BMW 700

Gordon Murray’s piece on acquiring a BMW 700 coupé (The Insiders, July 2017) brought back happy motoring memories.

I bought a right-hand-drive one in the late Sixties and it was quite a conversation piece among my friends, who all had Minis or MGBS. As Gordon said, it had a better ride than a Mini and handled better than contemporary rear-engined cars such as the Hillman Imp. The beautifully smooth engine seemed to thrive on revs.

It did however develop a serious oil leak from the oil cooler which consisted of a steel pipe coiled round the engine block and cooled by the fan. I couldn’t afford to replace the pipe – an engine-out job – so I re-plumbed the feed to an aftermarket oil cooler. The other looming problem was rust, and for business purposes I replaced it with (oh dear!) a Vauxhall Viva HA van. Tim Mills