Roald Dahl’s family BMW could be yours
A 1989 BMW 535i SE (E34) ordered for children’s author, Roald Dahl, is up for sale at Cotswolds marque specialist, Classic Bahnstormers for £5500.
Used by Dahl’s daughter, Tessa, following his death in 1990, the car was built to his favoured specification – Malachite Green paint with a special-order Crimson red leather interior. The seat rails were also specially lengthened to allow both the 6ft 6in Dahl and his wife, Felicity, to drive the car comfortably.
This is the second time that Classic Bahnstormers has sold the car; a friend of owner/operator, Stephen Curtis, made him aware of the E34 two years ago. He said: ‘It arrived with us having sat for a long time, removed from an estate in Oxfordshire used by the Dahl family by a scrap dealer who had planned to banger race it before a BMW breaker stepped in.
‘The owner, knowing that I was a BMW straight-six [M30] fan, sold it to us. There are no owner details in the handbook at all (normally the first owners’ name is present); it was bought through a holding company but in the event he died so Roald Dahl’s wife drove it instead.
The car’s current Dutch owner now wants to move the car on. Its re-appearance on the market has prompted recollections from posters on Classic Bahnstormers’ social media pages, including those of Jason Jackson, who worked at Dahl’s supplying dealer, Hughenden Valley Motors, in the Nineties. He said: ‘His family had had other BMWs with that trim and colour scheme. The crimson leather was a special order and the seat rails were lengthened for him during the car’s predelivery inspection.’
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