Motorsport 635csi

QUOTE "How "special" they are depends on your point of view (I'm biased!)."

Not biased at all Andy, I had a lift in it the other night and have to say it was beautiful!!

A lot of highlines were of the same spec, without being motorsports.

A chrome bumper is lighter and so is slightly quicker and slightly better on fuel.

I am Biassed to, but to the chrome bumper cars.

A nice motorsport though is a mighty fine car especially in Macau Blue

Sohlman wrote: A chrome bumper is lighter and so is slightly quicker and slightly better on fuel.

There's a lot of myth about the weights of various E24 models. The chrome bumper models aren't much lighter than the Highlines at all. 

As you say, a lot of Highlines had Motorsport options but lot of pre-Highlines had most of the Highline options (less the leather dash & roof lining) too. 

The bumpers on the Highlines may look heavy but they're actually aluminium.  Electric seats weigh a bit more but I've had them out & they aren't that heavy. The heaviest increase comes from choosing an autobox rather than manual.

I've checked out the weights of the '82 to '89 Sixes & they only vary by 200lbs or so.  I weigh more than that!  In a car as heavy as a Six does having a passenger make a noticable difference to performance when you have 220bhp+ ? In a race car yes but not in a road car.

As can be seen from the original CSL & the M3 CSL (& all the 911 lightweights)  you have to junk an awful lot of stuff before it starts to make a noticeable difference.  All those "lightweights" also had more power too.

635CSi Highline Motorsport Edition - Full Fat, High Caffine 80% proof !

ive been looking to buy a an old 6 for quiet some time .but i really dont know the values of them .and this one in especialy ..seems to be maybe worth putting a bid in .but as i havent followed [as yet] the prices of them ...is this one over priced ??????

thanks for any info

Sorry Andy

"Bruce" (my old 7) was part ex'd as part of the deal on my new car on Friday

I have a chrome bumper 635 and I got tired of the chrome bits rusting. So I went out and bought some second-hand aluminium 'highline' bumpers, intending to modify them with wrap-round bits so they resemble the style of the chrome bumpers a bit better.

Aluminium will be very light and corrosion resistant, I thought to myself.

Well, this turned out to be a stupid idea. Although they could have been very lightweight, they are nothing of the sort. The aluminium bumpers are HEAVY, really really really HEAVY because they are made of very thick material and are designed to meet US spec parking lot collisions.

I think most of the weight gain in the highlines comes from these fat so-and-sos, and the rest comes from the electric seats, the self-levelling suspension, rear air-con and the leather dashboard etc etc. All of which I can live without quite happily thank you, especially if it tots up to 120kg+.

To put this into perspective this is about the same as the weight of the 6 cylinder engine in the new 6-series. Around a race track, this much extra weight would be like be like losing 20bhp or more. 

All 12V highlines have a lower compression engine and a slightly hotter cam than the earlier cars. Although peak power and torque are comparable with earlier engines there is going to be a smaller area beneath the torque curve. This plus the extra weight means they are mostly fitted with a shorter diff ratio to keep the acceleration reasonable, but this probably has a negative impact on the fuel consumption.

  Despite the drawbacks of the chrome bumpers, I'd not trade mine for a highline spec; but hey, each to his own, eh....

cheers