Rob, I enjoyed the article on your new-to-you Bavaria! It's been 33 years since I put Suspension Techniques sway bars on my Bavaria, but I'm surprised you had so much trouble with the 25/19 setup since back then they had 28mm front and 22mm rear bars available that I used. Korman had some blocks that fit between the top of the front bracket and the frame rail to prevent the bracket from deforming given how stiff the bars were. With those bars, Korman springs, Bilsteins, Alpina rear subframe bushings, some 8x16 wheels, etc, that car was a blast back in the mid-80s. My dad bought the car new in 1972, and I bought it from him in 1980. Ray Korman built a nice triple Weber breathing M30 for it in 1981, and my wife and I really enjoyed it for the next 13 years until I sold it in 1994. I did learn to *never* go looking for a sweet car once it's sold however. It looked like this when I sold it: ...and when I found it 11 years later, it looked like this after being left in a field to die: Looking forward to reading more Bavaria stories from you! I replaced/repaired/rebuilt a lot of that car through the 1980s! Regards, Chuck
With much thanks to Rob and Mike Miller, I got my father-in-law's 1972 Bavaria fixed up (a little), running and moving around on its own again (after not being driven for 15 years) the other weekend, and just got off the phone with Matt at Sportscar Restoration and got the ball rolling on the next step - body work, paint, and interior cleaning & restoration. I'm hoping for a good prognosis (and a reasonable estimate) so we can bring this baby all the way back from the brink.
Sorry for the delay, folks; was in the field. Nice looking Bav, at least when you sold it. Heartbreaking to come face-to-face with it later. I write in my book about having flipped a heavily-modified tii that the guy I sold it to offered to sell it back to me maybe two years later, and it was astonishing how much it had deteriorated. I also tell the story of Yale Rachlin's iconic tii that got run into the ground by the guy he sold it to. Fortunately that car was rescued; Justin Gerry and his father now own it. As I said in the column, I LOVE this Bavaria. My 2002tii and 3.0CSi both have modified interiors (Recaros or Konig seats, tighter steering wheels), but the Bav shall remain original. I love climbing into it and seeing it all stock. The big bus wheel just works in this car.
My first exposure to BMWs was in the early 1980s in a Bavaria. A coworker asked me to help him move his two cars from Kansas City to Philadelphia. I was making that same trip in the other direction with my two and planning to fly in between trips. Another long drive was not very attractive until he told me his two cars were a Bavaria and a 911C. I didn't know what the Bavaria was but he wanted to drive that and said I would drive the Porsche. The plan was to cruise 80 and do it in one long day. Well he couldn't stay in the car for more than an hour and a half so it was two long days. We traded cars occasionally (during one of the many stops) and I was surprised how similar the Bavaria felt to the Porsche. They certainly look totally different but they drive much closer to the same. So when I decided I needed a sporty convertible in 2009.......and a BMW 128i vert was not that much more than a Mustang....
