I BOUGHT A THING (W/STORY)

"John_Harbinson" (jensenkid97)
06/11/2015 at 17:00 • Filed to: BMW, 635, manual, Kinja'd, Black on Blackc

I BOUGHT A THING ·

This thing is in fact, a car.

The car, does in fact, have a manual transmission.

The car with the manual transmission, is in fact, a BMW.

Please don’t label me a douche now.

Here’s a bit of backstory.

My friend’s dad has a bunch of cool cars. Recently, he bought a new car. Well, a new-to-him old car. It was a 1987 BMW 635CSI, painted a glorious shade of, well I’m actually not too sure of what it is, it’s a brownish beigeish goldish color, and it’s weird, but by god does it wear it well. He won the car in a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! auction back in October, and since the car was in Cincinnati, and my birthday was coming up, he invited me along to bring the car back with him. Here’s the car that started the obsession:

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

We took a 5:45 flight out of Hartford, and by 9:30, we were settling into the front seats of this phenomenal grand tourer, ready for the drive back to connecticut. We tried to make a point of not taking a major highway from the Pennsylvania border until Connecticut, but that backfired when halfway across Pennsylvania, we were told to be home for dinner. Even still, we got in a serious amount of backroads driving in, and I even got some seat-time, on one of the easier stretches, with a decent amount of long sweepers, technical curves and the odd hairpin. It was the first time that I had gotten to drive a fast car, well, fast, and it was a great learning experience. My shifting and rev-matching skills were already up to par, my daily at the time was a 5-speed Ford F-250 diesel, and to drive it “fast”, or as fast as it was willing to go, it had to be shifted quite precisely, due to the syncros being pretty shot. I decided, the minute after I got out of the driver’s seat for the first time, that I had to have one. Using the argument that If I couldn’t go to skip barber this summer (both my parents have been through their performance driving and racing school), then I needed something with pretty neutral handling, that was forgiving, not too fast, and reliable, so that I could learn to drive something other than a tank. I won the argument, if I could find one, I could buy it, my dad said. I had pretty much given up hope on the search after a couple of months, searching the local craigslist regularly, along with ebay, and now-defunct vintagewheels, until a car show about a month ago, when my friend, his dad and I took their BMW, and Porsche out. My faith in finding a manual 635CSI was renewed. Sitting on the grass hill behind where the car was parked in the parking lot with my friend, we noticed a man taking exceeding interest in the car. We got up and approached him, introduced ourselves, and after talking for a bit about the car, he mentioned that he had one “just like this, but black”. He wasn’t kidding. I’m not totally sure of the production numbers on these cars, but black on black, with the five-speed manual transmission can’t be too common of a configuration. The car that he had was a 1985, so it didn’t have the pesky rear air conditioning that is a pain in the rear to fix, should anything go wrong with it. It also had the M-tech non-airbag steering wheel, two extra sets of wheels and tires (one set has new trx’s), and not super high miles. I brought it over to the local BMW specialist, for a pre-purchase inspection, and after a general going-through and tune up, the car was ready for purchase. No major flaws were discovered, not that I expected there to be any, and arrangements were made. I’ll probably drive it for a bit, then flip it, because my dad helped pay for quite a bit of it, and I need to pay him off somehow. Not sure how I should sell it, I’m open to suggestion though. Probably going to sell it on ebay, but I’ll open it up to fellow Oppos, when I do decide to sell it, so you can get first dibs. Have some pictures of my (sorta) new car!!

DISCUSSION (19)

AM3R shamefully returns > John_Harbinson
06/11/2015 at 17:10

Looks great, and definitely let me know when you plan on selling it.

lone_liberal > John_Harbinson
06/11/2015 at 17:16

Third best looking BMW ever, right behind the 507 and M1. Hell, it might rank above the M1.

petebmwm > John_Harbinson
06/11/2015 at 17:18

try and sell the trx rims, tires are 400 a pop for a stupid michelin experiment... 390mm tires, what were they thinking.

Quattro-luvr, Powered by Datsun & Stinger > John_Harbinson
06/11/2015 at 17:23

DROOL! One of my favorite bemmers after the 2002.

Justin Hughes > John_Harbinson
06/11/2015 at 17:32

In my book, this is THE best looking BMW. Especially in black.

B_dol > John_Harbinson
06/11/2015 at 17:35

Picked up a great car, lucky you! Why turn around and sell it immediately...

LamboLarz13 > lone_liberal
06/11/2015 at 17:52

I just came here to say you’re all wrong, the best looking BMW is the E9 3.0 CS. The end.

P.S. With that out of the way, that black 635 is quite a looker.

Amoore100 > John_Harbinson
06/11/2015 at 18:17

Beautiful! I’m getting a new car (actually first car) as well but it’s much less interesting...a 2.4i V50...not that I’m jealous or anything...well, just a bit... (Lol, I actually really like the little Volvo but you scored big here!)

Tripper > John_Harbinson
06/11/2015 at 18:21

Dayum dude, great looking car! Congrats!

G_Body_Man: Sponsored by the number 3 > John_Harbinson
06/11/2015 at 19:38

My friend’s dad has an alpine white 635CSI that has had a couple of modifications done to it.

66671 - 200 [METRIC] my dash > John_Harbinson
06/11/2015 at 21:08

Beautiful dude! Congrats!

John_Harbinson > Amoore100
06/11/2015 at 21:11

Is it a manual?

Amoore100 > John_Harbinson
06/11/2015 at 22:19

Automagic unfortunately...

John_Harbinson > Amoore100
06/11/2015 at 22:21

Sad face. I have a friend who has a s40 with the 2.4 n/a and manual transmission, and it’s one of the nicest driving manual trans. cars I’ve ever driven.

Amoore100 > John_Harbinson
06/11/2015 at 22:22

Yeah. My dad says manual is less relevant now adays and there were no manuals in our price bracket so he says that maybe in the future we can get some sort of stick to for me to learn...

John_Harbinson > Amoore100
06/11/2015 at 22:26

There seem to be a fair amount of them in the Ct area, although they get scooped up quickly. They came to own the car after she wrecked their V70 this past winter (black ice, sad face again) and they went to the volvo dealer the next day and there was one there, available that they had recieved not more than a week ago, and it was less than $8k I think as well. I dream of driving a V-50 T5 Awd 6mt, they are such cool cars, and nobody makes fast wagons anymore, really.

Amoore100 > John_Harbinson
06/11/2015 at 23:06

Agreed. Spaceball!

911e46z06 > John_Harbinson
06/11/2015 at 23:58

I’m jelly of the thing you bought.

I've been looking pretty hard at these on Craigs, but haven't found a good one with a manual yet. Probably a good thing, because if I get one I'll have to park it outside, build more garage space, or sell something to make room.

pip bip - choose Corrour > John_Harbinson
06/12/2015 at 08:42

well done!