There are some cars you always dream of driving. You have them in the back of your mind and when one of those dreams come true you place a neat little tick next to that name and store it in the “Awesome” file cabinet in your brain. But what about the cars you didn’t even know you wanted to drive? This happened to me in Munich recently where I was lucky enough to drive a number of classic 5 Series BMWs. What a day that was!
It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested in driving these beautiful classics; it was more a point that I didn’t even have a clue as to just how much fun it would be to drive them. The drive super exceeded any excitement I had about them.
BMW was also celebrating 30 years of its diesel engine. So the first car I climbed into was a 1999 320d with a mere 720 km on the clock. It wasn’t as exciting as it was impressive. There are cars I drive today that are not as refined as this 14-year old car. This model was a fourth-generation 3 Series, which launched in 1998 and with this generation the new four-cylinder diesel engine was introduced. It’s high-pressure direct fuel injection, variable turbocharger geometry and four-valve technology set standards in engine torque, acoustics and emission levels. Thus the 320d provided the same performance as a car powered by a six-cylinder engine and the fuel economy of a three-cylinder engine. It was mated with a five-speed gearbox and reached a top speed of 207 km/h.
I then got to enjoy the M5 Ring Taxi. Of course it’s not as classic as the other vehicles in the line-up but an experience nonetheless. This car is used to take passengers around the world-famous Nürburgring. Since 1986, more than 90 000 passengers have experienced this thrill and the Ring Taxi has racked up more than 30 000 loops equalling about 650 000 km. Woah!
The next vehicle I stepped into would be that car I spoke about earlier that I didn’t even know belonged in my “Awesome” file cabinet until I stepped inside. The smell took me back to a part of my childhood I hadn’t thought about in years; driving up to Plettenberg Bay in my grandfather’s car playing I spy. This was a M535i and it was in mint condition. The model I got to experience was a 1981 but you could have easily thought you were driving a current vehicle. The ride, the handling, the performance … it was everything you could expect from BMW. This model was launched in 1979 and boasted a five-speed sports gearbox and reached a top speed of 222 km/h.
How do you follow the M535i? Well I guess with another classic, a 1986 524td. This model was first launched in 1983, being the first diesel-powered vehicle for BMW. It was not as much fun as the M535i, of course, but was a different kind of experience with its big steering wheel and maximum speed of 180 km/h.
It was a day like no other and I am sure I won’t have another experience like it. But what I have leant is that you always need to keep your dreams as open-ended as possible because you never know when you might achieve one of them.