Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
The E28 M5 is seemingly following in the E30 M3’s footsteps as the next hot commodity in the semi-vintage BMW game. If you want a lot of the M5 look at a discount, a 535i such as this is the next best thing. We featured this car back in November of last year and it is back up for sale at no reserve with a few hundred miles more on the clock.
When I was a younger lad, my father was looking for an upgrade to his BMW 635CSi for a track car, and we were scouting out E28 M5s. He finally picked one up, and we headed to the track – these were the days when, short of a modified 930, there wasn’t much faster on track than an E28 M5. We were at Lime Rock park, and I excitedly waited for him to come blowing down the front straight, decimating his competition in a wave of speed, power and sound. Yet, when he did appear on the front straight, his arm was out the window – pointing by what appeared to be a fairly unassuming 535i. My 15 year old self couldn’t really contemplate what had happened; how could a 535i possibly be faster than an M5? The answer was under the hood, where a Dinan Turbo kit subtly hid; with a reported 400 horsepower on tap at full boost, the M5 was no match for this supercar slayer. That power figure may well have been exaggerated by the owner, but it was no slouch, so I was excited to see a similar 533i 3.5 Dinan Turbo pop up in our Self-Service Classifieds:
About a month ago, I wrote up a 2002 M20 Turbo built by a company called Manofied. Well, the Manofied folks have been at it again, this time with a 535i. They’ve fully built the car in the style of the Alpina B9, replete with plenty of Alpina parts, some Euro bits, and what appears to be a fantastic individual throttle body engine. The downside? As with the 2002, the price for this build is quite high for a non-original car. But before you jump to conclusions, take a look:
When I was a younger lad, I diligently followed the car magazines. It was in the late 80s that a small California-based firm named after its creator, Steve Dinan, started gaining the notice of the car magazines. The reason why was simply; just as Reeves Callaway had done on the East Coast, Steve Dinan was taking already potent cars and turbocharging them in the Golden State. In this case, it was E28 and E24 M5 and M6s that were getting forced induction, and the results were unreal. At the time, having 400 horsepower put you into the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini, and a few other exotics. Dinan didn’t rest on those laurels though, and since has become a defacto factory tuner in a similar vein to AMG, though they remain independent. That’s a testament to the quality and reliability of their work. What they produce are improved versions of already fast cars, and today’s 1989 535 is a great example. The E34 was a solid performer in its day, but with a turbo and 300 wheel horsepower, it’s an undercover M5 assassin:
As I picked up the M5 from the shop today (finally), they were still working on a woman’s beat E12, into which she was dumping $5k so that her daughter could inherit it as a daily driver. Despite admittedly being the pot calling Mrs. Kettle black, it seemed silly to drop that kind of coin on a car that seemed unspecial to me. Today’s E28 adds an interesting juxtaposition to her and my situations; advertised as “lady owned,” this 535i is rough on the top, but the sides through the interior are commensurate with the nice 115k mileage.
Yes, it’s an automatic. Yes, the up-facing surfaces look like the skin of someone who has been retired and at the beach since 1985… but it’s not too far from being a 30 year-old sugar momma in a beach house.