In the latest instalment of what’s on the ramp we hear from our resident M specialist at GQ’s restoration studio.
BMW are a magnificent company with a long heritage of driver centric cars and for myself the period of the 1970’s 80’s and 90’s were their golden period when the qualities derived from their continuous alignment with motorsport creating a fabulously stylish and innovative brand under the exciting umbrella of M Power.
I’ve owned and still do the last hand built BMW in the form of E34 M5 3.8 covering some 200,000 pleasurable miles never sold because of the way they get under your skin. This particular subject however does not belong to me but is one of the last 50 cars specifically for the ‘Uk only market’ built in Orinoco Green 35no with mint green leather interior or Rosso Red 15no with champagne leather. In line with past special commemoration E34 M5 models of their race drivers (Cecotto and Winkelhoch) it was supposed to have been named The Soper.
So it’s a rare car and one of Garage Queen clients also shares the love of the old school tactile nature and the glorious straight six, it’s a car that demands to be driven to extract the best of it’s performance and handling whereas the next generation E39 M5 had V8 torque in buckets that required less driver focus.
There are particular items that appeared on the 3.8 litre models one in particular being the EDC (electronic damper control). This was an electronic switchable device providing a soft comfortable setting or tightened the damping for press on motoring. As time passed they started to leak, the cost for replacements spiralled from the hundreds to the thousands and eventually BMW stopped producing them. We use a European company who are one of many who tried and in their case succeeded in finding an affordable solution but this is not the point of the story.
In chassis number terms this car is 332, and over time the EDC system had been replaced by a bespoke set up using Bilstein dampers along with polybushes with a delete of the self levelling system. However, it’s tight and firm brilliance were not in anyway compatible with our rough and poor undulating road surfaces, the car was crashy and noisy and impossible to drive swiftly on our B roads without a great deal of discomfort and driver effort.
With my own car I discovered years ago that the EDC system didn’t suit my driving being either too soft or to harsh (the set up was perfect for Germany however) and so I discovered that the genius that is AC Schnitzer had developed their own non electronic system and as luck would have it managed to bag the very last set available comprising of front and rear dampers, front springs and matching anti roll bars.
With a slight reduction in front ride height the handling was brilliant, it firms up for the important corners but retains compliance in the straight ahead. Having experienced around 150k miles on the AC Schnitzer set up I was confident in recommending it to the owner of 332.
This then is the story of that journey - it started with sourcing a secondhand ACS kit, having the front dampers overhauled by Bilstein whose dampers they were but to AC Schnitzers specific damping rates which are etched into a code on the dampers themselves.
The kit was in reasonable condition and so decided that we would take a chance with leaving the rears alone having checked with the specialist whether they would be able to repair if necessary (being a sealed unit) which they were.
The project started in March 24 and the car was eventually completed in May 25 not a situation on the suspension kit which might ordinarily take a day or two to swap but because once the work got underway there were a whole host of issues that one might find in a car that has lived a life on our salty uk roads for 140k miles and 30 years.
We found severley corroded brake, fuel and self levelling fluid lines that run the length of the car, patches of corroded metal that had to be cut out and reformed. The fuel tank had areas of rust and just starting to weep. It appears as though the rear end had a knock affecting the geometry to the offside rear.
And so the complete underside of the car was stripped to its individual parts, all new mountings and bushes were fitted/pressed in (the polybushes discarded). Where possible new nuts/bolts/washers were fitted or where unavailable the parts were re plated.
New brake, fuel and SLS lines were fitted with new mounting brackets (when possible) all the heavy componentry i.e. radius arms, rear sub frame and macpherson struts etc. etc were stripped by blasting and repainted in 2k primer and satin black top coat.
New wheel bearings were fitted along with brake dust shields. The differential was leaking and upon stripping down the LSD, the drive surfaces were contaminated, this was entirely rebuilt with new plates, bearings and oil seals.
The exhaust heat shields were rotten at the fixing points and were mostly replaced where possible. The front brake discs replaced with a partly worn set as BMW are out of stock, the rears were new. The callipers were blasted and refinished to OE spec with new seals. A new SLS switch was searched for across the world with out success in the end a secondhand unit was sourced where the mountings were re plated along with making a new control rod.
The exhaust system was thankfully sound and simply rubbed down and repainted. Eventually it was all back together and the car delivered to a local garage to have the suspension and tracking aligned and for it’s MOT. The engine started immediately following the work but it proved difficult to get the emissions correct until the garage finally managed to get the required heat into the cats through some on the road fast running.
It provided a sense of purpose and satisfaction to save this fabulous car and have her running strong and reliably with a completely restored underside. The icing on the cake was the new set of Michelins Pilot Sports finest fitted to the newly restored twin spoke alloys and a fresh detail to make the paint ping once more.
If anyone fancies a coffee, has any questions or needs any support with a similar project feel feee to reach out.
For anyone really interested in how far we went below are just a few (dozens) shots taken candidly during the 14 month process along with a video at the bottom from collection day.
