Puzzle

[Arde]

Isn't it puzzling that the traffic and membership on this board are clearly
going up while the number of coupes is constant or going down?

At this rate the site may get acquired by Google or Yahoo and branded
www.e9coope.com

- Arde, Coopertino, CA

 

[x_atlas0]

I don't know, perhaps more people are getting fed up with the registry. I was never on it, so I don't know what it was like.

Alternatively, it does seem like most of the new members either want to find a coupe, or they stumble upon one that was derelict. So, the growing membership is a good thing, as it means more and more of the remaining coupes are accounted for.

Plus, there does seem to be a correlation with media representation. When a rag publishes an article on the coupe, more people come to the site. Always a good thing in my book.

 

[Misterchinn]

maybe it's the fruitcake theory... that there are actually only x amount of coupes represented on the board, but they keep being exchanged and the new owners register. I know my PO is a member of the board, so same coupe = 2 members. And I'm the 3rd owner so maybe 3 of these memberships are for the same coupe! That's my 3.0 cents. :lol:

 

[jhjacobs]

Its probably me. I'm being cyclic. My son gave me a coupe about a year ago and I got excited and started hitting the forum. Then I put it into a bodyshop and got depressed with the slow progress. Now that it's nearing completion I'm enthusiastic again. I had actually begun to forget that I owned a coupe and I even went a far as looking at Shelby Cobras... if I drove one would that have been considered cheating on my coupe?

 

[jmackro]

JJ:

I can't imagine two more different collector cars than a CS coupe, and a Shelby Cobra! Whenever I drive my coupe (which is often) I marvel at how civilized it is - mine has A/C, a 5 speed, leather, it runs well, brakes well, etc. etc. It's almost a "grown up's car" - but then, how many grownups drive 37 year old vehicles?

While I have never owned a Cobra, my understanding is that they are completely the opposite - will roast you, is noisy & windy, has no space for luggage, easy to kill yourself in, etc. Not that this is bad - just the anthesis of a civilized CS cou;e.[/img]

 

[jhjacobs]

E9 = Civilized; Shelby = Uncivilized. I can see that and appreciate both.

How would you classify my Harley Road King with White Brothers pipes? I guess it is the antithesis of the BMW K100 I used to own.

What can I say? I'm cyclic. Driven to extremes. I will wear a suit to a casual meeting and jeans to a board meeting. I revel in dichotomy.

I think this is a lot of why I like the E9 so much. As a youngster I drove an E3. I put over 200,000 miles on it and rebuilt the engine 3 times. I can honestly say the I probably replaced or repaired 90% of the car while I owned it. At the time, in the late seventies and early eighties, it was actually a very odd thing to drive a BMW; especially in East Tennessee. I used to love to race the muscle cars. They would light up their tires and I would smoke them. We approach a turn and they would brake; I would speed up. It was fun to be different. I had a friend with a 2002tii and one of our favorite games was to wrap a bottle of white wine with a wet cloth and drive around the mountains like bats out of hell with the bottle out the window; we were total fascinated with the evaporative cooling the could be achieved. My point is, at the time E9 were produced most of America what in love with Cutlass 442's, GTO, Cuda's, Challangers, Camaros, Trans Ams and the like. The BMW was radically different (advanced and refined). The E9 was the most pure form of the BMW refinement. In my humble opinion, it was the holy grail of driving; truly the ultimate driving machine.

A bit further off the point, but in the same spirit, I worked my way through college as an mechanic. The shop I worked in was not normal; especially for east Tennessee. The owner played Wagner and sometimes some Bach or Vivaldi for diversity. We worked on all types of cars but I was relegated to imports only after I installed a Zoom Clutch and Pressure plate for a customer with a Camaro and in the process changed with shift linkage to work backwards (I swapped 1 with 2 and 3 with 4); I was amused but the customer wasn't. I suspect this is part of why I turned out the way I did. :roll: