While tuners like Ruf, Alpina and AMG captured the hearts and minds of performance-oriented enthusiasts in the 1980s, turning normal or even fast versions of standard cars into custom creations capable of supercar levels of performance, others took a very different route. The affluence of the 1980s coupled with the near extinction of convertibles between the mid to late 1970s meant that there was an active community of aftermarket companies ripping the tops off everything from Ferraris to Fords. Some of the companies are more notable; in the BMW world, for example, companies like Baur enjoyed a long history of converting coupes to convertibles for the firm, but there were new companies giving it a go, too – Oldenburg, RPM, ABC Exclusive, Schulz, and Lorenz & Rankl all made custom drop-top version of the E24. It was neither cheap nor pretty to remove the roof structure; look under this 628CSi and you’ll find giant steel girders welded to the floor for support. And while the mechanisms for the top varied by design, non of them every looked completely at home top up or down. The origin of this particular conversion isn’t clear from the listing; the seller mentions Euler but they were better known for a custom E23 Touring we previously featured. One thing is for sure; this convertible Euro-spec 628CSi is surely a rare bit of kit:
