Sunday Drive: Retro Ragtops Star in FIAT vs BMW
After a long day brainstorming business ideas, the call of the road became too great to resist. By mid afternoon my associates and I gave into temptation and took to the streets a pair of retro ragtops.
There’s only so much inspiration you can gather in front of a computer, after all.
I sniped mum’s DSLR on the way out and got a few good images of my father’s FIAT Spider 2000 dueling with my good friend Ben’s E30 convertible around Cape Ann.
If you didn’t get a chance to hit the tarmac this weekend, we hope these frames will inspire you to get that winter project wrapped up and get on the road!
Even an E30 looks big parked next to Pininfarina’s tiny Italian.
My Ultimate Fantasy is Realized: Old BMWs are New Again
The 1972 BMW 3.0 CSi; Swift, subtle and beautiful.
The first product of a BMW-branded restoration.
Unfortunately most examples are now also bent, rusty, and wheezing to keep up with modern Vespas.
What’s a classic BMW lover to do?
Well if you’ve got the cash, you can take your classic Bavarian cream puff to “BMW Welt” (Welt auf Deutch means World in Engeles).
This place is awesome like a pizza factory run by hot naked girls.
It’s undeniably wacky looking… but beat up Bimmers that enter this place come out with a second lease on life, sometimes to the tune of over one hundred grand.
But if you’ve got a truly classic BMW with a lot of historical value and you want to look just like it did when it rolled off the showroom floor, what better place to take it than the showroom itself.
BMW engineers got to incredible lengths to get the resto done right, with the original blueprints sourced for custom work like a transmission swap from another classic Bimmer.
BMW is hoping that this trend will catch on with fans of the brand- people bringing their classics in to get the most pampering and accurate restoration that money can buy.
Doesn’t sound like the best business model in the throes of recession, but I love the idea and I hope there are enough rich Bimmer owners out there to make the operation last.
The more classic cars that survive, the better.
3.0 CSi Coupe
Imagine BMW Welt's skills put to work on a 507... one of the loveliest cars of all time.
