. Too bad it’s an automatic!

I couldn’t help but think of my favorite episode of All In The Family; Edith’s Accident (also known as “The Cling Peaches Incident”.)

“Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.” Proverbs 14:7

It means, “Don’t waste your time arguing with an idiot.”

I saw this car first in the Cars For Sale forum at MyE28.com, then it showed up on BringATrailer.com. I’ve always liked the BMW e24’s, built from 1976 through 1989; they are cool, sexy machines, and the form factor has aged well.

The e24 is an oddity in the BMW lineup because there were major changes in 1982 that should have deserved a change in the designation, but it remained the e24. The earlier cars were based on the e12 and the later ones on the e28. The later cars were slightly lighter and had higher engine output. 25-plus years out, the later cars are generally better buys because they are newer, if only by a few years, and are generally in better shape. I think the sheet metal is the same, but much under the skin is different.

This one is located in Ridgecrest, California, looks to be extremely clean, and has been converted from the original autotragic to a 5-speed; sweet. The seller has a great reputation on MyE28.com (that counts for a lot!); very unlikely that there are any unsorted issues on this car. And given the location — high desert area of southern CA — very likely that the air conditioning works! Priced at only $4,800, it’s a wonder it hasn’t sold yet.

This car is it. Not only is it an über-rare Touring, but it’s also got the ///M-package with the M30 big six engine, and the euro bumpers! Saw a link to the eBay auction for this car on mye28.com today… It’s not perfect — it has an accident in its history, and the interior looks like it needs some attention — but the Touring is rarer than rare, especially in the US. They weren’t built by BMW (God only knows why), but were aftermarket conversions done by a handful of European outfits. From what I understand, many were poorly executed, and after living 20+ years in the UK and Europe… rust.

This one looks to be in decent shape. All I can say is it’s a good thing I don’t have any money or I’d be bidding and making arrangements to ship it here from Germany. And if I won the auction, I’d probably end up without a home, so the wagon-back would really come in handy.

Remember that BMW I wrote about bringing home last week? (The one that I still haven’t taken photos of?) Well, I almost wrecked it last night, and I wasn’t even in it.

One of the problems with the car (that the seller somehow failed to mention in his ad and in all the conversations we had) is that the emergency brake doesn’t work; pull the handle, nothing happens. Well, over the weekend I pulled the car up into the driveway to do some work on it — cleaned it up a bit (badly needed) and checked over the intake tract & fixed a few things there (starts & runs like a champ now) — but because our driveway has a slightly steep slope to it, I of course put a couple of blocks behind the rear wheels. So far, so good.

When I went to back it out of the driveway, I first got in & made sure it was in gear — put it into second — then went to the left wheel & pulled the block, then went to the right side and did the same. And the car began to move. And it continued to move. On its own. Right on down the driveway.

In complete and utter futility I tried pushing to keep it from going, but had the presence of mind not to get behind it, and to let go when I realized I wasn’t going to be able to do anything but get myself hurt. So I stood there watching as it rolled down the driveway and across the street. I think my heart about stopped or at least skipped a few beats right about then. But somehow the car went straight as an arrow, bumped up the curb on the other side of the street, missed a tree (a small one) by about a foot, and came to rest in the grass in Jamie’s side yard. Actually, I think it was rolling forward a bit and would’ve gone back down the curb, but I jumped in & hit the brakes, then started it up, backed up a little and drove it out Mel’s driveway.

I don’t recall if it was still in gear or not when I got in, so I don’t know if it slipped out of gear or what. I checked it over and didn’t see any obvious damage. I checked it out again this morning in the daylight (thankfully it happened in the dark!) and it looked like the fuel tank bottom was dented in a little with some grass trapped between it and the strap, but nothing serious. Could’ve been so very serious had there been a car parked across from the driveway, or if it had turned just a little, or if a car had been passing by at the time. Even as it was, the muffler could easily have snagged on the curb… I’m just so very, very thankful it ended as well as it did!

Well, I did it again. Bought another cheap BMW from some guy on Craigslist.

I think I did alright on this one though… It’s in need of some help, but nowhere near the laundry list of projects my ‘84 528e came with. And my negotiation skilz must be a bit better than The Chicago Olympics Salesguy In Chief; I got it at my price, which was about half the previous owner’s original asking price (but Barack… didn’t fare so well.)

Anyway the car is well equipped and is in decent shape, but does have a few issues here & there. The paint — Bronzit Beige Metallic, my new favorite color! — is good, with the exception of a little rust at the door bottoms. The interior is very good, and everything inside works as it should (though I’m having trouble deciphering the HVAC controls!) It runs great, but does have some difficulty starting, especially when warm; I’m thinking a little TLC in the intake tract should clear that up. One thing that needs immediate attention is the right front wheel bearing; it makes an awful howl when rolling, and pulls to the right a bit. Replacing the bearing/hub assembly doesn’t appear to be too difficult a job, but a new bearing will set me back about $120 or so. Aside from that, the driver’s door locking actuator needs some attention — very finicky about unlocking from inside or outside — and a couple of missing interior light lenses.

All in all, the car seems to have suffered some neglect at the hands of the previous owner. The guy who owned it previous to the guy I bought it from seemed to have taken much better care of it; I also received with the car a nice stack of repair records detailing repairs done since about 2000. I also had a peek at what the previous owner paid for it when he bought it two years ago; several times what I paid for it. I’m guessing that the PO bought it in excellent shape, but being a college kid, had no garage, no tools, & no time to do the necessary upkeep on a car like this. The collection of mud and tree debris in the gutters around the hood & trunk were testament to the fact it hadn’t been thoroughly washed for a long time, and that probably led to the rust at the door bottoms. The oil in the crankcase was even blacker than what I found in my 528 when I brought it home… That guy just wasn’t suited to driving a car like this; what he needs is an appliance like a Honda or a Cavalier. But he’s buying a Mini. I feel sorry for that car.

Here are some photos of the thing that came from the PO; I haven’t had a chance to snap any because it’s been raining since we brought it home on Thursday. Click on the photos to see the monster-size versions.
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