what is this thing????

[FerrariRestorer]

1972
Injected coupe, May 197? production-Factory inquiry was vague-but confirmed production date and delivery to southern italy and original color-but NOT if a 3.0 or 3.2 litre engine, claimed it was on the boundary and could be either 1...(also info on cars immediately preceeding, and succeeding this one in sequence of manufacture....they were more interested in the 507/2...!)
Aloy doors, hoods, NO front mechanism for hood-PINS ONLY!
Crank windows front-(supposed to have plastic 1/4 windows and rear windscreen also in plastic(says BMW)
No window mechanisms in rear
Scheel seats-NO headrests
NO sun roof-Black matrte ceiling material(I've seen this before...)
NO a//c
NO p/s
NO Radio or other "creature comforts"

NO Rust-been in a garage on stands for 27+ years
90%+ originalish car...some Bogus sstuf froma 1970s attempt at DOT conformity requirements, largely all gone though....

Is this car what I think it is?
Or is it bogus????
Opinions please-where do I look to verify?
thanks,
CIAO,
335s

 

[Arde]

where is this thing

Press gently on the roof with your index finger, if you leave a dent, then it is real. Also check thoroughly for tags all around the car, if you find "Made in China" it is time to be suspicious...

 

[abe3.0CSi]

The fact that it says no rust...you know it can't be real.
abe

 

[FlyWulf]

1000 words

How about getting a few pictures and posting them?

I would love to see it..


EddieE

 

[Tom M]

This link may help.

http://www.bmwcsregistry.org/Coupe_Information/e9production.html

If the VIN and the engine numbers match, you will know what it is.

 

[FerrariRestorer]

Gentleman on the roof-Thank you....this is the sort of queue which I was hoping for.

These web based listings of serial numbers and production figures are rather useless for any real substantive information-in my experience.

I have-as stated-had dialogue with BMW directly in WG(again, they seemed more interested in the rudge wheeled, series 2, 507 Cabriolet than this thing, or for that matter, the FI McLarens....).

The silk screening on the alloy tags has faded....but is readable...barely.
Most stickers have peeled-off long ago, and left little more than witness marks as to their original locations...

My moniker is self explanatory....or so I thought. In fact, it is almost, exclusively, all ex-Factory Team Racing cars, or, "coachbuilt Speacils"...1 of sorts of affairs.
The point is that I am not as much of a: "who is this idiot" as one might otherwise think of off handedly.

What this appears-based on experience-is that this is a "homologation" delete car....they built racing cars around these in the same fashion as RS carreras of the era.
I am merely seeking knowledgeable and EXPERIENCED answers to try and save my self some time and effort this close to Pebble Beach and the Monterey Hysteric Races.

iPictures: in the world I live in, customers cars are NOT photographed and webpublished. Period.
Countless times in the last 5-10 years, "journalists" allowed in to wherehouses for Photoshoots for calendars or magazine articles end up being used as "for sale" shills through out the world by people who do not own the car trying to sell or "broker" something to which they have NO legal authority to offer for sale.

Cupoertino poster-Woodside/Atherton/Redwood City....the owner is on the Long Island Sound, in Greenwich-Hedge Fund Manager Heaven....

 

[Arde]

Seems like for this one we need to ping the racing/CSL experts. Try Chicane, Yannick, Bill R., Dan (K?), for example.

PS: the picture thing can be solved by posting a very narrow detail of the car. Oh, and you may have heard of watermarks used for copyright enforcement.

 

[timt]

The "thing" that is being described would seem to be a production CSL from the 1,000 homologation run (ie, of the 500 LHD and 500 RHD) in 1972/73 for the CS in its lighter form. Its VIN would be in the range 2275001-2275500 and the engine should be 3.0 litres - 3003cc. Many threads on this subject. Don't confuse with th non FI version unless this car has been converted (unlikely?), also note that the 500 LHD cars were delivered some with a city pack (all glass etc) and some in their most basic form as described in the first post. The May 197? build quoted, if 1972 is theoretically too early for the 1,000 homologation run so should be 1973 close to the end of the run, if the car as described is original.

The VIN number is stamped into the top rear face of the firewall on the right hand side of the car, looking forward - easily visible when standing behind the wheel arch looking into the heater "plenum chamber" ... close to the bonnet pin fixing. Sorry if I'm giving basic "direction" if already known". Faking this stamp is clearly not impossible but in the main would not be worth the effort. The VIN plate is riveted and simple to replace so must always be checked against the firewall stamp.

I am assuming that the orginal question was seeking this sort of answer? Most of the web based VIN lists and production figures are as accurate as they will ever be now ... the inaccurate ones have either been corrected or are slipping/have slipped into obscurity.

Another school of thought on photographs and publicity - maintaining "secrecy" on car details and images can encourage scams; relatively open information (within sensible limits) and pictures in the public domain makes it more likely that "anoraks" (or "train spotters" if you prefer) will call out fakes and frauds as quickly as they peddled ... admittedly it won't prevent the gullible being stung, as well as the occasional unfortunate as it has happened ever since Eve "sold" Adam the apple.