BMW 320 BAUR TOPCABRIOLET

Year of manufacture 1982 Recorded mileage 39,605

Asking price £24,993 Vendor 1st Choice Cars, Faringdon, Oxfordshire; 01235 765676; www.1stchoicebodyworks.net

WHEN IT WAS NEW Price £9014 Max power 122bhp Max torque 118lb ft 0-60mph 10 secs Top speed 112mph Mpg 30

This late carburettor 320 Baur Topcabriolet has had one owner from six months old, before which it appears to have been a demonstrator. Still with low mileage, it looks never to have had paint and is completely original, right down to the BMW locking wheelnuts.

The service history is excellent, with 10 stamps in the book to 16,487 miles in 1986, then various bills – all of which are from main dealers. There’s almost a full set of Mots with no advisories, and the paper trail shows almost no use since 2002, with 34,380 miles recorded in 2003. The cambelt was done at 36,021 miles… in 2006, so it really wants changing again.

The understructure and sills are excellent, there’s no rot under the rear wheelarches and the chromework is good. The wheels are unscuffed and likely refinished, shod with Continental Ecocontact tyres dated 2016 and showing lots of tread. The spare-wheel well is pristine, home to an older (’06) Conti. The suspension rubbers are all good, so too the exhaust – the rear half looks new. The motor and transmission are slightly damp, the diff dry underneath.

Inside, the seat weave is unworn, with one small mark in the passenger seat. The carpets are clean and tidy, with overmats. The roof is good, and easy to remove/refit and fold, still with the sticker from supplying Magpie Garage, Braunton, in the back window. Under the bootlid in the drop-down toolkit, all of the tools remain as well as the wheelnut key – and even a tyre gauge.

The motor has been left alone but for servicing and a new starter not too long ago. The oil is cleanish and to ‘max,’ the coolant blue/green and at the correct level.

It drives nicely, tightly enough to be in keeping with its mileage and with smooth gearchanges, though the steering wheel is misaligned by a quarterturn. There is some hesitancy when accelerating, as if a vacuum pipe has fallen off – though, to be fair, the car hadn’t been driven for months. The temperature needle sits steady halfway up the gauge.

The car will be sold with the owner’s handbook and MOT certificate to May.

SUMMARY

EXTERIOR

Likely the original Hennarot red paint; structurally sound

INTERIOR

Clean and unworn, but for one mark on the passenger seat

MECHANICALS

Low-mileage and with full service history, but possibly due belts

VALUE +++++ ,,,,,

For Timewarp car

Against Commensurately priced

SHOULD I BUY IT?

It’s a near-perfect example but it has been in stock for a while, so the price may be negotiable