While the BMW E31 isn’t a model that we feature constantly here on GCFSB, it’s certainly one that graces the pages on a regular basis. However, nearly all of the time we’re looking at the car that grabbed the headlines – the V12 engined derivatives that really brought BMW’s Grand Touring coupe more towards the jet set. However, quietly in 1993 BMW launched a more affordable and economic version of the 8-series when it planted the all-aluminum M60 V8 in the slanting nose. Perhaps enthusiasts overlooked it a bit because it wasn’t as powerful as the M70/73 or the S70, but to me the 840 was closer to the 635CSi that it replaced than the V12 model was. Like most of the end-of-the-run E24s, the 840 only came to the U.S. in automatic though, meaning less enthusiasts saw it as an exciting development. The 840Ci thereby became the red-headed stepchild of the E31 lineup – not exotic enough to grab the same headlines as the V12, but too expensive and not manual or powerful enough for the M crowd. Two decades on, though, the more rare to find 840Cis might just be a smart alternative for those interested in the awesome BMW GT:
