1973 Golf BMW E3 now Live on BaT - Yes it's mine......

Nachtycoupe

Nachtycoupe

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So, I will add more to the comments over the next few days but wanted to get this up before anyone else posts. I was caught a little off-guard a bit ago that this was going LIVE tonight. Anyhow, all good.... Here is the BaT link, again, I will post more about it later.

bringatrailer.com

M30B35-Powered 1973 BMW Bavaria 4-Speed

Bid for the chance to own a M30B35-Powered 1973 BMW Bavaria 4-Speed at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. Lot #77,617.
bringatrailer.com bringatrailer.com
 
adawil2002 said:
Congratudolences. Congratulations it’s on BaT sorry to see it on BaT at the same time.
Best of luck.
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Andrew you have no idea, well maybe you do...but I will get into the "why" I'm selling probably tomorrow, I am pretty emotional about it right now, sound like a chick but it is just hitting home. After seeing all the pics for the first time myself just a little while ago, I didn't realize how nice it really was. It will truly be missed. Still weird thinking someone else will be the new owner after all I put into that thing over the last 7 years. Barely 1K miles on the new motor. I obviously wouldn't have done that swap had I known I was going to sell it at the time, but again, I will elaborate on that a little more over the next few days. Thanks bud!
 
Wobdog said:
Beautiful car, good luck. This is trivial but I love the grill badges. Its the little things
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I had to keep my rare BMWCCA with no space between BMW and CCA badge. But thank you, I love those things for some reason. I used to think it adds class, for someone like me, I need all the help I can get in that dept.
 
BaT is where this car needs to be in my opinion also. I sold my Bavaria back in 1994, and I still miss it 28 years later! I had it for 14 years after buying it in 1980 from my father who bought it new in 1972 when I was 13. Talk about emotions tied to selling that car! He passed away in 2017 at 90, but for many years, going back 30 or so, we used to talk about what a special car the E3 was for BMW's future success and "someday" the world will realize that (generally we'd get on this discussion when talking about E9 prices vs the E3, lol). The Bavaria was "it" for BMW (was the common theme of our back-and-forth reminiscing sessions) and how it jump started the company into real performance sedans, and as my father would tell his story about how through the 1960s he owned two C2 Corvettes (both stolen) and then bought a 1968 Firebird 350HO, and then stumbled upon this thing called a BMW. One drive in an E3 (2800 initially), convinced him this was the perfect all around car (fast, great gas mileage, huge room, four wheel IRS and disc brakes, etc). :) He followed up the Bavaria with a manual 733i E23 in 1980 followed by a manual E32 735i in 1988!

As I look over the beautiful pictures of your car, tons and tons of memories flood my mind from experiences my wife and I had with it (like winning Best Bavaria at O'fest in 1982, first year they had that award) to simple things like the location of the electric fuel pump I see in your spare tire well (I probably stupidly chose a location under the car when I switched to triple Webers, but it worked there for many years), etc,etc.

Good luck with the auction!

P.S. Re the no space grill badge -- I'd keep that too! I have a stash of original BMWCCA small window stickers with no space. I take some weird pride in placing those on our M2 and E90 M3 (having been a club member since the 1970s). :D
 
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CSBM5 said:
BaT is where this car needs to be in my opinion also. I sold my Bavaria back in 1994, and I still miss it 28 years later! I had it for 14 years after buying it in 1980 from my father who bought it new in 1972 when I was 13. Talk about emotions tied to selling that car! He passed away in 2017 at 90, but for many years, going back 30 or so, we used to talk about what a special car the E3 was for BMW's future success and "someday" the world will realize that (generally we'd get on this discussion when talking about E9 prices vs the E3, lol). The Bavaria was "it" for BMW (was the common theme of our back-and-forth reminiscing sessions) and how it jump started the company into real performance sedans, and as my father would tell his story about how through the 1960s he owned two C2 Corvettes (both stolen) and then bought a 1968 Firebird 350HO, and then stumbled upon this thing called a BMW. One drive in an E3 (2800 initially), convinced him this was the perfect all around car (fast, great gas mileage, huge room, four wheel IRS and disc brakes, etc). :) He followed up the Bavaria with a manual 733i E23 in 1980 followed by a manual E32 735i in 1988!

As I look over the beautiful pictures of your car, tons and tons of memories flood my mind from experiences my wife and I had with it (like winning Best Bavaria at O'fest in 1982, first year they had that award) to simple things like the location of the electric fuel pump I see in your spare tire well (I probably stupidly chose a location under the car when I switched to triple Webers, but it worked there for many years), etc,etc.

Good luck with the auction!

P.S. Re the no space grill badge -- I'd keep that too! I have a stash of original BMWCCA small window stickers with no space. I take some weird pride in placing those on our M2 and E90 M3 (having been a club member since the 1970s). :D
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Funny, the whole reason I became somewhat of an E3 nut is because of our family Chamonix 1972 Bavaria bought new in Monterrey by my father. I grew up in the kid seat, to being comforted in the lamb skin seat covers in the passenger seat, to sleeping in the back seat fully stretched out on long trips. We got 400K miles on that Bavaria with only one top end rebuild. Tells you something about how bullet proof the motors are (the early heads had issues but the bottom ends are nearly bulletproof).

I looked for a long time for a Chamonix to no avail as I got older, we sold the Chamonix in 1987 after I took it my High School Jr. Prom. A week later the new owner totaled it. I was so pissed. Then in 2015 I saw Rey Rivera driving his Sahara Bavaria near where I lived (has since sold it) and he was kind enough to invite me to his shop to check out his "collection" and a friendship was born. I had no idea this amazing BMW collection was literally a mile from my house as the crow flies. He offered to sell the Sahara, and it was a great example, however I told myself from my 2002 days that I would never own a Sahara BMW. Just not my color....sorry Sahara owners. I like it on Toyota Land cruisers and stuff like that, but not on a BMW. So the hunt began for an E3. To be continued......
 
Ok, so I apologize for not giving you all a heads up before this auction went live on BaT. There was a little bit of a mix up on that but it is what it is and here we are. First off I want to thank many of you on this board for all your help, support, conversations, and general enthusiasm that we all share for these BMW's. Many of us own other models and are very loyal to the brand. I grew up with a Bavaria as many of you know since I was two years old and have really never not owned some model of BMW, only for brief stints when I was in college or living in San Francisco back in the late 90's. A garage spot was more than my rent.....LOL. And no way was I parking a vintage BMW on the street there, even then. Never a spot and vandalism was rampant even in lower Knob Hill.

That being said, recently I moved out of CA to Idaho, Northern Idaho Panhandle, Kootenai County. We made the move a year ago and at the time I was just finishing up one of the last major components to my 7 year long restoration of the Bavaria, that being the replacement 3.5L motor and finally getting around to spraying the engine bay when the motor was out. My original numbers matching motor that I do still own (available to new owner first at an agreed upon price) if they want it. I doubt they will, but I at least wanted to keep it for the hard core collector if they end up with the Bav. I obviously was NOT planning on selling anytime soon after such an endeavor.

Well, what I didn't take into account was the long winters here and owning a vintage BMW. I have lived in Jackson Hole and went to Colorado State but I didn't have cars that I felt I couldn't drive all throughout the winter, and never had a garage when I lived in the snow. This Bavaria, with it's low air dam, rear wheel drive and salt free condition (being in CA it's whole life until the move), I decided to keep it covered in my garage for 7-months over the winter, early Spring and not drive it. We never really had a Spring this year. Finally getting some nice weather. So, I had to think long and hard about my decision on keeping it. Garage space is a premium here, I have three spaces and actually turned the 3-car, into a 4-car with some shoehorning the Porsche in with jack rollers on all four wheels and still had to park the daily and my '75 Ford F-250 "High Boy" outside. I had a really hard time just looking at the poor Bavaria covered up all that time in the garage. I like to drive my cars, not look at them, and I couldn't even do that because they were covered.

So, after many sleepless nights, I made the decision to let her go. I want it out and about year long. I did most of my driving in CA in the winter as the temperatures were mild and at the time I didn't have A/C in the Bav as I do now. Blows super cold BTW. New Sanden pump and custom bracket.

I ended up hooking up with the Avant-Garde (911r) guys and the decision to sell was made. I drove the car from Coeur D'Alene to Portland Oregon for one last hoo-rah! Car drove very nicely, practically everything has been rebuilt, NOS, OEM parts etc. so I wasn't worried about it. It has been on drives up and down the CA coast a couple times to Monterey in 2016 for BMW's 100 Anniversary Legends and a great trip Chris Macha put on a couple years ago from Paso Robles to Carmel. Most of the driving was just up and down the Sourthern Cal coast and some fun twisty drives with SoCal Vintage, other drives with the local BMW group and of course C&C's.

That's the long and short....mostly long.....LOL. Anyhow, I am available for any questions, I will NOT be commenting on BaT throughout the auction so please address on this thread or PM me on here. If you would rather talk, just PM me as well and I will send my phone number. I am hoping it goes to one of you of course, that would be best case scenario. But if not, hopefully you will have a nice new member. I will definitely reach out to the new owner and tell him/her about e9coupe.com of course after the auction is over. Such a great resource all of you! I have our 2010 E61 BMW 535i X-drive M-Sport Touring which I love but it's my wife's car mostly. Most likely I will end up with some form of X-Drive myself for a daily. So far I have nothing but great things to say about those cars, I wish they made them new (535i Tourings). I will miss the Bavaria tremendously and all the comradery. Happy Driving! Cheers!
 
Also, this is an M30B35 motor, it is a true 3.5L. BaT made a mistake and we will be working on correcting that. May not happen until Monday, but I am aware of it and have addressed it.
 
Thank you to those that have commented on my BaT auction. Those that haven’t I welcome all comments from the members. You guys have been nothing but great to me. I’ll still lurk here but will definitely miss being part of the owners group. I mean that.
 
Wow, just watched the video of your car on BAT. Sounds amazing, looks great too. I know how difficult this decision must have been for you, but can't help thinking, since you have only recently relocated to Northern Idaho, have found driving months significantly fewer that if residing in California, that with time, you could have found a "happy medium" that would allow you to keep this very special E3. Just my opinion, but as I get older, I realize, paradigms do change, and I try to keep my cars out of this. ;) But I do hope you get what you are looking for in this auction. Like you have written, a new owner would be most welcome here, and we all hope he/she will drive it like it should be driven, just like your wish!
 
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