1972 BMW 3.0 CSL £149,950
This may be top money for a CSL, but as Sam Dawson notes, it’s a beautifully restored example cossetted by BMW itself
Being a right-hand drive, Ukmarket car, this BMW 3.0 CSL isn’t in lightweight racinghomologation specification, but instead boasts the ‘town package,’ with practicalities like soundproofing, bumpers, glass windows and a stereo. Its towering stack of history folders includes a receipt from Historics at Brooklands attesting to its sale for £136,640 in November 2017, but it’s the vast sheaf of receipts from 1991 to 2012 that makes this car special.
During this time, it was part of a fleet of classics owned and maintained by BMW main dealer North Oxford Garage. BMW used it largely for promotional purposes for 20 years, the car barely racking up any road use before a full in-house bodywork restoration in 2011-12 including £17,567 in parts from BMW Classic and Jaymic, a £1823 mechanical overhaul in 2015, and a full retrim by local specialists Gary H Wright and Colin Dean in 2017 for £1260.
It only includes MOT certificates from 2016 onwards, but the fully-documented BMW ownership beforehand is certainly reassuring – this car has been in good hands. Unfortunately though, apart from an original workshop manual, there’s no documentation from its first 20 years.
It still presents well today, sitting on brand new Vredestein Quatrac 3 tyres all round. The bodywork is rust-free and spotless, the paint finish even, with just a tiny touched-in chip in the paint on the edge of the driver’s door by the latch, and a couple of dents and scratches on the driver’s-side rear wheelarch trim detracting. The doors and bootlid stand a bit proud when shut, but this appears to be the result of relatively fresh door seals that haven’t quite bedded-in yet.
Retrimmed complete with re-veneered wood in 2017, the interior is just starting to patinate. The Scheel bucket seats’ bolsters are unworn, but the squab fabric is loose and rumpled, though untorn. There are scratches in the centre-console oddments tray, the gear gaiter is coming away revealing old brown glue, and the passenger-door chrome trim is slightly dented and loose, though these are minor quibbles in an otherwise excellent cabin.
The theme of freshness with slight patination continues under the bonnet, with clean metalwork, no evidence of leaks, clear amber-coloured oil on the dipstick and no rust anywhere.
The fuel-injected engine fires on the first turn of the key. All the cabin electrics work including the electric windows, although the ones on the passenger side are sluggish compared to the driver’s. Once quickly warmed-through, the engine delivers smooth acceleration via a responsive-feeling throttle pedal. Gears engage cleanly with no baulking. The steering tracks well and is sensitive, with no slack, although there’s a slight pull to the left under braking which the vendor says will be fixed before the car is sold.
At fifty quid short of £150k, it’s top money for a CSL, especially a townpackage car. But in right-hand drive with a long-term BMW seal of approval, it makes a good case for being worth it.