Say hallo to project Marseille! (Patreon)
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If you've been following the channel from the beginning, then you know I have a soft spot for neglected 8 series. This is my 6th one, all with a 6-speed manual.
After striking out with that black E31 in Spain, I then had another get away in Madrid and finally, this one popped up for sale in France. My 2nd French 850i actually, I saved another one in Nancy over 2 years.
I slowly saved up to buy parts for the E60 M5 project, but after seeing this one and hearing the story, I had to save it. 07/1991, Calypso red, tan Sport seats E31 850i with the almighty 6-speed gearbox. It has 233.000 km and it was properly used by the previous owner. It had only 1 owner since 1998! The last picture is how the car looked 10 plus years ago. He got older and sick, and instead of letting it go, he parked it in his yard since around 2010. Apparently, one of those ran when parked situations.
His son in law got tired of looking at it and listed it for sale and that's when I swopped in. The seller actually had a ton of interest, but he saw my videos and recognized my name, and said he prefers to sell the car to me which was really nice to hear.
With that said, it's likely the roughest one I bought thus far. It was sitting outside so the paint is completely shot, rust is probably to be expected and it's mechanically totally dead.
Going to be a hell of a revival! Normally, I'd go to Marseille, inspect the car in person and make a video, but with current restrictions, it wasn't possible. The car is 10 hours away from me in one direction, staying overnight is not allowed and driving 20 hours in one day would be just reckless. So I bought it sight unseen and it'll be delivered to me mid-January.
It bummed me out not being able to go there as I enjoy traveling and buying cars, but such is the world at the moment. Anyway, I'm pretty excited to get this V12 beast going too!
P.S. I already bought the correct style 8 rims to replace that aftermarket ugliness.
Oh, I forgot to mention. I won't be doing a full restoration with this one. It would take way too much time and money, and between other projects, I really need to sell cars more often to stay afloat. This will be a revival series and then goes up for sale as a nice running & driving (hopefully) project.