sharkfan

I've always found it's been a risk - as with all risks you might get lucky or unlucky. Another for example is a lwb Alpina B12 6.0 in rhd with very low miles, no history but good condition. No sooner had it landed than it needed an Alpina gearbox rebuild, no sooner had the owner got it running than it needed £20k of engine work... and the owner was a specialist in importing cars from Japan. The low mileage was the massive lie - probably well over 80k miles hence the gearbox melt-down and lack of servicing precipitating the wrong engine oil and subsequent damage. He'd imported dozens of cars over the years, some with some work needed, a lot with none, but this one bit him hard and deep. I'm really pleased that Dan and Loadmaster have got great cars but you can't say fairer than you're taking a risk - there are reasons some cars get sold and exported relatively cheaply, and just like any auction car - you could get burned. For info, the silver E38 B12 5.7 that was sold had mismatched rear lights, no PDC sensors, facelifted front wings, headlights and indicators, non-working headlight wash and missing rear valance Alpina exhaust trims; turns out it had been in a multi-car pile up and suffered front and rear damage.

Looks lovely.

The japanese import rhd silver E38 Alpina B12 5.7 that went through auction a year or so ago had all the hallmarks of damage repairs but no history with it...

Brake hose clamp?

I also looked into the Evans coolant whilst enduring seemingly endless small leaks interspersed with occasional hose/header tank/water pump/other-crappy-design-elements-not-designed-to-run-at-110-degrees-fail but instead I recently installed an OEM 740d 85 degree thermostat on my M62 engine to mitigate the bonkers no-safety-margin normal temperature envelope.

Sell it to me; you're obviously not using it, fallen out of love with it and you have the Tesla now so I'll remove the it-will-never-be-a-classic M6 off your hands to reduce your carbon footprint. Do you a good price too mista!

As above; only half-way-ish when tilted and as with all old cars, use it or lose it (the function that is). Well done Pete.

They get stiff if not used for a while - will it wiggle at all? My E39 Touring was laid up for a while but I knew it was ok before so after finding it very stiff I just rammed it closed and it has been ok since.

Yes, The owner and I drove the cars back to back and although marginal we think the supercharged car had the edge on the top end. We think it was running high 300's in bhp in comparison to the Alpina's 340bhp.

It was sad about minty but I ended up in a very nice Alpina E34 - this is parked next to probably an even quicker E34 Touring...

All mine, I started with this one, a 1995 six speed manual with only 20k on a factory replacement engine; it was minty mcminty and had been used in two photo-shoots just before I bought it. I needed it for the dogs... Truth be told I would still have that car today and probably no Alpina's if a sleepy taxi-driver hadn't gently rolled into it one New Years Eve... It may not look terminal but the front wheel is about an inch and a half back from where it should be, the bottom of the a-pillar is creased sufficiently to not let the door open and there was a crease in the roof just above the edge of the windscreen. The whole car had been shunted back about 10 or 12 feet. So I needed another dog-wagen and the cheapest M5 Touring in Europe popped up for sale... It was far from minty mcminty but it was blackity-black-black with black leather interior, black-headlining, hella black headlights and even Touring smoked rear lights. Alas, some years parked outside on the Cornish Atlantic coast had riddled the body with rot so when the 3.8 engine started knocking the whole thing was doomed - it was sold for parts and broken to its bits. It was a hoot while I had it but it showed me the chalk and cheese difference between the 3.8 and 4.0 engines; the ///M engine had seemingly no power until at least 3000rpm and then spooled up to be completely addictive from about 4700rpm to the redline - the V8 had masses of easy and immediate urge but ran out of energy about 5500rpm onwards -just when the ///M lump was in full playtime mode. I still needed an estate so I bought an E39 Touring but whilst owning the 540i/6 and M5 Touring cars I had learnt about the E34 Alpina Tourings. There were no B10-BiTurbo Tourings or B10 3.5 Tourings ever made in lhd or rhd, and out of all the B10 3.0 AllRad's, The B10 4.0 and B10 4.6, 93 cars in total, just one right hand drive car was ever made... It had never been pictured, spotted on posted about ever in the UK except for an obscure magazine article when it was delivered in 1995, but I made myself a promise that if it ever popped up for sale I would try and buy it. Alpina B10 4.6 Touring, number 16 of 19 made. 4.6 litre V8 engine, 340bhp and 354lb/ft - just 20 bhp and 30lb/ft short of the Alpina B10 BiTurbo. I bought it from the first owner who told me the tale of how it ended up choosing an obscure but very expensive Alpina Touring. He had a friend who had an E34 B10 3.5 from Sytner and he lied the way it drove but needed an estate car; he had been considering a 525iX Touring but felt it lacked sufficient 'go' so an Alpina brochure was found and he shown the details of the Alpina B10 3.0 AllRad Touring. It seemed to tick all the boxes - 4wd, Touring, more power, but... he turned over the page and saw the picture and details of the B10 4.6 Touring. He promptly forgot all about the 4wd stuff and sorted out his specification and then placed his order. It was due to be delivered in full stripes and badges from the factory but sometime between placing the order and the car being finished his friend in the be-striped B10 3.5 got car-jacked so he changed the order to forget the stripes just put the badges in the glove box. He owned and ran the car just as an anonymous silver E34 Touring for 17 years but had started to neglect it a little so after it being spotted by an Alpina enthusiast was asked if he would consider selling it. He was pretty horrified by the first few enquiries from people who wanted to rip the engine out and drop it into an E30 or kit-car so when I called and said I simply wanted to restore it and run it as a family car he was happy to talk. I bought it unseen and took a one-way ticket to Dover and had a very nice lunch with him and his wife before I became its second owner and I drove it home. I've had it eight years now and whilst there have been situations where we were nearly forced to sell it I'm very please I still have it.

Jesus Dan, it was little over a month ago; has your attention span waned that much?!! https://forum.bmw5.co.uk/topic/143144-rear-load-space-12v-charging-point/?tab=comments#comment-1532019

Having actually weighed three E34 Tourings, all full of fuel and no passenger I can confirm E34's are pretty weighty. 5 speed M5 Touring, 1820kg 6 speed 540i Touring, 1860kg Switch-Tronic B10 4.6 Touring, 1840kg. The latter two cars had electric front seats, the M5 not and those figures suggest the weight difference between a 5 speed and 6 speed gearbox is not inconsiderable.

A few years ago there was a member on here who owned a 520i Touring that had been converted to an M30 engined 535i Touring - have you considered that?

The owner started a thread on here... https://forum.bmw5.co.uk/topic/142067-restoration-project/?tab=comments#comment-1523433