The magic world of CSL VIN series

[CSL 1973]

Hi Ron,

Many thx for the clarification. City-pack or correctly "Town Package" as BMW called it in English ("Städtepaket" in German) was an official version of the CSL. It was mentioned in the CSL sales brochures and options list etc.

Nothing prevented a potential CSL buyer to "mix & match". I.e. a buyer of a non city-pack car cld add, from the options list, power steering, tool kit, power windows etc.

As to the stats, my guesstimate wld be some 200-210 non city pack injection cars.

As regards the ultra light ones (non city pack and no options - at all - chosen and including plexiglass rear windows etc), they are extremly rare. Most of them cld be found among the carb ones.

I have also heard the figure about 20-25 ultra light injection ones. Might be correct. Of course, these cars are among the 200-210 non city packers.

If I remember correctly, 2275205 was imported from Italy and looked pretty light. The only option might be the tool kit in the trunk and some few non-factory extras such as rear loudspeakers etc.

It cld be a car very close to ultra-light.

Cheers

Henric

 

[globalgrooves]

thanks for the info Henric, and Gianni, hopefully i will have mine back on the road in distance future, in the meantime their value seem to be going up and up, i think these cars have a great investment potential, along with 280se coupes, and 230 250 280sl's

 

[RonP]

If I remember correctly, 2275205 was imported from Italy and looked pretty light. The only option might be the tool kit in the trunk and some few non-factory extras such as rear loudspeakers etc.

Henric,

You are correct. The car was delivered to a dealer in Italy and strangely has a hood mechanism and no hood pins and also has a trunk mounted tool kit, but these are the only options.

Thank you again for your help. Here are some old photos of the car.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v454/ronperry/CSL205/

 

[giannicsl]

;--) grazie ragazzi

This ... is one of many excellent examples of the magical world and bmw csl!!

these guys with a passion for community work csl!

these guys have all my respect because with their great help and knowledge to help everyone better understand what it means to have or dream of a bmw!

Thanks Mr. RON,

Thanks Mr. Henric

Thanks Mr. YANNICK

Thanks Mr. 2275XXX

these guys deserve all my gratitude!

In the past I thanked the guys for the public owners of bmw e9 csl-csi

I thank them again many times!!


THANK YOU .... TO ALL!!

 

[RonP]

I lost e-mail address of friend Sean Steele.

please if some guy on the forum could say that I look for him to communicate news. thanks

Sean Steele: [email protected]

He is extremely busy right now, so don't be upset if he takes a bit to respond. Sean is one of my best friends and a great coupe guy.

 

[RonP]

This ... is one of many excellent examples of the magical world and bmw csl!!

these guys with a passion for community work csl!

these guys have all my respect because with their great help and knowledge to help everyone better understand what it means to have or dream of a bmw!

Thanks Mr. RON,

Thanks Mr. Henric

Thanks Mr. YANNICK

Thanks Mr. 2275XXX

these guys deserve all my gratitude!

In the past I thanked the guys for the public owners of bmw e9 csl-csi

I thank them again many times!!



THANK YOU .... TO ALL!!

Graci Gianni! Thank you for keeping track where BMW left off. Great work!!!!

 

[DJSimca]

Guten Tag Markus,

My relatives just asked me which CSL-related topic wld be discussed at this Sunday's dinner. I think the issue about the CSL interior lights is a very interesting topic and perfect for my Sunday dinner.

As far as I know, the following indoor/interior light combinations (inner-roof/roof headliner mounted) are possible to find in a CSL:

- No lights at all (very rare but e.g. 2275143)
- One light = left side (most of the LHD CSLs?)
- One light = right side (most of the RHD CSLs?)
- Two lights = left + right (2275328?)
- Two lights = front + right
- Two lights = front + left
- One light = front-mid
- One light = rear (?)

Grüss

Henric

This is indeed a very interesting topic Henric - not sure my family would share my excitement if I brought it up during Sunday dinner though ;-)

Like others mentioned I am also reading your posts with great interest - is there a way you could consolidate your knowledge/insights?

Turns out my CSL is one of the apparently rare models without any interior light! Not always handy when you want to get into the car at night ;-)

 

[DJSimca]

What I have is #2275205 which is set up almost exactly as one of the first 169 cars. It has front bumper delete, aluminum doors, hood, and trunk, fiberglass rear bumper, plexiglass rear windows, hood stand and pins, but mechanical trunk, no a/c, crank front windows, and no sway bars. It is Verona Red.

Wauw Ron, your car and mine must have seen each other on the production line ... I have #210 ;-)

 

[RonP]

Wauw Ron, your car and mine must have seen each other on the production line ... I have #210 ;-)

Is your car a full city package?

 

[DJSimca]

Is your car a full city package?

No - it is very similar to yours: alloys doors, hood and trunk, fibreglass rear bumper, hood stand and pins, crank front windows, no ac, no sway bars, thin carpets etc.

 

[RonP]

I think I found it already! It's this one, right?
http://www.bmwmregistry.com/detail.php?id=3399

That car is freaking beautiful!

 

[DJSimca]

I think I found it already! It's this one, right?
http://www.bmwmregistry.com/detail.php?id=3399

That car is freaking beautiful!

Correct ...

and thanks ;-)

 

[wsk]

2275204 is now a vintage racer

Steve Walker has the sister car, also originally Verona and (appropriately enough) from Italy. Steve's has become the lovely vintage racer whose "redo" he documented on this site. It's the Jagermeister orange car.

 

[CSL 1973]

Hi Torben and Ron,

Congrats to two nice cars. As regards the VIN, interesting with these two cars so close to each other.

Just a small curiousity; when the injection LHD CSL cars were produced, one cld think it would be logic that they were built in chronological VIN order.

However, the magic world of CSLs is not always very logic. For instance, a CSL with a VIN just below 2275130 was produced mid of November 1972. The later CSL 2275143 was produced nearly a month earlier (24 of October 1972). Logic? Not at all.

Cheers

Henric

 

[DJSimca]

Hi Torben and Ron,

Congrats to two nice cars. As regards the VIN, interesting with these two cars so close to each other.

Just a small curiousity; when the injection LHD CSL cars were produced, one cld think it would be logic that they were built in chronological VIN order.

However, the magic world of CSLs is not always very logic. For instance, a CSL with a VIN just below 2275130 was produced mid of November 1972. The later CSL 2275143 was produced nearly a month earlier (24 of October 1972). Logic? Not at all.

Cheers

Henric

aha ... so what your are saying is that #205 and #210 may not have 'seen' each other on the assembly line at all !!! Interesting

Ron, do you know when #205 was made? #210 was made on January 16, 1973

Henric, thanks for clearing that up ... do you have any idea why the cars were not made in chronological order?

 

[CSL 1973]

CSL Holy Grail

Torben,

This issue is close to the Holy grail of the CSL production. This is what came up during a recent after-ski evening in the bar (after some Jägermeister):

The stage settings are the following:

- Injection LHD CSL
- Karmann - Osnabrück, Germany
- Directive from Neerpasch: "build 1000 street CSL ASAP"

There are some possible scenarios:

1: BMW deliver batches of raw CSL-chassis to Karmann. The CSL chassis are waiting at Karmann "storage" until a client order a CSL in a specific color and with a specific set of options. The cars are taken randomly (as regards the VIN), for assembly, from the batch of waiting CSL chassis.

2: Same as above applies, but BMW deliver batches of sprayed CSL chassis to Karmann.

3: Either 1 or 2, but Karmann builds the cars without waiting for the client order

4: A mix of all four scenarios ("the Karmann staff is there - just put them at work and let's build some cars and hope that there wld be a demand")

I think only someone who really was involved, at Karmann at the time, could possible tell. My personal choise of scenario wld be nr 4.

My reasoning wld be that the overall drive for BMW, to build the CSL cars, wld be the homologation rules. At least 1000 street CSL cars must be built before BMW could use the race version.

BMW was very optimistic in the beginning and thought to sell 1000 CSL wld be like "a walk in the park". Also Neerpasch was extremly optimistic about this in a radio interview in 1972.

However, BMW cld not sell so many CSLs as expected. 1000 cars must be presented before a specific date in 1973 and the time was running out. So "let's finnish so many CSLs as possible" cld be a realistic approach.

As regards the VIN and "Produktionsdatum/Date of manufacture":

- An injection LHD CSL with a VIN just below -200 was built December 1, 1972
- An injection LHD CSL with a VIN just below -230 was built December 18, 1972

In between, your Fjord -210 with January 16, 1973 as production date...

Hälsningar

Henric
(of course, wearing the Motorsport ski-collection from the 70's in the ski-slops)

 

[giannicsl]

imho????

............ the magical world of CSL is known as such due to the great work guys called-Henric Yannic-MARK-RICH-STEFANO-RONP FEW and other good guys with so much passion and feet on the floor!!

Many other owners of this forum, csl owners have much to hide!

I asked them over the years, with much emphasis, but very much education, and provide more information to give them beautiful csl!!

I have not often seen ...
I have hurt others and exchanged for British treasury agent!!

csl world today is nice, but still very very strange!

I invite everyone to collaborate and exchange of information and vin #


it is stupid not to find photos of log csl csl-cs-csi.
then go on and find Mregistry djsimca of 2275210!


IMHO?????

Yannick friend knew that he wanted to create site-specific bmw e9 csl!
public site with lots of information .3.0 CSL WAS NAME OF WEB
what happened to this wonderful project??


cheers

 

[Arde]

aha ... so what your are saying is that #205 and #210 may not have 'seen' each other on the assembly line at all !!! Interesting

Ron, do you know when #205 was made? #210 was made on January 16, 1973

Henric, thanks for clearing that up ... do you have any idea why the cars were not made in chronological order?

In my ignorance I postulate this all depends on when during the manufacturing process the VIN is assigned. If the VIN is assigned when the chassis is made it is entirely possible that the cars are completed out of order relative to VIN.

If the VIN is assigned at the end when the car is almost complete then it would be very strange that cars are completed out of order unless you have parallel production lines and each one of them manages a block of VIN numbers.

I also thought these cars have matching VIN numbers on chassis and engine, so one option is to stamp on the chassis whatever number is already in the engine block. If that is the case the VIN sequence reflects the order of engine manufacturing, not the car itself.

But I am guessing.

 

[BMW Pete]

........

 

[giannicsl]

ALSO THANK YOU PETER FOR THE INFORMATION OF YOUR BEAUTIFUL BMW CSL!

I HAVE HAD THE LUCK IN THE PHOTO to see them ....!

THANKS