If the estimate is right, this is hard to beat as a performance bargain.
Under that civilised and understated exterior lies a pretty serious performance car. The E34 M5 represented a major raising of the stakes for the M saloons, with the 24-valve 3.5 litre (actually 3535cc) straight six claiming a believable 315 horses.
The car was speed limited to 250km/h but did the 0-100km/h sprint in a respectable 6.5sec.
Even those stats don’t tell the whole story. BMW launched this car locally at a closed Gold Coast circuit – along with the then new 850 coupe – and had race stars Alan Jones and Tony Longhurst there for the event.
Both were able to prove comprehensively that the sophisiticated chassis helped make this a seriously quick car through a set of corners.
They subsequently teamed up with Neville Crichton for the Bathurst 12-Hour production race to come first in class and second outright.
These cars were hand-built in the Garching factory and that alone should mark them as something special, even if some 11,000 (including the 3.8lt cars) were eventually produced.
We picked it as a future classic back in 2013 and you can see what we said about it then, right here.
Shannons has this car for auction in Sydney on Nov 7 and estimates it will fetch $25,000-30,000. Like we said, that’s a lot of bang for the buck.