1981 BMW 635csi e24 Euro Specs

1981 BMW 635CSi E24

WBAEC3108B5591453

European Spec

137,603 Miles and still driving

Kastanienrot-Metallic Paint (Chestnut Red)

Tan leather interior

Rare 3.5L M90 Engine

5-speed manual transmission

Limited Slip Differential

This car is a driver, not a show car.

Paint Quality: 6/10. It's what you would call a "5 foot paint job". As long as you're standing at least 5 feet away the car looks great. The car was repainted at one point in its life and the paint job was not very good. It seems as if they never cut and buffed the paint once they finished. Up close you will notice orange peel all over the car.

Interior Quality: 7/10. The interior is in pretty good shape. The seats don't have any rips or tears, but could use a deep cleaning. The dash is in great shape with only a few small cracks. The door panels are in great shape but at some point someone decided to cut holes in them to install some aftermarket speakers. The carpet is in good shape but could also use a deep clean. The carpet above the back seat under the back window is beginning to degrade.

Mechanical Quality 8/10.

With a new clutch, fresh engine fluids, new spark plugs and wires, complete fuel system overhaul, new brake pads, new C/V boots, new tires, and fresh oil in the transmission and differential, this thing runs and drives great and is a real blast to drive. The drive-train doesn't leak a drop but the car does smoke momentarily on startup. I'm pretty sure it's from the engine sitting so long the valve seals probably aren't what they used to be. That said, it runs great and should run great for many years to come. All of the gauges work except for the tachometer, I'm not sure why, I haven't looked into it too much.

Body Quality: 8/10.

Overall this car is really solid. It spent most of its time on the road in Florida and it shows. This car had chrome fenders screwed into all of the wheel wells and the one on the driver's side rear fender must of held moisture because it caused the fender to rust. The spare tire well was patched on the bottom at some point as was a very small part of the passenger floor. When the car was sitting in a barn for 16 years, there was a cat that liked to live under the hood and, let's just say, didn't always make it to the litter box to take care of business. This caused parts of the inner fender to rust through from the top down. The shock towers are fully intact, it's noting a weekend with a welder wouldn't fix. I plan on fixing it, I just haven't had the time. Other than those small problem areas, this car is incredibly solid and really I'm being picky about the others.

One thing to note, this car does not have a catalytic converter on it and never did. Therefore it would not pass emissions if you were planning on putting a regular plate on it and putting over 5,000 miles a year on it. This car is eligible for an antique plate though in which case you would not have to get it inspected. The car is not currently inspected.

For those of who who don't know, this was one of the fastest cars on the road and way ahead of it's time in 1981. This car has the 215 hp, 229 lb/ft, M90 Inline 6. For perspective, Corvettes at the time only got 190 hp out of a V8 nearly twice the size. This engine shares the same bottom end as the engine in the BMW M1 Supercar from the same time period. The difference is the M90 in this car has a M30 head on it de-tuning it from it's supercar cousin. That said, it still has 21 more horsepower and 14 more foot pounds of torque than the M30B32 engine that came in the US spec E24s at the time. This car also has some impressive equipment on it such as 4-piston front disk brakes, 2-piston rear disk brakes, an oil cooler, short ratio manual transmission, and limited slip differential. Best of all, the euro spec version of the E24 doesn't have the hideous DOT mandated bumpers of the 80's.