Tim Chinen Bavaria profile

dbower

dbower

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Interesting write-up from FCP Euro:

blog.fcpeuro.com

Respect Your Elders - BMW E3 Bavaria

When everyone else in this brave new world seems to be focused on flash and floss, this E3 BMW Bavaria reminds us to respect our elders. Sound advice. The BMW E3 Bavaria (aka New Six) was introduced in 1971 specifically for the American market. It was a hybrid of the no-frills 2500 chassis and...
blog.fcpeuro.com
 
Drew, I think we need to do a piece on yours. Talk about hardcore simplicity! Don't know if I could afford it but I'd like first right of refusal!!
 
Thanks for the nod Peter. I like my Bav :) too. One of these days I will post some more pics. I'm sure you would be the first to know if I were ever going to part with it.
 
Tim is a well known and respected member of the SoCal Vintage BMW community, and his beautiful E3 is a multiple Driver's Choice Award winner at the SoCal Vintage BMW Meet. A little history on the car, that many of you may know. The provenance is special as this was Curt Ingraham's E3, and many of you may remember him from the Silicon Garage in Oakland, making excellent triple core radiators - some of you may even have one in your e9 - https://e9coupe.com/forum/threads/radiators-silicon-garage-update.8474/ Curt was a great guy and got to talk with him when I was able to get up at the Bay Area 02 show, but not nearly often enough. One of the nice guys that are missed.

Anyway IIRC, Tim and Curt's son were (are?) close friends, and when Curt sadly passed away, Tim had the opportunity to acquire the car. Glad it stayed close to the family.
 
Afeustel, they are non-staggered 17x8 Style 5's with 225/45/17's all around. I do have to run a 3mm spacer up front to clear the struts. If they look staggered, it may be because I'm running a 15mm spacer out back, just enough to fill out the large gap in between the tire and fender caused by the negative camber with the car being lowered (I was not going for a "stance" look). This was a major pain though, because to do it right (for safety), I had new longer ARP wheel studs pressed into the hubs.
 
Thanks for the compliments everyone! Curt's son, Eric, actually owned the car for several years before I purchased it. Eric is still a very good friend of mine, is a car guy himself following his dad's footsteps, and currently manages Bavarian Professionals in Berkley. A little more history on the car:

For those that have been around for a long time, one of the previous owners was Pete Schoenenberger, who used to be active here and put a lot of love into the car. He did the original m30b34 conversion: http://www.seniorsix.org/witandwisdom/petemotronic.html

Here's a previous feature on the car in Bimmer Magazine from 2010: https://www.bimmer-mag.com/issues/90/articles/solid-and-straightforward?page=1

And in the last 10 years, I've redone a ton of "tired" aspects of the car including interior, paint touch-up, repainting/powder coating/re-chroming this and that, bushings, different wheels, front spoiler, and rebuilt a high-compression m30b35 w/ Motronic 1.3 for it.

There are still plenty of flaws that you would catch seeing it in person though.

Tim
 
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Bav3.5 said:
Afeustel, they are non-staggered 17x8 Style 5's with 225/45/17's all around. I do have to run a 3mm spacer up front to clear the struts. If they look staggered, it may be because I'm running a 15mm spacer out back, just enough to fill out the large gap in between the tire and fender caused by the negative camber with the car being lowered (I was not going for a "stance" look). This was a major pain though, because to do it right (for safety), I had new longer ARP wheel studs pressed into the hubs.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the wheel info Tim. Once I complete my Coupe, I will be moving the Alpina CoupeKing wheels to the Coupe and plan to mount the same wheel (17" style 5's) that Markos sold me a while back (thanks Mark). Yours is a nice looking ride.

Drew
 
afeustel said:
Thanks for the wheel info Tim. Once I complete my Coupe, I will be moving the Alpina CoupeKing wheels to the Coupe and plan to mount the same wheel (17" style 5's) that Markos sold me a while back (thanks Mark). Yours is a nice looking ride.

Drew
Click to expand...

Style 5’s really do look great. I just dismounted my second set. Shipping them to a forum member in Australia next week. I’m officially done with big and especially wide wheels. Looking forward to getting some 195/70/14’s! I will love wife and/or big wheels on everyone else’s car. If I ever got a
Bav, it would either be a bone-stock survivor, or bagged with 17’s. Preferably one of each! :D
 
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