Ultra rare M535i lightweight barn find UK

I don’t understand owners like this. I find it almost criminal that it’s been put away and sitting in that garage this whole time. I’d say a few more things but it wouldn’t be “constructive.” I couldn’t even watch the whole thing. I hope it finds another owner other than this tool.
 
Having bought several cars that have sat for years and years, I appreciate the fact that this guy didn’t just leave the car sitting outside for 35 years saying “I know what I’ve got.” There is an easily found episode of Car SOS with a 2002 Turbo where the owner did just that as it rotted away. Most every E12 M535i in the UK has or had significant rot and this car appears to have escaped that.

It’s certainly odd that it was a perfectly functional car being driven into that garage (which is in such an odd place) then time marched on and somehow over 3 decades later he got help to get it going again. Seems like the poor repair to the front of the car was the impetus for parking it. At the time, it was not a valuable car at all and hindsight is 20/20 but at least he’s preserved the car well enough that it shouldn’t be too difficult to get it back up and running.

It’s an interesting car and I’d like to see more about it and the recommissioning. I am puzzled by the homologation discussion and the letter from BMW South Africa really gives little to no info or corroboration.

I’m happy to see anything E12 M535i related as they’re a misunderstood and under-appreciated car. The original 1410 cars were assembled by BMW Motorsport and are an important car in BMW’s history.
 
deQuincey said:
Criminal ? Oh ! Weird ?

who are we to judge ?

he looks like a normal guy, what is in his mind ? We do not know, makes me sad

hope he is now good
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deQuincey, as I recall you live near (or in) Bilbao, Spain....here in the States calling something like that "criminal' is more of a figure of speech and not meant literal, not "weird" at all actually. As a car lover to feel that way about the way rare cars are treated is not abnormal. Just sad to see such a cool, rare, car in such shape. Like Christopher pointed out these are very under-appreciated cars but this guy knew what he had from day one, or he wouldn't have kept it locked away. People on this site judge other peoples cars and how they are kept all the time, that is what we seem to do here...everyone has an opinion.

After listening to the owner it just strikes me odd that after all these years his best decision making process led him to keep wanting to keep it locked in a small garage in England and not decide to even look at it (for years). That is what is crazy to me. That's all I'm saying...
 
This was on FB a while back. From memory it's an E12 MLE the South African version of the M535i. Lot rarer than the E12 M535i. Think there's like literally 4 known cars. BMW recently restored one. Heard a heap about it when Group Classic was out here a few years back.
 
Wes said:
This was on FB a while back. From memory it's an E12 MLE the South African version of the M535i. Lot rarer than the E12 M535i. Think there's like literally 4 known cars. BMW recently restored one. Heard a heap about it when Group Classic was out here a few years back.
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No, not the MLE. This is a “4709” E12 M535i. Has E28 interior. South Africa didn’t get the E28 until 1985 so they updated the E12 in the meantime. There were 1,416 of these later cars made. The original run of M535s assembled in South Africa was 240 cars.
 
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