While this M2 Comp might look lightly modded, under the surface it’s been transformed into a full-on track machine, and it’s as close to a circuit sleeper as an M car can get.
The E36 M3 might not have had the most rapturous of welcomes from the motoring press, but it really was one of the modern greats and is now on the way to deserved classic status.
How could an E28 M5 with a factory-option body kit possibly be made more desirable? As you can see here, the answer lies within some period tuning magic.
This is not an Eighties car, I can hear the naysayers proclaim – and yes, the elegant E24 first edged its (shark)nose into public consciousness halfway through the Seventies. However, it’s here because it was the halo car for BMW’s Eighties ascent into the upper echelons of desirability. We have to strip back years of 2 Series Active Tourers and ratty 320Ds to uncover the BMW of old. The badge was a status symbol – king of the keyfobs at yuppie dinner parties. All the prestige of a Jaguar or high-spec Rover without the whiff of old-school England, and much sportier than a Mercedes-Benz. The BMW was engineered of the right stuff – its sharp, crisp lines a foil to British notions of luxury and prestige still predicated on more chrome, wood and leather than an MP’s secret cellar. BMWs were properly expensive too – sift through the price list of the era and the difference between a E24 635CSi Highline like the one seen here and the top-of-the-tree M635CSi E24 could swallow a semi-detached home in the Midlands. So E30 3 Series aside, Eighties BMWs were always a fairly rare sight; nowadays every third car seems to wear an ever-more gopping kidney grille.
Frazer Nash-BMW may be a mouthful but the 319/55 proves small can be beautiful. We drive the 55bhp 1937 sports car that introduced a German juggernaut to the British market, setting off an improbable chain reaction.
Want to feel ancient? Well, consider this. Temporally speaking, the launch of the E31 BMW 8 Series was closer to the first televised appearance of Elvis Presley than it is to today. But then the 8 Series is a car that has a rare ability to catch you off guard. Despite none finding customers during the ’80s, it’s viewed by many as a quintessentially ’80s BMW yet the technology that underpinned this car was anything but a throwback.
Rich Paice had always wanted an E46 M3, and when the opportunity came up to buy a Clubsport-spec build, he jumped on it and proceeded to give it an even more hardcore flavour.
If you want something done right, do it yourself, that’s how the saying goes, and that’s exactly what you need to do when you want a supercharged E39 M5 Touring...
Purchased to be turned into a classic tarmac rally car, this E21 323i was deemed too clean for that purpose and has instead been given a period-correct performance overhaul, and it’s now a snarling 2.9-litre M20-powered retro rocket.
The Z4 M Roadster was already a hardcore soft-top, but the owner of this supercharged example has taken things to the next level and built himself a full-on Clubsport-spec performance machine.
If you haven’t yet heard of Qvick Motors, chances are you will soon as they are about to launch some seriously cool BMWs onto the classic racing scene. We went to Belgium to get a sneak preview of a pair of stunning Group 5 E21s… one of which is the original 1978 DRM-winning Schnitzer car.
