KaiserSea1

I have learned so much from this board, but if there is one fault, so many have pounded into my head that my overweight luxo cruiser is not a sports car. My mods are few only shaving a bit off factory times. Beautiful day in Florida 72 degrees, top down, my ten year old co-pilot enjoying life.

We have a BMW dealership right off the interstate, and a 650i window sticker in place is staring us down at the on ramp. No expectation my eight year old LB can stay in the shadow of this 90k bimmer. I hope that wasn't a test drive because lucky pulled ahead effortlessly with the bimmer pathetically passing us when it caught up to our cruising speed of 80mph Im never going mistake lucky for her supercharged garage mate, but with only 288hp she still has the push to demand respect!

scdroptop

iTrader: (1)

Yeah the 6 series is a heavy lady...

For those of you who like hip hop...the 6 series is like Nicki Minaj and the SC is like Beyonce! LOL

I wonder how the M6 (much more I'm sure) would fair against LB?

I never really liked the last 6 series bodystyle. To me, it was a prototype design not finished. Same thing with the Z4 and 5 series of that same genre. BMW lost some of their biggest share during that time to infiniti and lexus while they rested on their laurels for design. Good to see the current Z4, 7 series and 5 series redesigned to be much sharper than the early 2000's series.

IMO the BEST 6 series is good ole' Bruce Willis' and Cybil Shepard's 1987 M 635CSI Dinan AKA M6 in Moonlighting! Very cool car!!!

Love this car:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1986_BMW_M6.jpg

Now that's a M6!!! Wow

# 3 all time for me on Bimmers.

# 1...2001 Z8 silver with red and must have the hard top option. You all know this car.

# 2 all time for me: 1997 840/850 SPECIFICALLY THE B12 ALPINA 5.7 COUPE made with the 840 chasis...416bhp Wow! Check this out: http://www.alpina-archive.com/?p=1572

For our Moonlighting, Bruce Willis or Cybil Shepard Fans out there (or BMW 6 series)...this is a great link: http://www.davidandmaddie.com/bmw635CSi.htm

97-SC300

iTrader: (17)

Ok.... so what happened? I'm sorry, but that was very difficult to comprehend.

scdroptop

iTrader: (1)

I'll translate for you...LB (Lucky Bastard) the SC430 smoked the 6 series

JerryB

Hi droptop,

I owned a '97 840 for 6 yrs; great car. There has never been a better highway car; you could not tell the difference between 60 MPH & 90 MPH unless you looked at the speedo.

Why do you think the Alpina has an 840 chassis? All Alpina's that I know of were made from 850 cars.

Jerry Baumchen

scdroptop

iTrader: (1)

Jerry-I was using the 840 for short, but thanks for correcting me. I was simply making sure that everyone knew that I was referring to the same type of BMW (8 series) not an entirely different car because of the name sounds so different..."alpina b12 5.7 coupe". As you know...the 840 is VERY different from the 850 and I'm certain any alpina car was a notch above in performance, options, etc. Thanks for the correction. aplina b12 5.7 was based on the 850 you are right.

Ice350

iTrader: (1)

So you like the plain Jane, shark face look of the newer Bimmers over the Bangle designs. To each his own cause the new 5 is downright unattractive to me. The 7 looks a little better only because it's okay for a luxo-barge to look plain.

LexFather

Must have been crusing b/c while uglier it is a faster car. 645 had I think 325 or so HP and 650 has 350 or so hp. It is heavier but the engine simply outpowers the older 4.3.

Love the 840...what a car, simply a beauty, even to this day.

Drove a M6 and it really was a great drive.

JerryB

Hi SICK,

Re: Love the 840...what a car, simply a beauty, even to this day.

I consider the 8-series to be the most beautiful car(s) ever designed.

I'm probably in trouble for saying that on this forum, but that is my opinion.

If they were still being produced, I would still own one. The problem was ( IMO ) that BMW simply dis-owned them. They never proved out to be the sellers that they had hoped for so they cut their losses.

Jerry Baumchen

LexFather

Jerry,
I agree. A lot of it had to do with timing, they were pricey and the recession hit in the 90s. Coupes also were losing favor to SUVs. I thought the 850csi was just perfect.

\

The pillarless treatement with the windows dropped was an incredible look with the seatbelts built into the seat and the floating headrests.



Flip up head lights





Alpina



Sorry to the OP. This car is just one of the all time greats, IMO. The SC has also aged very well now that it is nearly a decade old.

scdroptop

iTrader: (1)

Just to clarify, I hated the 2003-2009 bodystyles of the 5, 6 and 7 and even the Z4 bodies.

Love what they've done either in 2009 or 2010 to change it. The front is more robust and less slanted-IMO back to Bimmer's routes.

Look at the styling cues from the mid 90's 5 and 7 series as well as the coveted Z8. Now look at the current bodystyles.

Look at the kidney grills and the more agressive front versus the art-deco stuff they were doing earlier 2000's. Especially on the new hardtop Z4, 5 and 7 series.

The last 5 series before the current looked as if it wasn't even done yet. Lines all over the place...reminded me of a prototype gone bad.

The 8 series was and still is a badmammajamma!!!! Love it. From the BBS wheels staggered nicely on the 850csi to the lesser known six speed available (very rare) on the 840. Loved the peek-a-boo AKA droopy eye headlights. Wow. I remember still today my first time seeing one in my rear view with all the running lights, fog lights, parking lights on. WOWWWW!!!

One of my top ten cars of all time for sure. I remember the sticker on a 1997 850CSI I saw in 1999 still at the local BMW dealership was like $120k!!!!! Wow.

97-SC300

iTrader: (17)

How safe are the older 8 series coupes seeing how they lack the B pillar (in case of a rollover and overall rigidity)? I must agree with 1SICKLEX, it's one of my favorite cars, I'd even own one, but I would not want to go through the headache of owning a used BMW.

JerryB

Hi SC300,

I belonged to two forums for the 8-series and I saw a LOT of pictures of 8's wrecked. One I remember was a teenager in the Southern California area who took his dad's 8 out for a 'spin' & wrapped it around a telephone pole. He was lucky to have lived. Dad did not know that he took it.

I always considered them very strong and never worried about being in an accident with mine.

To droptop: to the lesser known six speed available (very rare) on the 840

To my knowledge, all 840's that came to the US were automatics, no stick option. Maybe someone brought one in from another country where the stick was an option.

I like my SC430 and it is a very well built car; but the 8-series. Well, that is like dating Miss America every night.

Jerry Baumchen

scdroptop

iTrader: (1)

Jerry-my bad, I meant 850 again. I gotta stop the dyslexia on the 840/850. i've been helping a friend look for a GS400 and another SC400 so the number "4" is in my mind I guess!!! Plus I've been calling around for detail estimates for the "430" on mine! LOL

850 came in a 4speed auto, 5 speed auto and 6 speed stick, depending on whether you had the i or ci. 850 CSI only came in 6spd...again the 850csi is actually a pure "M" car, hence also known as the M8. Not to be confused with any Alpina or anything else.

What's intriguing to me is that Mclaren F1's used the S70 engine, retuned it and broke the world speed record with the now 635hp engine that they used in the same 850!!! Wow!!!! 380hp for the 850csi and 635 for the Mclaren??? That's some tuning! Evidently the Mclaren studio claimed that maxed out the S70 engine could produce 1,000 horsepower at 9500-10k rpms. Now that's an engine!!!

That's not the only thing that I love about the 850csi. How about the four way steering? I had this on my 300Z TT (called HICAS) and I loved it. Very neat feature. Years ahead of the rest.

I think you can easily say examples like the BMW 8 series, SC430 and many other European and Asian cars that while the BIG THREE were producing K-cars, Tauruses and Cavaliers, they were investing millions and taking risks with truly unique, epic cars like the aforementioned ones.

I'm not a big Bimmer fan, but a HUGE 8 series fan. What a cool car.

Back to original post-the six series is NOT a replacement for the 8. No way. There is some grumblings on the net about a new 8 series, but who knows????

http://www.bmwblog.com/2010/06/26/ru...id-sports-car/

Ice350

iTrader: (1)

The Bangle Bimmers had more style...befitting high end cars. The pre and post Bangle stuff looks too plain for cars that cost as much as BMW. They absolutely have to be modded and even then they kust look plain. I have many pics of Bimmers sitting next to other high end cars and the Bimmers look out of place.
Lot's of people complain about the Bangle era cars but they brought many new customers to BMW while offending the old ones. The Bangle cars sold well and BMW has broadened their customer base through those cars. Now that BMW is going back to less stylish cars, I'm sure they are hoping many of the news customers stay while the old come back.
The new 5 series is just plain old plain in my eyes. I don't get it and would never buy one.
The 3 series looks alright because BMW decided not to push the envelope when it was designed. It's their most important car and they didn't want to risk sales. I could see myself in one of those but still....it's just not stylish enough for a 50K car.
I parked my GS next to a Maserati coupe and several other exotic cars at a dealership. WHile the GS is no exotic by any means, it's stylish enough to look like it belongs with the stars. I can't say that about BMW's. Maybe a modded 7 or 3......maybe. The Bangle stuff was stylish enough to hang. I miss Bangle.

The old 8 series, that car was cool. It was and still is the best looking BMW ever created. That car belongs among the stars.