Article Summary
- BMW’s hidden vault has everything from the first production car built in Spartanburg to the gorgeous ALPINA Roadster.
- The oldest car is a Bertone-designed 1959 503 coupe with a V8 engine.
- One of the rarest is a low-mileage M3 E36 Lightweight.
With BMW having such a long and prolific history, there’s bound to be something interesting locked away in a warehouse somewhere. The Petersen Automotive Museum gained rare access to some of the secret gems hidden at an undisclosed location. Better yet, BMW Group Classic USA Head Thomas Plucinsky guides us through a collection of vehicles that are rarely shown to the public.
There are plenty of Z cars, including a one-off Z3 British Racing Green with BBS wheels and a tan top. It has been part of the company’s collection from the very beginning and has covered fewer than 1,000 miles. It sits under the same roof as a late-production M Coupe “Clownshoe.” The Z collection wouldn’t be complete without several ALPINA models from the Z4 and Z8 lineages.
While a 3 Series in 318i specification might not sound like much, the E36 featured in the video holds significant historical relevance for the Spartanburg plant. It was the first BMW built at the factory in South Carolina. Speaking of milestones, the five-millionth and six-millionth vehicles produced there are also on display: a Tornado Red X5 M and a Java Green X6 M, respectively.
BMW Group Classic Owns An Eclectic Collection Of Cars
The oldest car in the collection is a 1953 503 Coupe powered by a V8 engine. Other historic vehicles include the stunning 3.0 CSL (E9), the iconic M3 (E30), the rare M3 Lightweight (E36), and the last hand-built M5 (E34). BMW’s only production V10 is found in the E60 M5. The naturally aspirated 5.0-liter engine is paired with a six-speed manual gearbox, a configuration offered exclusively in North America.
The strangest of the bunch? An early one-of-a-kind Z3 Coupe design study that led to the race car that competed at the Nürburgring. It featured half doors and little in the way of an interior. Actual race cars also reside in the secret warehouse, including GTP and Formula 2 machines. There’s also a championship-winning E34 M5 raced by David Donohue in the IMSA Bridgestone Supercar Championship.
One of the most interesting cars is the BMW ActiveE, essentially a 1 Series Coupe converted for EV duty. Around 500 examples were trialed before the i3 arrived in 2013 as the company’s first production electric vehicle. Fittingly, a late-production i3s sits right in front of the lesser-known ActiveE.
There’s more where that came from. The Petersen Automotive Museum will follow up with a second episode next week, and we’re hoping it will feature other special cars, such as the M1.
