there,840 SC
there,840 SC
Author
Discussion

Jamie325

Original Poster:

3 posts

187 months

Sunday 6th March 2011
quotequote all
Hi there, can anyone help,

I'm looking for what to spend some of my divorce settlement on when it comes through...keep having hankerings for either a Cerbera or an 8 series but would ultimately like a little more go from the 8 as is usual. Csi? Possible but would like it a little more unusual. Seen a SC8 advertised in Bristol but can find no information on these what so ever. Advert's quite vague but says it's supercharged to 400bhp and had Alpina mods to brakes and suspension.

I regard myself quite clued up on all things 'E' but need a little help with this one guys and girls...cheers.

P.S. sorry for mentioning the plastic thing here.

DennisCooper

1,340 posts

201 months

Sunday 6th March 2011
quotequote all
hi
You need to contact the seller of the car, and ask what modifications the car has, the brand of the supercharger which Alpina brakes etc etc. If the seller is the one who did the work then he should easily be able to provide details. Then you can check to see which company did the conversion, or if it was a home/freinds did it installation etc. In short find out as much about it as you can. Any 8 series that's been supercharged has been done with aftermarket specialists and items, with any luck, it'll have been done by some of the high end BMW tuning houses ! else by a well known and reputable tuning company. If it is a home/friends project, then ensure you get the car inspected and thoroughly checked over at a reputable tuning company here in the UK to check things out etc.

Just to whet your appetite ! ...





Two Supercharged E31 840, both in silver, pristine and consecutive VIN/Chassis numbers! what you can't see is the 5 other Supercharged BMW's in the garage! (E39's E34)

Cheers, Dennis!

custardkid

2,514 posts

254 months

Sunday 6th March 2011
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I assume the car you are referring to is at cleevewood

Went with a friend last weekend as he was interested in a Z3M that the guy has.
saw the SC8 but didnt look at it closely... sorry

i'd recommend a visit tho, the guy seems to know his onions and has some amazing cars in there, every thing from MGBs through a lotus escort, 59mile mkII astra GTE, Etypes, to a dodge charger

custard

Jamie325

Original Poster:

3 posts

187 months

Sunday 6th March 2011
quotequote all
Thanks guys!

Dennis, you bad man! I'm now leaning away from the TVR (as I thought I would, reliability scares me a bit) - thanks for the advice, I'll contact him if it is still for sale when I get the money, (shouldn't be too long) and ask. Am I right in saying you have a bit of a problem for s'charged E's? lol

Let me know, interetsing possibility there.

Jamie

Custard, same as above but an Astra GTE with 59 miles on? Now that os cool, especially a MK1 in white.

Still looking though as it seems to be some sort of company that made it, I know the badge on the rear doesn't mean too much but looks a professional job from the ltd pics.

DennisCooper

1,340 posts

201 months

Sunday 6th March 2011
quotequote all
Hi

Yes! I do have a slight preference for Supercharged BMW's ! That garage is at an enthusiast's place in New York, I knew he had a S/C'd E39 Touring, what I didn't expect was the other 6 BMW's there!

I know a few over in LA as well, and some of the UK based examples as well! the 4.4 litre engine lends itself very well indeed to having this kind of work done, but do remember to upgrade many more parts of the car to match the increased performance, brakes, suspension, exhaust and ancilliaries etc. You might be limited on some choices as the UK s right hand drive, and some of the very well known kits will be left hand drive optimised. Looks like you'll have plenty of reading and research to do smile

Cheers, Dennis!

rtv

229 posts

199 months

Tuesday 8th March 2011
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Jamie.

That SC8 was owned by a mate of mine (and yours dennis!) and it was him that did the supercharger conversion. He sold it on a while back.

It has been for sale on PH for at least 2 years and is stupidly over priced, especially when a couple of grand more buys you a lovely low milage CSi! See the link below.

The one you want is this!

julian64

14,325 posts

284 months

Tuesday 8th March 2011
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Nope, you want to pick up an early 850i and put twin turbochargers in it.

LordGrover

34,186 posts

242 months

Tuesday 8th March 2011
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Been there a while that one: click.

julian64

14,325 posts

284 months

Tuesday 8th March 2011
quotequote all
You want to think carefully about an 8. I had one for a long time, and it was a very nice car.

The CSI was never the top of the range 8 series, and it certainly wasn't the later V8's.

The car the 8 series should always have been was this

http://germancarsforsaleblog.com/holy-smokes-twin-...

although I've seen much beter implementations of the dinan conversion.

It could only really be done on the 850i, and it really only best be done with one of the relatively few manual 850i's from circa 1991.

If I had the all the money in the world to play with I would have done this to my 850. My second choice would have been a CSI, and the idea of going to the eventually compromised v8 would not even have been considered.


I would have a chat with almost everyone whos owned one that you can before making a decision.

rtv

229 posts

199 months

Wednesday 9th March 2011
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Julian, interesting post and link, thanks for that! Trying to find a manual E31 V12 is no easy task though! IIRC only a handful made it into in the UK, and by a handful i mean single figures!

Surely the ultimate 8 would be a 5.7 B12?

julian64

14,325 posts

284 months

Wednesday 9th March 2011
quotequote all
rtv said:
Julian, interesting post and link, thanks for that! Trying to find a manual E31 V12 is no easy task though! IIRC only a handful made it into in the UK, and by a handful i mean single figures!

Surely the ultimate 8 would be a 5.7 B12?
I was told only 10% of the non CSI V12's.

When I originally looked at the possibility of the dinan conversion (always regret never going down this road, I opted for an E39 M5 instead) they wouldn't do it to a CSI because the head compression was too high.

At the time I looked dinan were charging close to 50K for the conversion and it was bizzare money. However occasionally you see them being offered second hand for reasonable money. Last one I saw was in the states being sold for 12K.

It would be a thing of love though, because the fuel consumption of my eight was about 16mpg combined, and thats before you messed with turbos !!!!

alexmckie

118 posts

271 months

Thursday 10th March 2011
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I know Steve also and he has spent a fortune on that car and it is well sorted but not worth £14k

If you can get a relatively low mileage Csi then get it.... I have a '91' 850 which I bought 7 years ago and love it to bits previous to that I had a Pre-cat Griff which was mental.

Mine has a set of Wokke chips (3) to boost Hp to 320 and I have fitted an M5 Lim Slip for a bit more fun....

0-60 is about 6 seconds which is not to bad for a 2 ton car.....

There is a guy on our 8 series forum who has fitted twin superchargers for about £6k and he reckons 450hp+ got to watch it though as the auto box is only rated for 400hp but these are upgradable....

In a nutshell I would say they have bags of road presence and are always a talking point to other motorists.....