Where are the e9s?

Never see an E9 on the road up here. Not too long ago I was actually "out there" on the way to a wrecker to find a part for my E39 Touring, when I became aware of some "Jason Bourne"- type driving manoeuvres behind me, amongst the traffic. At every light, there was some jockeying amongst the cars in 2 lanes. As the light changed to green, I had to keep my eye on all of my mirrors as a 3 series BMW was cutting in and out of the spaces between the cars and eventually along the shoulder. Finally came to understand, driver just wanted to show his companion, a genuine BMW 3.0CS Coupe. He had actually never seen one "in the flesh" and wanted to show her one of his "other" fantasies . ;) Cannot be too careful!
 
We have a strong little E9 community up here in the Seattle area, coordinated by a wonderful E9 guy Ken Olsen and weather allowing, we get out for drives together a few times a year.

About 8-10 of us, some friends on this forum, also drive their cars often as and when its a dry day - yes, we have heard all the jokes, but we do get them, just never in Jan/Feb :)

Some will often turn up at cars and coffee events and as our main one is Exotics of Redmond Town Center, so lots of Ferraris and Lambo's etc, yet I think each one of our friends will back me up, any E9 that shows up, gets serious attention from all age groups.
 
Pinstripe inc. said:
After returning to the forum with renewed interest, I have been checking out YouTube videos on e9s. After seeing some good restoration videos, I was steered into some coffee-and-cars, then Bimmer car meets. Where were the e9s!?

Cars and coffee in Malibu, and Scottsdale. Overwhelmed by supercars, Porsches, and custumized Honda’s, Toyotas and other Street rockets, I longed for the profound simplicity and elegance of our e9s. But there were none.

Bimmers of Sweden, an annual meet. Hundreds of Bimmers of every modification know. But nowhere could I find an e9. Where do we hide? Are we antisocial, are we car snobs? Perhaps we are just normal owners who enjoy tinkering with our toys, and occasional fair weather cruising. Perhaps classic cars are just off—trend.

I also noticed that the crowds seemed younger.

Your thoughts? Cheers.
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To your point. BMW CCA event in La Quinta, mine was the only E9. Prime spot, and a ton of viewers.
 
very rare,
that makes the moment very special
never saw one in movement, i mean on traffic
i always wonder about that moment, for sure i will try to catch it, and, if possible talk to the driver
and...how would that sound like ? ...hi, i own one like this...well...
maybe the owner is not a truly enthusiast...maybe he, (why should the driver be a he?), ok, she will not want to meet. a stranger and talk about the car

now i remember i did saw two, at least, i mean those two were not prepared visits nor gatherings or exhibitions,

one was in duesseldorf, i was walking towards my hotel and saw a grey coupe going fast, impossible to reach
another one was in copenhagen, this one was parked in the street and the owner was sitting in a terrace having a cup of coffee, i found that he was not very enthusiastic about the car, neither about the coincidence, car was blue with chromed wheelarches

4664158F-CAFE-490F-8DBF-81594C1B3F4C.jpeg
 
HB Chris said:
I think survival is only 30-35%.
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Agreed! Just to clarify, I don’t think the survival rate is 80%. That is why I included the note
about the registry numbers. The point is at an optimistic rate of 80%, the number of e9’s in a given metro area is quite small. 30,000
cars is a decent run of high end cars by 70’s
standards, but there really aren’t many around today.
 
m5bb said:
I have a private group in Atlanta with over 60 BMW owners.
9 are E9 owners. Of those 9 there is one I have never seen. We have 18 E24's.

Markos made me dizzy with his math. ;)

The most I have ever seen together was probably at Legends. 18 the year I was there.
The Vintage in NC had 8? and my car was not back together for that. 2018
I have been the featured car at Caffeine & Octane 2 times and that is supposedly the biggest monthly car show in the US. Only E9 at show. One time over the last 10 years or so we had 2 there.
Sharkfest has had at least 5 at one time.
The other question I get asked all the time, "is that a 6 series"

Here is a Youtube Video done during Covid last summer with a friend. I've posted it before. The live sound files were messed up so he put music to it.

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Your video has a definite WOW factor. If mine was like yours, I’d need to hold the crowd back.:)
 
Markos said:
I can perhaps provide the make, but certainly not the model any "special edition" door-stop-shaped supercars produced after the year 2005.

Might as well have a parking lot full of these:
View attachment 111896
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I'd prefer one of those! Polish the axels, a little graphite powder, get the weight right at 5oz and you've got a rocket on your hands!
 
HB Chris said:
Quite a few in Long Beach and Orange County
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The Huntington Beach Concours and Woodley Park gatherings always bring out a nice assortment of e9's. Here's a shot from Huntington Beach in 2018 (which, by the way, Chris was instrumental in organizing):

HB Concours 2018 (1).JPG


Pinstripe Inc said:
Cars and coffee in Malibu, and Scottsdale. Overwhelmed by supercars, Porsches, and custumized Honda’s, Toyotas and other Street rockets, I longed for the profound simplicity and elegance of our e9s. But there were none.
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Beyond specialized shows, such as Legends, Woodley, HB Concours, the world has moved on from our dinosaur cars (and their dinosaur owners) to the next generation, which consists of supercars and customized Hondas. I'm sure the Model T owners were bemoaning the same thing a generation ago - "them gol-durned kids think a 1970's BMW is a collectible car. Hmmph!".
 
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jmackro said:
Beyond specialized shows, such as Legends, Woodley, HB Concours, the world has moved on from our dinosaur cars (and their dinosaur owners) to the next generation, which consists of supercars and customized Hondas. I'm sure the Model T owners were bemoaning the same thing a generation ago - "them gol-durned kids think a 1970's BMW is a collectible car. Hmmph!".
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I personally don’t believe this to be true. I think that there is a plethora of young e9 fans.
The steady stream of e9 movie cars are only helping to drive interest. Lack of young interest does not account for the cars absence at shows. The median age of e9 owners is likely over 50.

In terms of what happens with these cars and the next generation, I think it has a lot to do with the high barrier of entry, and little to
do with appreciation for the mark.
 
BMW 2000cs was the only one I have seen few times - each time the same car. The car was taking a part in many classic car's days organized here.

I have never seen any running E9 on the road in Poland except mine.

I've seen only one passing on a trailer from paint shop (bare chassis).

Looking back in time for E9s for sale over ten cars sold in Poland (pretty sure it was 2-3 times more). I can expect most of them were restored and sold around the World.

Some says there are E9 fans collecting them here (for fun or for an investment). Unfortunately, these I'm not expecting to see on the roads.
 
jmackro said:
The Huntington Beach Concours and Woodley Park gatherings always bring out a nice assortment of e9's. Here's a shot from Huntington Beach in 2018 (which, by the way, Chris was instrumental in organizing):

View attachment 111936



Beyond specialized shows, such as Legends, Woodley, HB Concours, the world has moved on from our dinosaur cars (and their dinosaur owners) to the next generation, which consists of supercars and customized Hondas. I'm sure the Model T owners were bemoaning the same thing a generation ago - "them gol-durned kids think a 1970's BMW is a collectible car. Hmmph!".
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Hey Jay, let us know when the HB Concourse is (if they do it after Covid). I'd love to check this out. I have a friend in San Juan Capstrano - I can crash out there.
 
The HB Concours is still working with the city to establish a date, they have not been very cooperative even after 34 years of donating to the children’s library every year.
 
Pinstripe inc. said:
After returning to the forum with renewed interest, I have been checking out YouTube videos on e9s. After seeing some good restoration videos, I was steered into some coffee-and-cars, then Bimmer car meets. Where were the e9s!?

Cars and coffee in Malibu, and Scottsdale. Overwhelmed by supercars, Porsches, and custumized Honda’s, Toyotas and other Street rockets, I longed for the profound simplicity and elegance of our e9s. But there were none.

Bimmers of Sweden, an annual meet. Hundreds of Bimmers of every modification know. But nowhere could I find an e9. Where do we hide? Are we antisocial, are we car snobs? Perhaps we are just normal owners who enjoy tinkering with our toys, and occasional fair weather cruising. Perhaps classic cars are just off—trend.

I also noticed that the crowds seemed younger.

Your thoughts? Cheers.
Click to expand...
I am young-ish (mid-30's) and I do bring my E9 to Cars and Coffee in Malibu, and others around LA-- I usually see at least one other if not a couple others there. The people who really "get" these cars always want to talk about them, and the people who just want to show off or flaunt their $$$ are magnets to the super cars. Cars and Coffee in Malibu hasn't been going on for a couple of months now (it's just a cordoned off parking lot with cops waiting to hand out fix it tickets to people who show up). Looking forward to going back out there with my coupe.
 
Many here know that I keep a fairly detailed database of US/NA market coupes as well as selling prices. Here are some numbers to think about:

The original Registry Newsletter had 749 coupes worldwide when it ended in the 90s so 2.5% of the 30,565 produced. As there was no internet to bring members together this makes sense.

Our current Registry has 2,693 coupes worldwide or 8.8% of all produced but some of these were parts cars or are ‘long gone.’ The German coupe club has several hundred as does the Swedish club of around 400 which was too much work to add to our registry. So maybe 4,000 registered worldwide or 13%, still pretty small And most likely understated. In 2014 our Registry had only 2,230 coupes so less than 500 have been added since.

My US/NA database currently has 930 (vs. only 478 in the Newsletter coupes) or 25% of the 3,724 produced for this market (as above some are long gone) and if I include the currently missing Newsletter VINs of 338 we get 1268 coupes or 34% possibly still existing. Every once in a great while a Newsletter coupe surfaces that is why I include them and think maybe 34% isn’t a far fetched estimate of surviving coupes in the US which is probably much higher than in Europe where rust took many when they were much younger. When it comes to numbers one can make whatever they want of them, this is just my opinion, that is all.

When ever I see a US VIN on the internet I add it to my data but I no longer add them to our Registry as it is too much work.
 
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The most surprising E9 sighting I had was in the late 90's while visiting the beautiful town of Ronda in the Andalusia region of southern Spain.

The old narrow streets winding thru the city are barely wide enough for one way traffic and a pristine E9 drove by rounding the corner pinning me up against the wall of a building. Unfortunately it was before we all had cell phones to take pictures.
 
i know Stephen... and you know my opinion.
I think i can say i enjoyed a E9 , bought a "sound" one in 2013 , drove the hell out of it over 6 years rallying.... till 2020 new laws made it no more street legal.
If not , i was still smiling every rally mile today .... now trying to sell it and may forget all that money i invested to make it better&better.
If i were you , i would hurry up.... unless you want to drive it among electric cars with gas at a bitcoin/gallon :D
 
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