A college chum and I leased a car for 60 days upon arriving in Brussels summer 1982, and toured Western Europe (I did the driving). We encountered many unbadged BMWs and Benzes on the highways, and when I took the factory tour at the Mercedes Customer Center in Stuttgart (they had great Cotomer Sevis there, BTW) I asked about that. I was told by the MBZ tourguide that custom body/drivetrain combos not in the factory lineup received no trunk badging. I suspect that this was one reason MBZ changed to the C-, E-, S-, and SL- naming convention in '93. Not a BMW follower at that age myself, I assume they used similar reasoning to delete the deck badge.
The single tailpipe nails this as a 528e, most likely.
I love the e28's; so much so that I bought my own earlier this year. $800 for an '84 528e that I'm currently refinishing (to that same color - burgundrot!) and spiffing up the interior and fixing some stuff in the engine compartment, and... Yes, it's my own Bavarian Project Car Hell. Just ask my wife. But don't ask her about the '87 535i that I'm in negotiations to buy; she'll give you an earful.
The premier e28 fanboy site is http://www.mye28.com/ Great people, great help, great support from fellow addicts.
Great find, great color. Hard to believe this rather plain little bugger cost that much back in the day.
Also, thanks for recalling Adnan. Which for some reason led me to hear Robin Leach's voice. Ah, the 80s! A cultural low watermark that will never quite go away.
The E28 is the car that turned me into a BMW fanboi. There is just something about that shape; even in the 80s it was angular, weird and jarring, like nothing else on the road. In that sense, it was a little like the Saab 900. The 6ers were pretty, much more conventionally good looking, but the 5ers just had something about them.
I came very close on a couple of occasions to buying an E28 M5. They are perhaps the zenith of 80s BMWness, and the magic of depreciation means you can get a very nice one for less than a new Kia. But at the end of the day these cars combine supercar maintenance regimes and costs with middling performance by today's standards meant that I couldn't justify it. Maybe someday.
As an aside, whenever anyone starts moaning and bitching about how BMW's M division has lost the plot because it is no longer building cars as pure and as focused as the E30 M3, the E28 M5 is the car that I flash to. Both before the E30 M3 and after, the M division was about putting very high performance engines into luxury sports sedans, not about building homologation specials. The E28 M5 stands as a perfect example of this, and has just as much claim to M history as does its more talked about smaller brother.
@FormerlyPreferredCustomer: That's a good point, it's not the M division that's lost the plot, it's BMW. Granted, they're still good cars, but it almost feels as if they're losing that very German sensibility.
@FormerlyPreferredCustomer: The M5's can be spendy in the maintenance, but the answer to that is the M535 with has most all the handling goodies of the M5, but uses the M30 engine instead of the M5's DOHC powerplant. Not as much HP, but still very quick and very maintainable and very modifiable. Lots of people stick turbos on the M30 and get the HP up to M levels.
@thunder; now eta-powered: I still want to put a motor from an E36 M3 into a 528e, for near- M5 performance at a much lower cost. I've seen people put the M50 into E30s (you can even get special wiring harness adapters) so I figure it's feasible. And by "feasible," I mean "kind of stupid, like most of my car-related ideas."
@wheels OF satan!: As I've said, big cars aren't such a great LeMons idea for first-time teams whose members mostly want to get as much racing time as possible, because it's so much easier to have contact with other cars in a big car... and contact means a black flag, which means you're going to the penalty box.
Other than that, the Crown Vics hold together pretty well. I've seen more problems with LeMons Caprices, but they are way faster when they're working properly.
@scrubnick: Christine The Arc Angel (the one who welds the metal barnyard animals to the cars in the Penalty Box) drove a Biturbo in one of the early LeMons races. It actually ran most of the time and finished pretty high in the standings.
But why not dream about a Quattroporte? I've seen 'em priced in the $1000-1500 range, and you should be able to sell off a lot of parts to get the price down to LeMons territory.
I have a Miata that was FREE. How? bought it for $900, "need clutch". Fine, but it came with a hardtop I sold for $1050 after cleaning it up, and the clutch was only $140 on eBay. Problem is no one will believe my story. I'm letting my girlfriend drive it this summer, then maybe next year if either my LeMons FX-16 or my LeMons Citation craps out this year,....
My point is they do exist. Too bad they are assumed to be cheaters.
@Surferjer: The majority of Miata teams get zero penalty laps in the BS Inspection, because they've brought the paperwork to prove (or at least "prove") what they paid. We'd rather not see LeMons become the Miata-E30 Challenge, so we tend to look at those cars with a very skeptical eye during inspection; at the very least, we're going to sweat Miata teams way harder than just about anyone (other than Camaro teams who claim that badass small-block is a "stock 305" or a "tired 307"). It helps that Chief Perp Jay Lamm is a Miata owner and racer, and he knows what stuff costs... and once he decides he doesn't like the cut of your team's jib, you're screwed.
My suggestion for wannabe Miata LeMons teams: If you absolutely must run a Miata, at least do a kickass theme on it (see the Frankenmiata).
Maybe i haven't quite grasped teh concept ... but how about late a 80s probe I, or early 90's probe II? I've laso always had a soft spot in my heart for eagle talons ...
@lazlohollyfeld: No, I think you've got it, the Probes are covert Mazdas - decent performers, I imagine reliability's ok, and they've got American depreciation. Plus, a car called Probe allows for all kinds of raunchy, medical, or sci-fi team themes.
Anyone ever run a late '90s Nissan Sentra or Altima? A quick rummaging of the local Craigslist turned up enough of them to call it a trend. I presume there's a reason that they're being sold for $500, but I wonder if they hold up during a LeMons.
@Peugeot 504 - the Car for Nigeria: Never seen an Altima. I think the newest LeMons Sentra I've seen was of mid-90s vintage. Sentras should do well, though we haven't seen a large enough sample size to know for sure.
If I could afford to replace my Cavalier and run it in LeMons, I would. I'm sure I'd kill it, but that's sort of the goal. Besides, it's got the rare Z22 Track Pack (as a friend jokingly calls it).
We've been tossing around some ideas, the current though is to cram the bulletproof mopar slant-6 into something small and RWD: Datsun 240Z, older RX-7, or Nissan 240SX have all been though of...
This is an excellent guide, but I'm gonna contribute that the MN12-chassis Thunderbird and Cougar are dirt cheap and would probably do quite well. The thing is that in V8 trim, they seem to be practically unkillable and there is no shortage of them in the junkyards. Fully independent suspension, factory track lock rear wheel drive, coupled with the unfortunate choice of a 470RW automatic trans means that if you can keep the trans in check, it's sure to go the entire race distance at a reasonable pace (assuming of course, you haven't done something stupid like installed under drive pulleys that underdrive the freaking water pump!!!!!!!!)
Anyways, a lot of us on tccoa.com have been kicking the idea around, but I can tell you, you can pick up a runner MN12 thunderbird for virtually nothing and sell enough parts off it to get it sub $500 quite easily, even if you paid $500 to start.
07/12/09
07/12/09
Time for me to begin stalking the white E24 'round my hometown, I think. All that greatness, with two fewer doors!
07/12/09
07/12/09
07/12/09
I love the e28's; so much so that I bought my own earlier this year. $800 for an '84 528e that I'm currently refinishing (to that same color - burgundrot!) and spiffing up the interior and fixing some stuff in the engine compartment, and... Yes, it's my own Bavarian Project Car Hell. Just ask my wife. But don't ask her about the '87 535i that I'm in negotiations to buy; she'll give you an earful.
The premier e28 fanboy site is http://www.mye28.com/ Great people, great help, great support from fellow addicts.
07/12/09
Also, thanks for recalling Adnan. Which for some reason led me to hear Robin Leach's voice. Ah, the 80s! A cultural low watermark that will never quite go away.
07/12/09
I came very close on a couple of occasions to buying an E28 M5. They are perhaps the zenith of 80s BMWness, and the magic of depreciation means you can get a very nice one for less than a new Kia. But at the end of the day these cars combine supercar maintenance regimes and costs with middling performance by today's standards meant that I couldn't justify it. Maybe someday.
As an aside, whenever anyone starts moaning and bitching about how BMW's M division has lost the plot because it is no longer building cars as pure and as focused as the E30 M3, the E28 M5 is the car that I flash to. Both before the E30 M3 and after, the M division was about putting very high performance engines into luxury sports sedans, not about building homologation specials. The E28 M5 stands as a perfect example of this, and has just as much claim to M history as does its more talked about smaller brother.
07/12/09
07/12/09
07/12/09
07/12/09
Or just Bruce, for short.
That is a nice-looking old Beemer, a real classic, if a little abundant. Would be nicer if it weren't for those big, bad, bureaucratic bumpers.
07/12/09
diving boardsbumpers. The euro versions of the e28 were much easier on the eyes in that regard.07/12/09
href="#c14189730">Mobius_1000_Club:you´re right, the Euro spec has nicer looks.
03/31/09
03/31/09
Other than that, the Crown Vics hold together pretty well. I've seen more problems with LeMons Caprices, but they are way faster when they're working properly.
03/30/09
My dream entry: Maserati Biturbo
03/30/09
But why not dream about a Quattroporte? I've seen 'em priced in the $1000-1500 range, and you should be able to sell off a lot of parts to get the price down to LeMons territory.
03/30/09
My point is they do exist. Too bad they are assumed to be cheaters.
03/30/09
My suggestion for wannabe Miata LeMons teams: If you absolutely must run a Miata, at least do a kickass theme on it (see the Frankenmiata).
03/30/09
03/30/09
03/30/09
03/30/09
03/30/09
03/30/09
03/29/09
03/30/09
03/30/09
03/29/09
Anyways, a lot of us on tccoa.com have been kicking the idea around, but I can tell you, you can pick up a runner MN12 thunderbird for virtually nothing and sell enough parts off it to get it sub $500 quite easily, even if you paid $500 to start.