Something Different

And would you believe Max Hoffman (the original Speedster guy) was behind its inception?

The RARE V8 Roadster That Almost Bankrupted BMW - The BMW 507

Really cool car. Someone should replicate the body in glass with a full steel ladder chassis. Mustang II front suspension and a live axle rear with coil-overs (that torsion bar setup on the original looks hard to source/replicate!). Buick 225/Rover V8 to motivate it, set in front of a T5.

Here's your intake:

The windshield looks close enough to an MGB to pass muster if you delete the wing windows. . . .

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I looked some more into the history, and sho 'nuf, this was another Max Hoffman-inspired project, with some notable failures to communicate. The US importer of P cars at the time (and recently of MB, too) thought the US market could support a stylish roadster that would slot between the Speedster and the MB 300SL, both in price and performance, so somewhere around $5K.

Unfortunately, someone at BMW (apparently without checking with Accounting) thought it would be a good idea to hand hammer the bodies from aluminum. One at a time. So you can figure out what happened to the eventual sticker price.

And performance, despite the 150-hp V-8, was less than sprightly, as, for some reason, these ended up weighing about 3000 lbs. Right, three thousand.

So, these cost about as much as a 300SL, weren't nearly as fast, and didn't look anything like the car that had just won at Lemans or the one Stirling Moss drove to victory at the Mille Miglia. Heck, even Speedsters were quicker, and you could buy three of those for what this thing cost.

Cute aluminum body or no, it was a tough sell.

But... but... but...

Elvis had one.

Yeah, 150hp for 3k lbs would be less that thrilling, but boy do they look nice.

They did a nice job with the "inspired-by" model Z8. You could buy quite a few of those for the same money.

@edsnova posted:

Really cool car. Someone should replicate the body in glass with a full steel ladder chassis. Mustang II front suspension and a live axle rear with coil-overs (that torsion bar setup on the original looks hard to source/replicate!). Buick 225/Rover V8 to motivate it, set in front of a T5.

Here's your intake:

The windshield looks close enough to an MGB to pass muster if you delete the wing windows. . . .

See: BMW v. BMW Owners Club of America.

@550aus posted:

They did a nice job with the "inspired-by" model Z8. You could buy quite a few of those for the same money.

Right after those came out, I took my BMW F650 in to BMW of San Francisco for a service. They had a Black/Red one on the floor. I jokingly asked if I could borrow it as my loaner.

Worked out ok. I got this instead.

I later rented it and my son and I rode down to the Moto GP/AMA Superbike races at Laguna  Seca.

ps: I think history repeated itself with the Z8. I think BMW lost money on every one and discontinued them soon after they were introduced.

@dlearl476 posted:

See: BMW v. BMW Owners Club of America.

Link? I find no such lawsuit.

Replica BMW 328 0ne-off.

(Compared to):

Here is another story about a company that made   BMW 328 replicas  built in Switzerland ,

Sbarro BMW 328 re-creation | Rare Car Network (rcnmag.com)

@edsnova posted:

Link? I find no such lawsuit.

Hmmm, either “search engines suck these days” or a case of you had to be there. Back in the 80s/90s I was a member.  Maybe it never made it to court but BMW threatened to sue the Owners Club over use of the Roundel on their magazine, letter head, merch, etc.

Point being i think any attempt to market a 508 replica would be crushed faster than a Scandinavian Jaguar.

Here is a guy that has been building a metal BMW 507 ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHdTHCNa2ig

I could not find the build thread that I think was on all metal shaping forum.

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@imperial , that is an astounding piece of work.

I wonder if this guy knows the metal fabricator that @Gordon Nichols often writes about here. The nose of the car looks like one of those shapes you could work on for months and not get right.

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