Rahal bat for sale at Canepa

400k +/- ... very nice car, not perfect. it didn't win its class at the Amelia concours it was beaten by a Miami CSL lightweight.
 
400 hours of mechanical sorting post resto?

That is a lot of hours.

The car that beat it at Amelia was largely original, but had funny things like power windows.
 
Rahal Batmobile

Gents,

The car looks lovely on the underside and I hate to be negative, but I also would like to make sure we all don't think certain things are correct and they get repeated again.

I suppose for $400k plus, we can all make a couple of comments.

Seam sealer in the engine bay running along where inner and outer wings meet, this should be clean metal showing spot welds every inch or two, seam sealer should only be on the vertical corners, never running along horizontally as seen here.

Front splitters are in the wrong place.

I hope I have been constructive and apologies for using this as a negativity example of the above mentioned points.

Best
 
John,

I don't know why the wood looks like it's shiny because it isn't. Must be the photos. I bought it from Bela 22. It wasn't spot on with the sheen, but close. The blower cover is definitely wrong, but on the Bat I am restoring now, I have changed that. With the splitters, I had really no point of reference since the holes had been welded shut. On my new Bat, I had my friend with a low mile original Bat send me all of the correct measurements. It's sometime challenging to get things absolutely correct since BMW really has no record of these cars so sometimes you just have to go with what you feel is right. Bobby's car was my first attempt at restoring a coupe and I learned a lot from it. This time things will be a lot different! I don't know why there would have to be over 400 hours put into the car post-restoration as the car was basically new from that point. Bobby sent me all of the paperwork from the shop that did the work, but it was extremely difficult to disipher. Despite it's minor "handicaps" it is one of the nicest examples I have ever seen.
 
That is a Beauty!!! I'd sure like those seats in mine. Ron, what is the finish process on the oil pan if you don't mind answering?
 
Splitters

When I saw the car in person at Amelia, the splitters looked like original BMW pieces, which was pretty neat. They were not aftermarket, as they so often can be.

Is the 400 hours hyperbole on the dealer's part? I can't imagine what The Werk Shop had left to do.
 
craterface said:
When I saw the car in person at Amelia, the splitters looked like original BMW pieces, which was pretty neat. They were not aftermarket, as they so often can be.

Is the 400 hours hyperbole on the dealer's part? I can't imagine what The Werk Shop had left to do.
Click to expand...

They had it in the shop for 2-3 weeks, there are 4 mechanics in the shop working on stuff from time to time, 2.5 x 40 x 4 = 400hrs > sounds like a good sales pitch... or maybe they're counting Ron's time?

But seriously, great car and I hope it goes for big bucks... a rising tide lifts all boats.
 
I have to ask.

What sort of condition was the car in to start with that the restoration had to be corrected to the tune of 400 hours in the shop? Must have been in pretty rough shape.
 
I always wondered how some shops come up with billable hours...Probably a lot like lawyers. Or do they have a guy with a stopwatch. That's the way Bobby would have wanted it
 
Reading the referenced Bimmer article, Ron P says the car was in way worse shape than he originally realized. Rust apparently required replacement of frame, floors, rockers, etc.
 
Bez said:
I always wondered how some shops come up with billable hours...Probably a lot like lawyers. Or do they have a guy with a stopwatch. That's the way Bobby would have wanted it
Click to expand...

You know, guys, it's one thing to nut and bolt restore a car and quite another thing to make it into a highly optimized driving machine. Sorting out a set of triple sidesdrafts could easily take 4-8 hours of labor when you consider all the driving conditions you have to check. Working out spring rates, ride height and shock damping settings could easily take a day at the track. Just making sure all mechanical systems are functioning normally and optimally takes effort. IMHO it takes a couple hundred miles of driving and testing (a week of shop time) to fully sort out a fresh restoration. Now, if an owner is obsessive, could this stretch into a hundred hours or so?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top