Sometimes, basic can be cool. Case in point – today’s E36 Touring. This is about as basic as they came; powered by the M43 1.8 with 114 horsepower, the car has cloth seats, no sunroof, and manual crank rear windows. This is a 1996 BMW, right? In all seriousness, that makes it cooler today. And, in fact, it has some nice optional equipment – heated front seats, air conditioning, a sport steering wheel – even body-color bumpers were optional on the low-end E36s in Europe, and this one has them. Speaking of color, it’s a great one – Montreal Blue Metallic, and even the basic cloth has a neat pattern. Other Euro-slick items like adjustable headlight control and a European cluster top it off, and it’s got alloy wheels too. And it’s in the US already! This means it should cost an arm and a leg, right?
Category: BMW
Back in March I took a look at what seemed to be a European-spec M535i – but some digging revealed it was just a regular 535i kitted out with M Technic bits:
If you’re a careful observer, today’s car was parked right next to it and is now available. Unlike the last one, it carries a DC71 VIN and appears to be a legitimate LHD M535i. Unfortunately, outside of that we don’t know very much – this dealer seems to be hooked up with importing E28s but they often look a bit tatty and there’s little direct information. Still, these are rare cars to see in the US, so I figured it was worth a gander.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1986 BMW M535i on eBay
Comments closedIf what you’re looking at seems…well, too old to be called a 1976 model – but simultaneously too new to be a pre-War car from some aspects, you’re right on both accounts. This is a Swiss-made Sbarro 328 replica. Italian-born Franco Sbarro started his company in 1971 in French-speaking Switzerland and immediately started copying German automobiles. They’re still open today, continuing to build limited-run prototypes, but in the 1970s a majority of their work seems to have been based upon historic cars; Bugattis, GT40s, Lola T70s. What was interesting was what they built these replicas on; Sbarro installed fiberglass copies of the originals over BMW or Mercedes-Benz chassis with original components. In the case of the 328 replica you see here, the engine, chassis, rear suspension and transmission was based upon the small-chassis BMW. In front, Sbarro utilized NSU components for the front suspension and steering. Headlights came from a Mercedes-Benz. The result of this hodge-podge was surprisingly good, managing to capture a fair amount of the aesthetic of the original without looking too out-of-shape, though they were admittedly slightly shorter and squatter than the original. Having standard BMW running gear simplified the importation process, and consequently Sbarro offered these replicas in the US market through a Florida dealer. At least a few were sold here, typically with chassis numbers XXXXUSAXX. This one is claimed to be number 5.