The Dark Wob

I'm told - by someone 'who was there' - that the best supercar in the late seventies was an Alpina B7 Turbo either as a 4 door or a 2 door 6 Series. The engines were developed by Fritz Indra who went on to Audi and because they had to comply with TuV and carry a BMW warranty, had to be turn key reliable. Because the standard 635CSi was only 308GTB fast and thus not really serious, the B7 Turbo with 330 bhp was the closest thing to a 911 Turbo but with a proper boot and four seats. Unlike much of this Italian stuff, it would start, run and get you to your destination, do 20-25 mpg on a run, it wouldn't need rust repairs after three years and excelled at being a car. It was also as fast as a 512BBi in most situations.

Ten years later, the B10 BiTurbo with 380 bhp was neck and neck with a Testarossa to 150 mph and wasn't far behind at 180. Being an E34, all it required was an annual oil change and a set of plugs now and then.

Of course, the Honda NSX showed up Ferraris for what they really were.

chadders wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2019 12:46 pm Yes - I do.

The nearest I've come to a Ferrari Daytona is in a garage in Leeds that had 3 for sale at £5,000 each in 1974.

I think an annual service would have cost the same as my then salary as a civil servant, a brief blip in a career history that included quite a few of them.

BTW, 5,000 1974 Pounds are £60,000 in today's money.
I paid less than half of that for mine, 30,000 D-Marks, which is equivalent to 27,000 Euros nowadays.
That 'feels' about right.
But notice the depreciation from 1974 to 1985!

The Reverend Bluejeans wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2019 3:34 pm I'm told - by someone 'who was there' - that the best supercar in the late seventies was an Alpina B7 Turbo either as a 4 door or a 2 door 6 Series. The engines were developed by Fritz Indra who went on to Audi and because they had to comply with TuV and carry a BMW warranty, had to be turn key reliable. Because the standard 635CSi was only 308GTB fast and thus not really serious, the B7 Turbo with 330 bhp was the closest thing to a 911 Turbo but with a proper boot and four seats. Unlike much of this Italian stuff, it would start, run and get you to your destination, do 20-25 mpg on a run, it wouldn't need rust repairs after three years and excelled at being a car. It was also as fast as a 512BBi in most situations.

Ten years later, the B10 BiTurbo with 380 bhp was neck and neck with a Testarossa to 150 mph and wasn't far behind at 180. Being an E34, all it required was an annual oil change and a set of plugs now and then.

Of course, the Honda NSX showed up Ferraris for what they really were.

The funny bit is that the ZR-1 made minced meat out of all of them. When I bought mine, I calculated that for the price of a 512 TR, which it beat in every aspect, I could order two, have one delivered to Monte Carlo and do a three Month holiday there.

Junkman wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2019 8:02 pm The funny bit is that the ZR-1 made minced meat out of all of them. When I bought mine, I calculated that for the price of a 512 TR, which it beat in every aspect, I could order two, have one delivered to Monte Carlo and do a three Month holiday there.

Did you happen to be a salesman at some point because that line would have sold 2 to me had I happened to have the spare cash....

Three months there sounds hellish, unless a courtesan is included in the deal.

DodgeRover wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2019 8:57 pm

Junkman wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2019 8:02 pm The funny bit is that the ZR-1 made minced meat out of all of them. When I bought mine, I calculated that for the price of a 512 TR, which it beat in every aspect, I could order two, have one delivered to Monte Carlo and do a three Month holiday there.

Did you happen to be a salesman at some point because that line would have sold 2 to me had I happened to have the spare cash....

I had a Corvette dealership/sports car garage. But I'm a bad salesman, hence I paid a quite tasty tart who was very good at it some silly money.

Junkman wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2019 7:46 pm

chadders wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2019 12:46 pm Yes - I do.

The nearest I've come to a Ferrari Daytona is in a garage in Leeds that had 3 for sale at £5,000 each in 1974.

I think an annual service would have cost the same as my then salary as a civil servant, a brief blip in a career history that included quite a few of them.

BTW, 5,000 1974 Pounds are £60,000 in today's money.
I paid less than half of that for mine, 30,000 D-Marks, which is equivalent to 27,000 Euros nowadays.
That 'feels' about right.
But notice the depreciation from 1974 to 1985!

Depreciation reversed due to a certain florida Base cop show.

Meier und Weiss.

ghosty wrote: ↑Wed Jun 26, 2019 1:52 am

Is there any more to this tale?

Of course there's a part two! As well as apart three depending on how loose we can be with the supercar description.

Let's wind the clock back 20 years. Mike was a pre minimum wage slave who had the Mike Brewer gene running through him which boosted his £3.50 an hour job nicely. Buying and selling heaps bought rotting on driveways for an extra hundred quid or so saw him investing in property. Back then a two bedroom terraced house could be bought for about ten grand and rented out easily. Once he owned a couple bought for cash he got interest only mortgages to snap up a few more. Another lad who traded the odd prestige motor fancied a piece of that action but despite claiming his finances were AAA+++ didn't have a spare ten large to get himself started so offered Mike a deal. This Multi Coloured Swap Shap deal involved exchanging a terraced house in Birkenhead, tenanted of course,for an early Aston Martin Lagonda that he couldn't shift. Obviously, I was positively beading at the prospect of sampling the finest car to leave Newport Pagnell and blagged myself a drive. Have you ever driven one? Probably not so I'll save you the trouble and tell you now that they're much slower than an XJ12, even a pre-HE example and the handling is fucking strange! The steering wheel is like the width of your hand but isn't very high geared meaning much twirling and although I'll admit this was a bad example it felt like a body on chassis car where the body is about to slide off the chassis! The Atari instruments are worse than those fitted to a Mk2 Astra and those touch control switches give it the top of the range Martin Dawes TV feel. All this was overshadowed by the leaking exhaust manifold filling the cabin with fumes almost as badly as my old VW camper with a rotted heat exchanger not helped by only the NSF and NSR being the only working electric windows.

Would I buy one? Fuck no! I'd rather have a shonky Ferrari 400i.

Based on your description now I want one even more than I already did.