Wow. When was the last time you saw one of these tooling around town? Gotta tell ya, not very often especially here in Cleveland. This is an original BMW 8 series coupe.
You didn't see many of these when they were new either. One of BMW's rare and very extravagant failures, the 8 series coupe, counter to what experts say, did in fact replac the late, great BMW E24 6 series coupe. Targeted at an even more well-heeled buyer than the 6 series coupe did, the "8", was built between 1990 and 1999 and was, unfortunately, little more than a shortened wheelbase, two-door version of the then current BMW 7 series. It also featured the 5.0 liter, SOHC, 48 valve, 296 horsepower V-12 also available on the 7. 296 horsepower doesn't sound like a lot of power these days considering what modern 2.0 liter turbo 4's can make but twenty going on thirty years ago, this car had it goin' on.
What it didn't have going for it was any semblance of driving dynamics any better than the 7 series sedan it was based on. An unresponsive drive by wire throttle, a reluctant to downshift automatic, two-ton curb weight and loosey-goosey steering might be acceptable on a high-end luxury sedan but on a coupe with sporting pretension, no one literally bought it. Well, some did, yes but by and large the 8 was a big, heavy, expensive dud. Oh, and there was the, get this, $90,000 sticker that was like the cherry on top of a car that, sadly, couldn't do anything right. Well, except look absolutely fabulous. All these years later the shape, balance and proportions of this car still gets me. Even in green.
What's odd if not strange about this car in particular, and I didn't notice this when I took these pictures of it, is that it's an "M8". Really? Well, no; it can't be. BMW never sold an M8, they made a prototype but they never put one in showrooms. Unless, this is the prototype which is highly, highly unlikely. While BMW's vaunted M folks did gussie up an 850 and call it the 850CSi, and chances are this might be a CSi, looks to me like a clone. Which in the auto enthusiast world is a car that at worst is badged up to look like something more than what it is and at best has been frankensteined into something it originally wasn't. That nonsense is usually found on muscle cars but who's to say you can't dress up a BMW?
After all, today is Halloween.
No comments:
Post a Comment