BMW 850

At a fork in the road. Bought a friend's project 850. It has the V-12 6-speed and is bright red. It has the Schrick cams, a Conforti chip, and Dinan extrude honed manifolds and was only bested by a CSi on a dyno day. He had a custom 4-pt bolt in roll bar fabricated for it. Right now the interior is out as he was swapping parchment for black and the nose needs to be reinstalled.

Continue on down the path of a track toy (Probably about 340-350 HP and should be able to get it down to mid to low 3,000's) and sell the interior & all the luxury bits or put it all back and sell as a runner.

It's no lightweight but a lot of it is crap that can be removed. Think 75 pound seats, dual batteries, dual wall exhaust, bathtubs of foam insulation (not just coatings or jute), etc etc.

Love the 8 series...as a GT car driver. Not sure it'd be worth the hassle racing it.

I'd take out the back seat and make a luggage shelf, keep the roll bar, lose some of the weight and drive the hell out of it.

V-12 6-speed cars are pretty extraordinarily rare, from what I remember. Don't be too hasty with your sale!

I would keep it as the extrodinary GT car it is.. those are beautiful beasts.

If I were to race on.. it would be an 840

There are two of these for sale locally and I'll bet either could be had for high $4figures. Both are 12cyl auto.

One of these days I'm going to trip across an 8cyl manual and the timing will be right. Soon, I hope.

Is the dash gutted? That would be a pretty terrific to rebuild and rewire. Otherwise, that has all the makings of a badass street car. As a track rat, it would be a pretty expensive and desirable car to risk wadding up into a ball.

Put it back together, GT drive the piss out of it, enjoy, occasional autoX / track day and you'll still steal the show...

bludroptop wrote: One of these days I'm going to trip across an 8cyl manual and the timing will be right. Soon, I hope.

8-cyl manual was Europe-only, and in VERY small numbers.

I drove an 840i that my sister owned. awesome highway car. 130 felt quite comfortable.

that v12 is a scary beast to work on. remember.. it's 2 complete inline 6's sharing a crank.

individual ignition, fuel, you name it.

Ok guess I will throw this out there as a past owner.

These cars are electrical nightmares if you modify them in any sort of way past stock. HP is EXPENSIVE on these things. Weight loss is there but your chopping up a GT car that will never be really lightweight.

If its a red 6 speed12cyl car its more then likely calypso red and its a very very rare beast. I would think twice about cutting into it in the slightest.

If you want a big heavy track car, sell it and get a 928. If the electrical stuff isnt in bad shape and you like driving it, keep it and just use it for a street car. I dont think it would be a worthwhile track car though.

Certainly sounds like an opulent track toy. I can't imagine it'll be cheap to flog, but more power to you for trying.

Seems like your plan of weight reduction is the wisest route with one of these things. Trim a couple hundred pounds from it and it'll get very lively. The beauty of weight reduction is that it's absolute. No question that it'll do something.

Keep us posted.

OOH I'm so jealous of you 850csi is my ideal car, I've seen exactly one in my entire life love the 8 series even more than 6 series

I'd do the weight reduction and race it just to be different, I can almost guarantee you'll be the only 850 out there lol have fun and good luck with it!

Whatever you decide to do, please post pictures.

Is there any history of these cars being raced? I view it as a bad ass Bob Costas magnet/highway car. Boost the E36 M3 out of it and mess with people on the highway with 3 hot chicks getting wet screaming at you to slow down.

It is the Brilliant Red (aka arrest me red). I already have a Calypso Red V-12 6-speed (my guide to put it back together if I go that route) and have had it for almost ten years now. I've autocrossed the Calypso one. I was laughing with the gal behind me in a Miata that mine weighed TWICE hers.

According to my friend, the announcer was having a lot of fun at my expense - saying that the car was so quiet I should at least turn up the stereo so they'd have something to listen to whilst I circled the course, and that he thought I was having a nice glass of chablis out there. The funny thing was the car was actually doing fairly well but it looked as if it was going sooo slow because of it's size - kind of like how a 747 looks like it is hardly moving compared to a Cessna going the same speed.

But due to the weight and cost of chewing up tires, brakes, suspension bushings, etc never wanted to track it like my friend did with this other one. I wish I had gotten it from him before he sold the Recaro's, Brembo's, BBS wheels, 3.15 limited slip diff, CSi bodywork, etc etc.

The dash cover is off and it is rather startling to see just how much wiring and electronics are in this car. It is too bad that some computers would be difficult to remove as the windows drop down to allow the doors to open and pop back up in their groove. And that body control module talks to other computers. Yes eliminating things electronically would be challenging with this car.

I'll take and post pictures soon. But I must warn you, they are very graphic and the sight of all that wiring has turned many to drink, or worse.

Yes it is rare and you don't see these gorgeous cars every day, or even every month. But it simply isn't a desirable car due to the unmodified car's lack of performance (The CSi is another story), fears of complexity and electrical gremlins, lack of high performance parts (used to be some, now very little), And the gas mileage around town sucks and climbing gas prices are not going to help. And yes it is essentially two sixes joined at the hip: Two engine control computers, two ignitions, two fuel injection systems, etc so there are additional maintenance costs and twice the chance of something breaking. I'm trying not to listem to the voices in my head saying "crate motor...."

In reply to wearymicrobe:

Agreed. But it would be a fair bit of work either way: reinstall the whole interior, buy and replace the missing bits such as the headliner, it has the mounts for the bolt-in 4 pt roll bar welded in, bodywork re-installed, and there is some ducting missing from the front as it was removed.

And that HP is expensive is correct, I'd guess that the tab for the Schrick cams ($1500 alone), new followers. labor, Conforti Chips, and Dinan extrude honed manifolds ($2,000) was north of 5 grand for maybe 40-45 HP. Maybe he should have just bought one of those electric superchargers off e-bay insted. :-)

SlickDizzy wrote: 8-cyl manual was Europe-only, and in VERY small numbers.

That would probably explain why I haven't seen many.

Another dream crushed.

Since you already have a nice one, may as well go the whole shebang with this other one. Gutted, caged, etc.

There's definitely something cool about a big, heavy 'unlikely' race car, too.

Keep car as a GT, but ditch the V-12 and add LS1.

Great soundtrack + dead nuts reliable. That would make about the perfect daily driver for me.

Am I the only person that doesn't think LS1's sound that good? Not that I don't think they're a great engine, but maybe there's something else to slide into an 8 series...

Really? I think the sound is down right evil when get a good exhaust system on it. . .

My former GTO stock sounded just right . . . stock . . .but just right.

You need a MOTOR for the E31 chassis; at 4100 + lbs, you need some torques to get it moving. . .

An 850 (auto) was my father's last car. When he was trying to decide whether to buy it, I read him a quote from Giorgetto Giugiaro, who bought the first one in Europe: "I had to have it because it is such a beautiful thing."

Would Megasquirt simplify the electronics?