[Zeroblade]

*licks screen*

[Jay-K]

found this last year,
still give me chills watching.
epic.

[E90M3JETS]

Love the 80s and 90s when BMW care for enthusiasts. Nice car!

[mcoupe5/6]

Watched this one on a recent petrolicious binge. What a great story and history to have with a great car

[Scrippy]

Cool post! This is how I feel about my E92! There are some younger dudes with older series Bimmers where I live and they are clean and low. Always cool to see a well kept upper aged car in the road.

[sygazelle]

My first BMW was an E28. This video brings back great memories. Thanks for posting. Mine was the "lowly" 528e with 125 hp and a 5 speed manual. I loved that car. Really nice that this guy was able to keep his M5 all these years.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by E90M3JETS

Love the 80s and 90s when BMW care for enthusiasts. Nice car!

Not to derail this nice thread, but what are you saying? Are you saying that BMW does not build cars for enthusiasts anymore?

Of course they care about enthusiasts today, just like they did then. It's just that BMW realizes rightfully so that there is a much broader market for BMW's today and they are fools, business-wise if they don't exploit that opportunity with a broader range of offerings. Sure, the base models are no longer enthusiast-ready. So, we have to do a little homework and make sure we spec our cars correctly to get the ride we want/need as enthusiasts.

Even back in the 80's, BMW marketed cars that were not really enthusiast cars. My '88 528e, while a blast to drive, couldn't get out of its own way with all of 125hp. Even then, BMW knew how to offer different product choices to satisfy both the consumers and the regulations of the day. Not every car was an M5.

[kjoseph270]

This video was the nail in the coffin for me, I had been wanting one for quite a while and when I saw this I went searching. It's been a year since I bought mine and I'm loving it like the first day! It's no where near as nice as his but its still in really great shape. I just hit 105,000 miles and I'm trying not to put a lot on it, but I can't help it, it must be driven!!

[KevinM]

Very cool video, thanks. The M5 is the ultimate Q-ship. That was a major decision when I bought my E39 M5 in 2004. Most people don't know what it is. All the performance, none of the attention.

[radiofrequency]

Great story, my favorite BMW of all time (next to the 3.0 CSL).

[bmwluvr24]

Randy is a great guy and a good friend. He is the reason I am still into the car culture out here. I have found entirely too many people who just want you to look at their car, but could care less about anyone else. Randy is the exact opposite of that template. Stay tuned for his directorial debut soon.

[Law]

Originally Posted by left123

Petrolicious is an awesome site and I have pretty much seen them all. This video has been up there for a while and I have watched this specific one multiple times. I think that this guy, along with Chris Harris (search for his e28 M5 vid if you haven't seen it) have been two of the influential reasons that this model has surged in value.

Very cool car and very cool video. I WILL own an e28 M5 one day!

Originally Posted by marcva

Chris Harris did a video about his e28m5. Makes you want to buy one.

A true legend. The original super-saloon.

[raysspl]

I love hearing these stories. It's both inspirational & aspirational. Thank you for sharing.

[bluekn8286]

I saw this video a while back and it is great!

[AceOnShake]

Now I miss my E34 M5... I had to get rid of it though it was truly a garage queen and was too nice for me to daily. It has 272k on the clock but not one spec of rust no real imperfections. Inside had euro seats which came only on special order and it was 1/4 ever made with that interior.

This video makes me sad lol

[TK427]

Originally Posted by Jay-K

found this last year,
still give me chills watching.
epic.

+1

[Seattlesquash]

Originally Posted by Day Laborer

Great video I found!

In 1989, Randy Balingit-Hartmann bought the first BMW M5 brought to San Diego and has owned it ever since. As someone on the shy side, Randy wanted a car that fit his personality—one that was fast and powerful yet unassuming. In all its unassuming four-door glory the E28 M5 is often overlooked, but this sedan packs the same amount of power as Ferrari 308 GT and if not respected will surprise you in the turns of your favorite road. Randy has had this car through the ups and downs of life and has put over 400,000 miles on it with no major problems. Dedicated to the M5 for life, Randy will continue driving it the way it was meant to be driven with its detuned racing engine—like he stole it.

Pure class, owner and car!!! Thanks for sharing.

[E90M3JETS]

Originally Posted by sygazelle

Not to derail this nice thread, but what are you saying? Are you saying that BMW does not build cars for enthusiasts anymore?

Of course they care about enthusiasts today, just like they did then. It's just that BMW realizes rightfully so that there is a much broader market for BMW's today and they are fools, business-wise if they don't exploit that opportunity with a broader range of offerings. Sure, the base models are no longer enthusiast-ready. So, we have to do a little homework and make sure we spec our cars correctly to get the ride we want/need as enthusiasts.

Even back in the 80's, BMW marketed cars that were not really enthusiast cars. My '88 528e, while a blast to drive, couldn't get out of its own way with all of 125hp. Even then, BMW knew how to offer different product choices to satisfy both the consumers and the regulations of the day. Not every car was an M5.

Just saying nowadays BMW M cars are more marketing than pure one of a kind cars like the ones in the 80s and 90s. BMW needs to be careful not to dilute the M brand as new generation will think it is the same as the Lexus F.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by E90M3JETS

Just saying nowadays BMW M cars are more marketing than pure one of a kind cars like the ones in the 80s and 90s. BMW needs to be careful not to dilute the M brand as new generation will think it is the same as the Lexus F.

Thanks for the clarification. Pretty hard to extract that point from your original post.

BMW and other car brands are exploiting their performance brands like car companies have been doing since the beginning of time. I personally don't love the fact that BMW has added M badging to a bunch of non True M cars, but they are a business and I if I were making those decisions at BMW, I'd exploit the crap out of it too.

Is it really diluting the M brand though? Maybe with the new generation as you say. If you boil it down to see who is really fooled by all the m badging on non True M cars I think there are two groups; those who don't know a M car anyway and those that know the difference and would NEVER mistake a non M car with M badging (428GC M-sport as one example) for a True M car.

[Chihuahua]

Originally Posted by sygazelle

Is it really diluting the M brand though?

Yes. That is EXACTLY what it is doing.

[sygazelle]

Originally Posted by Kyle B

Yes. That is EXACTLY what it is doing.

I guess this topic has been beat to death so it's really at the yawn stage at this point. The cats out of the bag. The M badge is everywhere and has been for a decade or more. Still, a true M car is very special to me. Every time I see one I smile and think "lucky driver" and "great car".

In my skewed view, an M badge on a 328 doesn't make it an M and more than a t-shirt with the name Ferrari on it makes that t-shirt a Ferrari.

But the real M's are still a fraction of the sales. If you've got one, you know what you've got and you know that a 328 with m badges slapped on it is not one.

[hanman]

Great story