The Best ///M/Barge/General Rant/Look at this/O/T(Vol XVIII)
Discussion
It's quite an amazing collection but as I'm feeling a bit secondhand I think I could do with a BodySonic Amplifier to pep me up.
Of E38 B12's, there were 16 purchased new in the UK; 8 swb 5.7, 6 swb 6.0 and two lwb 5.7 cars. There were some rhd cars made for the Japanese market and two, one lwb 5.7 and one lwb 6.0, have been imported into the UK but both with no shortage of issues.
Of all those 18 rhd cars known to be in the UK just two or three are in use with Tax and MoT.
The necessary buzzkill 'buyer-beware' applies to the Japanese import cars and any 6.0 car.
Of E38 B12's, there were 16 purchased new in the UK; 8 swb 5.7, 6 swb 6.0 and two lwb 5.7 cars. There were some rhd cars made for the Japanese market and two, one lwb 5.7 and one lwb 6.0, have been imported into the UK but both with no shortage of issues.
Of all those 18 rhd cars known to be in the UK just two or three are in use with Tax and MoT.
The necessary buzzkill 'buyer-beware' applies to the Japanese import cars and any 6.0 car.
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E24man said:
It's quite an amazing collection but as I'm feeling a bit secondhand I think I could do with a BodySonic Amplifier to pep me up.
Of E38 B12's, there were 16 purchased new in the UK; 8 swb 5.7, 6 swb 6.0 and two lwb 5.7 cars. There were some rhd cars made for the Japanese market and two, one lwb 5.7 and one lwb 6.0, have been imported into the UK but both with no shortage of issues.
Of all those 18 rhd cars known to be in the UK just two or three are in use with Tax and MoT.
The necessary buzzkill 'buyer-beware' applies to the Japanese import cars and any 6.0 car.
SWB 5.7 for me please. Or an E32 B12. Could live with LHD too. Of E38 B12's, there were 16 purchased new in the UK; 8 swb 5.7, 6 swb 6.0 and two lwb 5.7 cars. There were some rhd cars made for the Japanese market and two, one lwb 5.7 and one lwb 6.0, have been imported into the UK but both with no shortage of issues.
Of all those 18 rhd cars known to be in the UK just two or three are in use with Tax and MoT.
The necessary buzzkill 'buyer-beware' applies to the Japanese import cars and any 6.0 car.
4941cc said:
E24man said:
It's quite an amazing collection but as I'm feeling a bit secondhand I think I could do with a BodySonic Amplifier to pep me up.
Of E38 B12's, there were 16 purchased new in the UK; 8 swb 5.7, 6 swb 6.0 and two lwb 5.7 cars. There were some rhd cars made for the Japanese market and two, one lwb 5.7 and one lwb 6.0, have been imported into the UK but both with no shortage of issues.
Of all those 18 rhd cars known to be in the UK just two or three are in use with Tax and MoT.
The necessary buzzkill 'buyer-beware' applies to the Japanese import cars and any 6.0 car.
SWB 5.7 for me please. Or an E32 B12. Could live with LHD too. Of E38 B12's, there were 16 purchased new in the UK; 8 swb 5.7, 6 swb 6.0 and two lwb 5.7 cars. There were some rhd cars made for the Japanese market and two, one lwb 5.7 and one lwb 6.0, have been imported into the UK but both with no shortage of issues.
Of all those 18 rhd cars known to be in the UK just two or three are in use with Tax and MoT.
The necessary buzzkill 'buyer-beware' applies to the Japanese import cars and any 6.0 car.
Fresh Prince said:
Why 5.7 over 6.0?
Because 5.7 was the largest that it was deemed that the M/S7x block could reliably be taken out to, by both BMW and ALPINA. It's the same block architecture as the small block sixes from the 80s, which went out to a max of 2.7 litres due to the thickness of walls between adjacent cylinders. For what seemed to mainly be marketing reasons, a 6.0 was developed - but given the relative rarity of those, yet high frequency of cooked engines, gasket issues and full replacement engines (at £18k a pop, 10-15 years ago), I'd give a 6.0 the swerve.
The 6,064cc of McLaren F1's V12 is entirely unrelated to these engines. That was derived from joining two 2,990 cc S50 24v (itself derived from the M50 sixes of the following generation) sixes together in principle.
L100NYY said:
Following on from that Youngtimer auction;
Chris Harris vid of him having a look around....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiLImHQbjis
nb. I so want an E38 Alpina B12
I watched that whilst I was stuck in hospital earlier this week. Also thanks to whoever posted the Hagerty barn finder link the other week. I've watched most of those now, I really envy the amount of space some people have in America to have barns that big!Chris Harris vid of him having a look around....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiLImHQbjis
nb. I so want an E38 Alpina B12
4941cc said:
Fresh Prince said:
Why 5.7 over 6.0?
Because 5.7 was the largest that it was deemed that the M/S7x block could reliably be taken out to, by both BMW and ALPINA. It's the same block architecture as the small block sixes from the 80s, which went out to a max of 2.7 litres due to the thickness of walls between adjacent cylinders. For what seemed to mainly be marketing reasons, a 6.0 was developed - but given the relative rarity of those, yet high frequency of cooked engines, gasket issues and full replacement engines (at £18k a pop, 10-15 years ago), I'd give a 6.0 the swerve.
The 6,064cc of McLaren F1's V12 is entirely unrelated to these engines. That was derived from joining two 2,990 cc S50 24v (itself derived from the M50 sixes of the following generation) sixes together in principle.
The issue with the 6.0 cars is two-fold.
Firstly the stroking of the 6.0 engine required pistons with appreciably shorter skirts and 0/40 (iirc) oil was initially specified. The combination of short skirts and skinny oil has led to a majority of the Alpina 6.0 engines consuming quite large amounts of oil as piston rattle scored the bores, with over half the engines ever built requiring the aforementioned very expensive rebuilds, some under warranty and some at customers expense, with some at as little as 15k miles (for comparison there are plenty of 5.7's over 250k km's and one or two over 400k km's on their original engines).
Alpina now recommend 10/60 for all their past V12 engines.
Secondly the gearboxes on the 6.0 cars seem more fragile; whether this due to the increased torque, more revvy engine encouraging hooligan behaviour or a technical update and change early in the 6.0 production period is unclear, but search enough forums (I did) and a picture emerges of far more 6.0 gearbox problems than 5.7.
As for swb vs lwb, there is just a 35kg weight gain for the lwb over the 1960kg of the swb and the useful extra space of the lwb is well worth the tiny disadvantage. Dynamically the lwb will give an even more supple ride, for a sports car the E38 isn't.
The 6.0 car had a declared 0-60 of 5.9 seconds and the 5.7 just outside 6 seconds but that isn't a measure of the cars real prowess; the outstanding ability of all the B12 cars, E32 included, is the rate at which you can add speed once you're already moving; put simply, it's relentless.
E24man said:
4941cc said:
Fresh Prince said:
Why 5.7 over 6.0?
Because 5.7 was the largest that it was deemed that the M/S7x block could reliably be taken out to, by both BMW and ALPINA. It's the same block architecture as the small block sixes from the 80s, which went out to a max of 2.7 litres due to the thickness of walls between adjacent cylinders. For what seemed to mainly be marketing reasons, a 6.0 was developed - but given the relative rarity of those, yet high frequency of cooked engines, gasket issues and full replacement engines (at £18k a pop, 10-15 years ago), I'd give a 6.0 the swerve.
The 6,064cc of McLaren F1's V12 is entirely unrelated to these engines. That was derived from joining two 2,990 cc S50 24v (itself derived from the M50 sixes of the following generation) sixes together in principle.
The issue with the 6.0 cars is two-fold.
Firstly the stroking of the 6.0 engine required pistons with appreciably shorter skirts and 0/40 (iirc) oil was initially specified. The combination of short skirts and skinny oil has led to a majority of the Alpina 6.0 engines consuming quite large amounts of oil as piston rattle scored the bores, with over half the engines ever built requiring the aforementioned very expensive rebuilds, some under warranty and some at customers expense, with some at as little as 15k miles (for comparison there are plenty of 5.7's over 250k km's and one or two over 400k km's on their original engines).
Alpina now recommend 10/60 for all their past V12 engines.
Secondly the gearboxes on the 6.0 cars seem more fragile; whether this due to the increased torque, more revvy engine encouraging hooligan behaviour or a technical update and change early in the 6.0 production period is unclear, but search enough forums (I did) and a picture emerges of far more 6.0 gearbox problems than 5.7.
As for swb vs lwb, there is just a 35kg weight gain for the lwb over the 1960kg of the swb and the useful extra space of the lwb is well worth the tiny disadvantage. Dynamically the lwb will give an even more supple ride, for a sports car the E38 isn't.
The 6.0 car had a declared 0-60 of 5.9 seconds and the 5.7 just outside 6 seconds but that isn't a measure of the cars real prowess; the outstanding ability of all the B12 cars, E32 included, is the rate at which you can add speed once you're already moving; put simply, it's relentless.
Some interesting toys going through Silverstone Auction at Race Retro;
nb Although the website seems to be playing up,
http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/race-retro-clas...
A couple of my favourites..... (in fact limited to three otherwise I got carried away)
A bruiser that I wouldn't have to be worried sbout using
http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/vauxhall-lotus-...
One for hillclimbs/breakfast clubs et al
http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/1959-austin-hea...
Just. Because
http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/1969-mgc-gts-13...
nb Although the website seems to be playing up,
http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/race-retro-clas...
A couple of my favourites..... (in fact limited to three otherwise I got carried away)
A bruiser that I wouldn't have to be worried sbout using
http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/vauxhall-lotus-...
====================
One for hillclimbs/breakfast clubs et al
http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/1959-austin-hea...
=====================
Just. Because
http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/1969-mgc-gts-13...
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