David Tang
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It is with a heavy heart that I have finally decided to offer up my injected, truly lightweight 1973 BMW 3.0 CSL for sale. Why? I have Morton’s Neuroma, which is a nerve condition in the ball of my left foot, which is precisely what you press the clutch pedal down with. Driving a manual transmission is now too painful and is causing permanent nerve damage. It has taken me several years of internal debate, but I’m selling all of my manual transmission cars, of which this CSL is obviously the most special.
Forum members get the first shot as I’m not putting it onto Ebay just yet. I actually think it is just more procrastination on my part to prevent its sale! I do think forum members are more likely to truly appreciate it.
Photos here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/swvwc3hnaxtbd0k/AAC_OxFfyT7IpdzuOIoe7jDpa?dl=0
I have had the pleasure this 1973 3.0 CSiL in Taiga since 1991 (2275146). The car was German, appropriately located in Bavaria when I bought it on a trip where I looked at several CSLs. So I brought it over to Canada. I’ve had the privilege of being friends with Marcus Glarner, who has made it possible for me to enjoy the car all these years.
The CSL is a pre-Batmobile (March 1973) but the original owner, a doctor in Bavaria, had the front spoiler and the roof hoop installed. He also replaced the four wheels with BBS-Mahle-BMW mesh wheels, although he kept the original Alpina spare. Other period modifications include an oil temperature gauge, Schroff harnesses and a flexible gooseneck reading light. A different radio was also fitted at some point but has since been removed and I have never put in a radio since driving it leaves me with absolutely no desire to listen to music. It will however, come with the radio tray and a Blaupunkt CR-2001 cassette radio, which I've never fitted and never even tried to see if it works. It is a North American radio with NA frequencies.
The CSL has the plexiglass rear window, thinner glass windows throughout, aluminum hood, trunk, door skins, gas tank lid, headlight covers, door brake etc. so it is a true lightweight car. It’s injected; a CSiL. That apparently makes it somewhat rare since more CSiL’s got the city pack than I realized. The front air dam, roof hoop and rear spoiler are not, but neither the earlier owners nor I liked the CSL stripe so those are the only parts of the Batmobile kit on it. I waver back and forth even on the roof hoop, but generally think that the uniqueness of it slightly trumps the better lines of the car without it. However all of that is for whoever owns the car next to decide.
In the mid 90’s, I had the body restored with what was then the last thin gauge tail panel then available for a CSL. The car had been repainted gold at one point so all of the body panels were stripped back to bare metal, except (foolishly) the underside of the hood, which had the non-CSL underhood sound/heat foam proofing on it, which I thought we wouldn’t remove. I also had the roof hoop hole repaired and it is now just held on with just the rain gutter clamps and double sided body tape. There is a picture of the front of the right door (with ruler) to show the 3 small and shallow bubbles which came up almost immediately after the restoration, and which have never changed or grown in the last 24 years. I thought it would get worse and would get fixed when it did get worse, but they never did. They were actually quite hard to photograph since they aren’t really noticeable from more than a few inches away. From more than a meter away they don’t detract from the car visually at all.
The car has 163,xxx km on it now with me putting on about 20,000 km of that. The first couple of years I drove it more than later, proving that restoring cars leads to a completely different mindset. For example the car hasn’t been driven in the rain since then. That hasn’t prevented it from being tracked every five years or so, although somewhat “gently”.
The CSL is the most valued of my other cars, most of which are BMWs and most of those M cars. Fittingly the CSL is not only BMW’s first Motorosport car, but my first. At the time I had a E28 535i, which was replaced with a 1991 E34 M5, then supplemented with a 2000 E36/8 M Coupe. Both of those are for sale too, in case anyone is interested.
I will see how the incredibly complex SMG fitted E60 M5 holds up compared to these.
I’ve taken the advice of people on the e9coupe forum to do nothing to the car because the new owner should be entitled to decide what to do with it.
The interior is, shall we say, very original. Others might say it is a little tired. I’ve noted the trend towards keeping “patina” on cars which is why I won’t freshen it up for sale, as I have noticed others (particularly dealers) do. It does need new fabric on the driver’s side Scheel particularly where the fabric is very stretched and thin, one of the door panel wood trim pieces is imperfect and the dash on the passenger side is warped and needs repair. The bits that you interact with most are in fine shape which makes it less irritating (the dash is warped on the passenger side). It had a new proper replacement steering wheel before I bought it. Oddly, since the fabric is worn on the drivers side seat, the vinyl on the Scheels is replaced, I believe since the texture is different than on others that I have seen.
Mechanically it is great. The only thing that I think I should tell you is that the cold start valve is kaput (suprise!).
I’ve been told it should not sell for less than $150,000 USD. I’m offering it at $150,000 USD now to forum members because I am hoping that I’m getting a slightly different buyer than on Ebay. I’m in Toronto, Canada. Bidding wars are welcome though!
I can’t believe how nervous and how many butterflies I have in my stomach as I get ready to post this!
David
Forum members get the first shot as I’m not putting it onto Ebay just yet. I actually think it is just more procrastination on my part to prevent its sale! I do think forum members are more likely to truly appreciate it.
Photos here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/swvwc3hnaxtbd0k/AAC_OxFfyT7IpdzuOIoe7jDpa?dl=0
I have had the pleasure this 1973 3.0 CSiL in Taiga since 1991 (2275146). The car was German, appropriately located in Bavaria when I bought it on a trip where I looked at several CSLs. So I brought it over to Canada. I’ve had the privilege of being friends with Marcus Glarner, who has made it possible for me to enjoy the car all these years.
The CSL is a pre-Batmobile (March 1973) but the original owner, a doctor in Bavaria, had the front spoiler and the roof hoop installed. He also replaced the four wheels with BBS-Mahle-BMW mesh wheels, although he kept the original Alpina spare. Other period modifications include an oil temperature gauge, Schroff harnesses and a flexible gooseneck reading light. A different radio was also fitted at some point but has since been removed and I have never put in a radio since driving it leaves me with absolutely no desire to listen to music. It will however, come with the radio tray and a Blaupunkt CR-2001 cassette radio, which I've never fitted and never even tried to see if it works. It is a North American radio with NA frequencies.
The CSL has the plexiglass rear window, thinner glass windows throughout, aluminum hood, trunk, door skins, gas tank lid, headlight covers, door brake etc. so it is a true lightweight car. It’s injected; a CSiL. That apparently makes it somewhat rare since more CSiL’s got the city pack than I realized. The front air dam, roof hoop and rear spoiler are not, but neither the earlier owners nor I liked the CSL stripe so those are the only parts of the Batmobile kit on it. I waver back and forth even on the roof hoop, but generally think that the uniqueness of it slightly trumps the better lines of the car without it. However all of that is for whoever owns the car next to decide.
In the mid 90’s, I had the body restored with what was then the last thin gauge tail panel then available for a CSL. The car had been repainted gold at one point so all of the body panels were stripped back to bare metal, except (foolishly) the underside of the hood, which had the non-CSL underhood sound/heat foam proofing on it, which I thought we wouldn’t remove. I also had the roof hoop hole repaired and it is now just held on with just the rain gutter clamps and double sided body tape. There is a picture of the front of the right door (with ruler) to show the 3 small and shallow bubbles which came up almost immediately after the restoration, and which have never changed or grown in the last 24 years. I thought it would get worse and would get fixed when it did get worse, but they never did. They were actually quite hard to photograph since they aren’t really noticeable from more than a few inches away. From more than a meter away they don’t detract from the car visually at all.
The car has 163,xxx km on it now with me putting on about 20,000 km of that. The first couple of years I drove it more than later, proving that restoring cars leads to a completely different mindset. For example the car hasn’t been driven in the rain since then. That hasn’t prevented it from being tracked every five years or so, although somewhat “gently”.
The CSL is the most valued of my other cars, most of which are BMWs and most of those M cars. Fittingly the CSL is not only BMW’s first Motorosport car, but my first. At the time I had a E28 535i, which was replaced with a 1991 E34 M5, then supplemented with a 2000 E36/8 M Coupe. Both of those are for sale too, in case anyone is interested.
I will see how the incredibly complex SMG fitted E60 M5 holds up compared to these.
I’ve taken the advice of people on the e9coupe forum to do nothing to the car because the new owner should be entitled to decide what to do with it.
The interior is, shall we say, very original. Others might say it is a little tired. I’ve noted the trend towards keeping “patina” on cars which is why I won’t freshen it up for sale, as I have noticed others (particularly dealers) do. It does need new fabric on the driver’s side Scheel particularly where the fabric is very stretched and thin, one of the door panel wood trim pieces is imperfect and the dash on the passenger side is warped and needs repair. The bits that you interact with most are in fine shape which makes it less irritating (the dash is warped on the passenger side). It had a new proper replacement steering wheel before I bought it. Oddly, since the fabric is worn on the drivers side seat, the vinyl on the Scheels is replaced, I believe since the texture is different than on others that I have seen.
Mechanically it is great. The only thing that I think I should tell you is that the cold start valve is kaput (suprise!).
I’ve been told it should not sell for less than $150,000 USD. I’m offering it at $150,000 USD now to forum members because I am hoping that I’m getting a slightly different buyer than on Ebay. I’m in Toronto, Canada. Bidding wars are welcome though!
I can’t believe how nervous and how many butterflies I have in my stomach as I get ready to post this!
David
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