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Ken

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I have a coupe here in Pa that had its origins in Calif. and am attempting to fill in some blanks. First, I know it was bought in 1970 at T & M Motors in Garden Grove Calif. and spent the first 100,000 miles on the west coast. I would like to know if anyone knew this car and how it got to Pa. The car was a Sahara color From the Ventura/ Riverside area. If anyone has an inkling of the possible original owner, give me a personal email and we can solve the mystery on how it got here. Is T & M still in business? I know that the original owner has died and no other contacts live in my area, so I have reached a dead end in this direction. ( sorry, no pun intended). Murry, you know this car?
 
I have a coupe here in Pa that had its origins in Calif. and am attempting to fill in some blanks. First, I know it was bought in 1970 at T & M Motors in Garden Grove Calif. and spent the first 100,000 miles on the west coast. I would like to know if anyone knew this car and how it got to Pa. The car was a Sahara color From the Ventura/ Riverside area. If anyone has an inkling of the possible original owner, give me a personal email and we can solve the mystery on how it got here. Is T & M still in business? I know that the original owner has died and no other contacts live in my area, so I have reached a dead end in this direction. ( sorry, no pun intended). Murry, you know this car?
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You might want to try giving some more info like Model, Year, VIN was the car grey marketed in or did it come thru Hoffman? BMW Mobile Tradition can provide some info regarding when the car was built and to what entity it was first delivered. If it was grey marketed in you can also trace the car's import information via the Federal DOT.
 
Tracing lineage of California Coupe

Another BLUMAX story:

First: T & M Motors was one of the first BMW Dealers here in OC--heard many years ago that one of the partners--don't know which--ran off with the money so the place folded. I subsequently met the one who was left in the lurch--he ended up a few years ago with Alzeimers so no chance of help and no records from that long ago. No help there.

Second: There was no "Gray Market" that I had ever known in that time frame--although many cars were coming on shore by returning military personnel and civilians who were catching on to the fact it could be done for a great $ saving--it came into full bloom about a decade later--but then our bureaucrats in the DOT had gained more strength and linked arms with the other one spawned called the EPA--and between those two fine segments of our Federal Gov't finally curbed most operators.

Those agencies were primarily spurred on by loud cries of "foul" by MBZ Stealers--who were seeing large numbers of Euro spec MBZ's flocking to these shores that didn't have our special equipment such as the early generations of smog systems, "big bumpers", "high quality sealed beam lighting" from GE, Sylvania or Westinghouse (no Hella or Cibie allowed), door beams and 85 mph speedos--gave rise to a burgeoning industry of so called federalizers of Euro spec cars--they were really beginning to squeeze their juicy profit margins when a 280SL could be purchased for around $30 K from a gray car source versus $45 K from the Stealer. Most of GrMkt operators were hardly automotive engineers and deserved being shut down--I could write a book about some of the local federalizers that were a menace to the fine cars they would screw up here in the OC of SoCal--one who did in 2 M-1's from fires resulting from shoddy workmanship that I knew of, etc.
 
More info Please.

I know that the original owner was James Gorman and Judy Jones and he had a lot of service work done at Adams Service Inc and Bavarian Imports both in Riverside. What I don't know is how or why it got to Pennsylvania. I suspect he must have been a Professor somewhere out there and transfered to Penn State and brought the car with him. I can only guess on this right now. If anyone knows for sure I would appreciate the info. If I knew this info I can keep my chain of ownership intact. I have tried to post pictures of the car on this site, but not much luck. Any help?
 
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