My Three Favourite BMW’s

A few weeks ago their was a story realised about someone’s seat catching fire while they were using their seat warmer this development really put the spotlight on BMW but for all the wrong reasons. However even though this was a huge embarrassment for the company it did at least make me think about what my favourite BMW is that won’t catch fire before you can drive away from the showroom. Obviously there is one condition and that is any three cars I choose has to be in or was in production. But apart from those conditions their are no limits not price or accessibility so with that in mind let’s look at the first of three BMW’s.

BMW M1
“The BMW M1 has been my favourite BMW ever since it came out and I got the chance to learn the story of the M1 and it is actually quite interesting with the car originally built to be used in sports car racing in the 70’s which meant like usual they had to make 400 road cars that can be sold to members of the public but they wouldn’t have been able to produce that many cars in the timeframe they had by them self so BMW partnered with Lamborghini to make the road cars in time and obviously Lamborghini went bankrupt and is now owned be the tech obsessed Audi”. But even with the setbacks BMW still managed to compete in Sports Car racing even though there was a huge rule change so their cars weren’t competitive anymore so after four years BMW pulled out in 1981. Leaving us with only 399 road legal M1’s produced with their amazing 3.5 litre M88/1I6 V12 engine. If I could have the choice to own any BMW this would easily be my pick because I just love the engine and the style it almost feels like it would have been a bond car with oil guns in the tail lights and machine guns in the bumper perhaps that is why it appeared in the 1977 Bond Film “The spy who loved me.”It’s the car you would drive down to Monte Carlo and immediately be photographed even though no one in the world has heard your name or knows you exist. You are doing the world a favour driving this car because you are keeping the history and the memory’s alive instead of them being crushed with the car in the scrapyard.

BMW 850CSi
The BMW 850CSi was a huge leap forward for BMW with it being the first car to have the option to pair a V12 and a six-speed manual something that seems normal now but in the 90’s it must have been like a Sci-fi movie going down country roads with a V12 Revving in front of you. Even though this car was slower then the BMW M1 with a top speed of 250kph(155mph) compared to the M1’s supersonic 265Kph(164mph) which made it the fastest German road sports car of that era for some reason people still love the 850CSi and some even say it is the best Sports car ever built. This car with it’s non-existent chance of being in a Bond movie is my second favourite BMW because it is just bonkers no-one at BMW got cold feet and said you know what let’s scrap the idea they stuck with all the way through and created a car that still hasn’t fully gotten the respect it deserves. It has always been lost out of the spotlight because of the BMW M1 and even though this car will never gets the full respect it deserves and won’t be kept on the road forever I will still love the 850CSi forever no-one will be able to change my mind.

BMW E30
The BMW E30 is a car that was often overlooked when it was new by the better looking E46 that still remains popular to this day but the E30 is one of my favourite BMW’s because of the success this car had in touring car racing during arguably the best time in touring car racing and is still a very popular choice in places like the United States, Australia and New Zealand with race series being run like the National Auto Sport Association’s spec E30. However even the E30’s racing success wasn’t enough to boost sales because only 2,433,000 models were produced when the E30 sedan finally went out of production in 1991 ten years after production started in 1982. The E30 was extremely powerful with the 325i only producing 168HP at 5,800 RPM but they were still good enough for 228kph(142Mph) with a 0-62mph time of 7.4 seconds slightly slower then the much newer E46 that produces 250Kph from 343hp which for a car that came out in 1997 six years after the E30 ended its production it does prove how potent the 325i really is. That is why 39 years after production started for the E30 I have started to love this car because unlike my two other favourite BMW’s on this list the E30 with its tiny 2.7 Litre engine can still pack a punch without biting your arm off. This car really deserves a lot of respect because it is amazing in so many ways and worth every penny if you are lucky enough to buy one of the 2,433,000 models that came out of Germany over that amazing ten year period.

BMW are making faster cheaper cars then their 90’s counterpart but in my opinion I think the BMW’s from the 90’s won’t be able to be topped very easily that is why this list is mainly older BMW’s. But that may not be your preference so if you have a different list please let me know in the comments.