My Dad’s BMW

One of my favourite cars of all time has to be my dads BMW 520i.

It’s the last of the E34 shape, with the M50 DOHC, 24v, Straight-6, with BMW’s VANOS variable valve timing and produces 150 Bhp @ 5900Rpm; and while it may not be the fastest car in the world, it’s smooth, fun, handles great for a big barge, sounds fantastic and has one of the best engines in the world underneath the bonnet.

The earlier 520i E34′s had a SOHC, 12v straight 6, which developed 130Bhp, but BMW were designing a new engine for the E39 shape BMW, and to get rid of the last of the old shape, and dropped the 24 valve in. It’s a fantastic motor, sounds great, has lots of torque for the size, and is reasonable on fuel.

It’s now done nigh on 140,000 miles, and doesn’t burn a drop of oil!

It had it’s MOT today, and even considering the astronomical miles, the emisions were fantastic, and shockingly close to the factory spec’s!

We paid £500 for the car, two years ago, and it was in need of a new clutch (The Thrust Bearing was getting a little noisy) and a service, so we got a genuine BMW Clutch for £250, and a full service for around £170-180.

When we bought the car, it was in an awful state, as the owner had let his children rampant in the poor old bus, there was moss on the carpets, the boot was FULL of sand and golf balls, the little centre console had orange juice spilt in it, and that went mouldy, and it was filthy on the outside too.

But five days of hard graft, polishing, hoovering, and general cleaning, had it looking almost new again!

It’s served us without a hiccup for two years, having nothing but tires and a set of back discs, what a wonderful car !

It’s gearing is set towards autobahn crusing, (It’s a German car after all !), so while the 0-60 isn’t massively quick, the book top speed is a whopping 137mph … I literally know of no other car that has a 1990cc engine and weighs 1600kg that can clock up that!

It’s still got it there too, we’ve had 125mph on a clear bit of road, and it was still pulling from that, only our guts made us back off, as we didn’t fancy losing our licence … and it’s funny that should come up, because the Welsh Bloke who bought it new (LMT BMW, Cardiff), had it for 8 years and had to sell up because he got caught doing 120mph in her! The police were not too happy to say the least, and revoked his licence!

It’s got no bangs, rattles or shakes. Not bad for 14 years and 140,000 miles eh?