THE DECADE THAT CAN’T BE BEATEN…
BMW stormed the world in the Eighties
What was in the water over in Munich in the Eighties? The first M3 instantly made Mercedes-benz regret stirring up the hornet’s nest. A few years earlier, the angular M1 supercar had looked very likely to cause Lamborghini the same regret (in that instance the architects of their own potential destruction). Then, by the middle of the decade, the launch of the epoch-shifting M5 and, for many the boss of them all, the M635CSI cemented BMW’S foundation for world domination.
Paul Bracq’s brutal shark-nosed autobahn predator deploys its 286bhp to devastating effect via the straight-six M88 engine (robbed from the aforementioned M1). A reinforced five-speed manual transmission, limited-slip differential and a battery relocated to the back were designed to tame those rampant horses, which they didn’t, as this big GT was always a pretty lairy steer. Hardly surprising considering that it was basically a touring car that had swapped its war paint for a business suit.
Building upon the racing success of its predecessor – the now rightly legendary 3.0CSL – the E24 M635CSI took endurance wins across the globe. Most notably in the ’83, ’85 and ’86 24-Hours of
Spa; as part of the European Touring Car Championship. It would also see outright wins in the same series in ’81, ’83 and ’86. It pulled off the same feat in the German Touring Car Championship in ’84 and would also win that year’s 24-Hour round at the Nürburgring.
BMW Motorsport handbuilt just 5855 of these über desirable coupés between 1984 and 1989 and I (JJ) was lucky enough to get behind the wheel of one just before the latest lockdown began.
This truly remarkable 48,000-mile M635CSI is up for sale at Horsepower Hangar
(horsepowerhangar. com)
and has to be one of the most appealing examples I’ve seen in a long time. Performance to humiliate Modena is wrapped in unashamed Eighties
‘Performance to humiliate Modena and pure Eighties opulence inside’
opulence, making this a step in a very new direction for BMW at the time. A couple of sphincter workouts at soggy junctions and roundabouts proved that time hasn’t blunted the thrills on offer from this classic M-power product.
It’s sitting on new, but still OE, metric TRX tyres, so the ride’s fantastic, but the grip levels aren’t anywhere near a modern equivalent. Though that’s all a part of the M635CSI experience. Treat it with respect and it’ll dazzle, drive like a plonker and you’ll run out of talent long before its chassis does.