Friday 9th June 2017

BMW 745i (E23) touring car: Pic Of The Week

There's a feature on the little known BMW tin top star to follow, but here's the wallpaper for now!

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Think of the great BMW touring cars and the M3 will inevitably come to mind, probably followed by other 3 Series derivatives. A classic 5 or 6 Series will most likely come up in the discussion too, and things could be brought back up to date with the 125i currently used in the BTCC. It would certainly be a fair while before anybody brought up the 7 Series touring car, put it that way.

Yes, 7 Series, you read that correctly. The E23-generation car you see here is an incredibly rare racer, created by BMW South Africa back in the 70s and recently restored by a doting enthusiast. There's a full feature to follow next week on the car's history and the rebuild, but here's a quick fact to whet the appetite (in case for some reason it wasn't already): this 7 Series uses an M1 engine. Yes, the straight-six that sounds like this. Wow.

The story really is a fascinating read, an insight into a very cool racing few have heard of. Keep an eye on the homepage for that very soon; although with this as your wallpaper, it may be very hard to tear yourself away from the desktop - enjoy!

Traditional (4:3)
Computer widescreen (16:10)
TV widescreen (16:9)

[Photo: Rob Till]

[alex_rsa]

This was the start of a long line of BMW specials built by Tony Viana. The got a lot wilder and faster!

The 745i was built for Group One (I think) touring cars spec so was very standard, it used to be pursued by a pack of howling RX-7's.

Great to see someone saved it as most old South African racing cars no longer exist.