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454whp S85 V10-powered monster BMW E30 Coupe

With a five-litre S85 V10 engine squeezed into its engine bay, this hardcore E30 is an extreme machine guaranteed to get your pulse racing.

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430bhp tuned 1987 BMW 635CSi Turbo E24

While, at first glance, this might appear to be a fairly standard E24 6 Series, a closer look reveals that all is not as it seems, and this unassuming classic is hiding some big secrets behind its iconic sharknose bodywork…

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2012 McLaren 12C

Ben Barry was present at the McLaren 12C’s launch. 15 years on, he revisits this game-changing supercar and discovers F1 performance for rather less than £17m.

Editor's comment
F1, round two
McLaren may have been swathed in some negative headlines and unwelcome speculation for quite a few years now, but it’s easy to forget that there was a time not so long ago when the company was not only unimpeachable but untouchable.
Its utter dominance of Formula 1 may have drawn to a close in 1990, but there were still spurts of brilliance, seemingly coming towards the end of each decade. And even when it wasn’t winning, McLaren was still always a contender, still a very big fish in the paddock. Then, after the turn of the millennium, design – especially British design – suddenly became a big deal, as the world’s purchasing ethos shifted from people only wanting everything as cheaply as possible to swathes of people being prepared to pay a premium for excellence built on flawless or innovative engineering. Especially if it was blue-blood British. Just ask James Dyson.
The time was ripe for McLaren to launch itself into road cars, the company image, the sterile headquarters in Woking (from which my rotten old nail was once evicted on aesthetic grounds, but that’s another story) all suggesting a laboratory from which only purity and genius could emerge.
Of course, there had been McLaren road cars before, but this was a whole different ballgame to the one-off M6GT that Bruce McLaren himself drove around Woking, or the F1, which will forever remain as much a high-volume science experiment as a low-volume car.
The acute singularity of purpose of McLaren’s previous road cars meant that, really, the MP4-12C was its first real ground-up production car, a high-performance supercar with its own singular purpose: to give a bloody nose to Ferrari. And it did. As you always knew it would, with Ron Dennis at the helm.
Not only that, though, the MP4-12C (or 12C as virtually everyone would have it) was the strategic foundation for everything that has come since, McLaren seamlessly melding its rich heritage with cutting-edge technology… and so much pace. Whatever McLaren’s current woes, the 12C was a high watermark for a remarkable company at the height of its powers. I’m not saying everything has gone downhill since, but even today the 12C is still the one I’d want, not just for what it can do, but also the enormity of what it represents.
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1959 Maserati 3500 GT Bertone

After shying away from the limelight for decades, the unique 1959 Maserati 3500 GT Bertone took a bow at Pebble Beach last year. Massimo Delbò gets behind the wheel.

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1972 Alpine A110 1600S

Few cars are as rewardingly intimate to drive as an Alpine A110, or as successful in rallying. Richard Heseltine gets to grips with the marque’s own recce car on a Portuguese stage.

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1928 Mercedes-Benz 26/120/180 S-Type Sports Tourer driving the supercharged supercar of its day

This most Germanic of motor cars has a particularly British back story, as Mark Dixon finds out.

Editor's comment
RICHARD PEARCE

‘Doing our best to dodge the springtime showers, we rolled out the almost centuryold Mercedes-Benz 36/220 and positioned it in the crisp sunlight. At this point, the beauty of the car did all the hard work – it was almost impossible to take a bad photo.’ Richard’s superb photography accompanies Mark Dixon’s feature.​
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1971 Monteverdi 375L HS

The Full Monte Monteverdi spectacular: UK road test, Alpine trip, and interview with the founder’s right-hand-man, Paul Berger.

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1990 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary

The Lamborghini Countach has lost none of its power to amaze. Today, 50 years on from its release, a drive in the last of the line draws all the threads of this landmark supercar together.

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1967 Jaguar 420G

Andrew Lobb has fond childhood memories of a Jaguar 420G. Today he rekindles them as we put him behind the wheel of one. ‘Ambience like a Bentley, at a fraction of the price’.

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Driving a right-hand drive 1959 Porsche 356 A T2

A right-hand drive Porsche 356 A T2 is rare enough, but this rather lovely example was delivered new to Kenya in 1959 and has pretty much travelled the world ever since...

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Gone but not forgotten John Henry Knight 1847-1917

He built the UK’s first petrol-powered ‘car’ – and promptly racked up the UK’s first motoring offence

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René Stam’s 445bhp S65 V8 1999 BMW Z3 Roadster E36/7

While Readers’ Cars submissions normally land in our inbox, we spotted this car on a forum, and it was too awesome a machine for us to not give it some page space here in Total BMW. What you’re looking at is a Z3 Roadster that has been transformed into a snarling, V8-powered beast, and it’s the creation of Dutch enthusiast René Stam.

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1981 BMW 320iS E21

Subtle on the outside but with a hidden sporty streak underneath, the E21 320iS is an extremely rare addition to the 3 Series roster, and this Canadian example is as clean as they come.

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Simply glorious 310hp 2.4 S14 engined 1987 BMW M3 E30

With its current owner for 18 years, this Diamond black beauty of an E30 has been fully restored and refurbished, tastefully upgraded, and with a 2.4-litre S14 making 310 naturally aspirated horsepower under its bonnet, it really doesn’t get much better than this absolutely epic M3.

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1999 BMW Z3 M Coupé E36/8

The Z3 M Coupe ‘breadvan’ may have raised plenty of eyebrows when it was first launched, but those unconventional looks have aged well. It’s since become a sought-after car, and this example has been treated to a few choice mods that have given it even more appeal.

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