Reunited after 18 years - My E12 story

[Gentil79]

Hi all.

The video about the full story of my BMW E12 is now up! During its 48 year history it changed countries, was closed to being scrapped, saved by a car nut, bought by a penny less idiot (me), then sold it and the disappeared without a trace for nearly 14 years until it was recently found in the most extraordinary way. It is a bit long, but every detail makes a good story like this one.

 

Link below:

 

My 1974 BMW E12 - the full story

 

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by Gentil79

[duncan-uk]

I only realised recently that early cars had the bonnet bulge - was watching an old "Dempsey & Makepeace" (don't judge me) and saw an e12 and noticed the different bonnet.

 

I believe this is a 528

[Matt]

That was enjoyable and a good story.  Thanks for posting.

[Gentil79]

9 hours ago, duncan-uk said:

I only realised recently that early cars had the bonnet bulge - was watching an old "Dempsey & Makepeace" (don't judge me) and saw an e12 and noticed the different bonnet.

 

I believe this is a 528

The six cylinder cars had the bonnet bulge, but the 4 cyl cars had a flat bonnet. 
The South African cars, in order to save costs, had the same bonnet for all cars, hence why mine had the bulge.

Btw, I loved Dempsey and Makepeace!

[Gentil79]

9 hours ago, Matt said:

That was enjoyable and a good story.  Thanks for posting.

Thank you

[duncan-uk]

44 minutes ago, Gentil79 said:

The six cylinder cars had the bonnet bulge, but the 4 cyl cars had a flat bonnet. 
The South African cars, in order to save costs, had the same bonnet for all cars, hence why mine had the bulge.

Btw, I loved Dempsey and Makepeace!

But later cars where different again. I hadn’t realised there where different bonnets hence me taking the screen shot!
 

[Gentil79]

25 minutes ago, duncan-uk said:

But later cars where different again. I hadn’t realised there where different bonnets hence me taking the screen shot!
 

Yes, The pre-facelift cars had two bonnets, (except the South African assembled cars which all had the same bonnet). The facelift cars (from ‘76 such as the one in this picture) all had the same bonnet regardless of engine and place of assembly. There were many other changes too. Also the kidney on the facelift cars is more visible, unlike the pre-facelift cars were the bottom is partially hidden by the bumper. Personally, I think the facelift arrangement is more elegant.

[duncan-uk]

Yes I know this now after seeing The D&M car. I think we’re used to seeing m535is but not much else. So I’d assumed they all had the later bonnet hence my surprise. Not overly common new and early ones all but gone!

[Gentil79]

Indeed. I only saw a handful of pre-facelift cars on the E12 Uk group. Never seen one on the road, only a few facelift cars, but single figures in the last 15 years.

[Steve VH]

The facelift bonnet is definitely more elegant, the way it frames the top of the kidney grills, way back in the early 1990's I had two E12's, both M30 525's, I loved the finish, working on, and driving them, the E28 was a better car in pretty much all respects, but also a very dated drive today.

 

[Sir Anthony Regents Park]

I always preferred the early ones. 

 

Facelift cars (late 1976) also had the bigger tail lights and the fuel filler flap on the drivers side back wing rather than in the rear panel. My first E12 was an August '77 528 auto in Polaris silver, a facelift car with the dreaded Solex 4A1 carburettor that actually behaved itself. I bought E12's when they were peanuts but I never had a pre facelift one. Even 25-30 years ago they were rare.

 

 

[Steve VH]

Yes, even in the 1980's an E28 was quite a rare sight, compared to the deluge of bmw's on the road today, back then, bmw was almost a niche car builder, having a reputation of well made, good to drive cars, and all the more nicer for being the case, that's progress for you.

Edited December 27, 2022 by Steve VH

[duncan-uk]

When I worked in Clarkenwell in the late 90s I used to walk past a blue 528i each morning was probably 10 years old - I remember it always caught my eye.

I also remember they were filiming "about a boy" and the closing of the road added 5 minutes to my walk 😡