Monday, September 5, 2016

The First ---and Only --- TC4 Baur in North America Sells on Ebay for $15,400!

We have been following the bidding on this TC4--- the only one in North America--- on ebay, and it sold last night for $15,400!

Congratulations to the folks at Auto Gallery of Tampa (the sellers), and to the unknown buyer. We hope that he/she will contact us so that we can followup on this rare automobile. It is a 1993, so unless I am mistaken, it does not yet meet the 25 year rule for registration. But it WILL meet that rule in 2018, which is really not all that far away.

Congratulations to the NEW owner, and Welcome to Baurspotting!

We can't WAIT to meet you and find out more! ;)

tom82baur@gmail.com

Or on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Baurspotting-1415961761990371/

Here is the link!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-3-Series-Baur-TC4-/252513088596

Previous Baurspotting posts about this TC4--- check them out!
http://baurspotting.blogspot.com/2016/03/stunning-news-for-baur-lovers.html
http://baurspotting.blogspot.com/2016/08/first-and-only-baur-tc4-in-us-for-sale.html

Even a great little video shot in Hungary by the previous owner!!
http://baurspotting.blogspot.com/2016/03/update-tc4-in-us-small-baur-world.html

1993 BMW 3-Series Baur TC4

1993 BMW 318i TC4 Baur Sedan e36

See original listing

Item condition:

Used

Ended:

Sep 04, 2016 , 9:52PM

Winning bid:

US $15,400.00

[ 46 bids ]

Shipping:

Will ship to United States. Read item description or contact seller for shipping options.

Item location:

Tampa, Florida, United States

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Baurspotting Makes the Larz Anderson Automobile Museum Gazette!

Thanks to our friend, Paul Bowen, for sending me the link to the new Gazette published by the Larz Anderson Automobile Museum in Brookline, MA. We have done posts on multiple occasions about the Larz Anderson, and personally, it is one of my favorite venues and shows. We have attended BMW Day for the past few years, and we have also been in attendance on German Car Day. A beautiful place, a well-run show, and a great Collection of their own in the Museum. It is billed as "America's Oldest Car Collection" It is worth the trip to Brookline! I love the place! I have included Baurspotting's piece below, but you may recognize some of the other featured cars: Stan Chamallas' 1973 3.0 CS, and Rob Siegel's "WARP 9" 1973 3.0 CSi! The link is below!

Here is our headline for the story:

Baurspotting and other delights by Richard A. DeVito, Sr.

Every time I go to BMW CCA Day at Larz Anderson I learn something new about that wonderful German engineering. Last year I learned that Zündapp motorcycles owned BMW til around 1929. This year I learned about Baur BMW conversions.
Tom Schuch, from Niantic, Conn., brought his conversion, which start- ed life as an ordinary two-door coupe and was shipped to Baur Engineering to strip the sheet metal off the roof and install a sliding convertible top, just like the French Deux Chevaux.
Most car companies stopped making convertibles in the late ’70s be- cause of the fear of roll-overs. Don’t know about you, but I’ve had probably forty converts in my life and not only have I never rolled one, but I’ve never seen one rolled. I guess the what-if crowd was hard at work.
Tom told me a guy who had a Baur conversion put another BMW on top of his convertible to show how strong it was. Neat. Of course, the what- ifers never thought about the fact that with a ragtop, an extra 400 lbs. on the frame increases road-hugging ability in a convertible.
Tom has retired from being director of a home for troubled boys. He’s moved on to having a home for BMWs. He owns — besides the ’82 323i Baur — six BMWs, a ’73 2002, a ’77 320i, a ’78 320i parts car, an ’89 325 convertible, a ’91 325ix AWD, and a 2005 X3 6-speed manual.
In case you want to follow Tom, his Baurspotting blog is http://baur
spotting.blogspot.com.

Here is the link, scroll down to page 7.
http://larzanderson.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1-Larz_Gazette_0916-copy.pdf

Thank you to Richard A. DeVito, Sr. of the Larz Anderson Gazette, and special thank to Paul Bowen for sending me the 'heads up"!

Paul Bowen's family was the owner of the 6 Series 628CSi Custom Convertible that we featured here in Baurspotting a few years ago when we spotted it at .... you guessed it: the Larz Anderson BMW Day! You see why I love this place! ;)

Baurspotting post in 2014 about the 628CSi:
http://baurspotting.blogspot.com/2014/08/628csi-cabrio-at-bmw-day-at-larz.html

Here is the 628CSi in 2015 at Larz Anderson, with our friend and fellow Baur owner Rodney standing next to it ..... wearing one of Baurspotting t-shirts!
http://baurspotting.blogspot.com/2015/08/our-baurspotting-t-shirt-shows-up-in.html

And an old ebay ad about it:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-6-Series-Convertible-/252064884221?forcerrptr=true&hash=item3ab03ce5fd&item=252064884221

Paul sent me this pic just now, it is in Germany, and he included the following note: It was the first e28 based 6 series off the line and was given to a shop for this and then BMW used it to asses if they should make a production run . They decided that they couldn't compete with the rigidity of the Mercedes SL in the end.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Baurs at Annual BMW Classics Ireland August 2016

Thanks to our friend and fellow Baur owner Barry Foley for these pics from the recent BMW Classics Ireland annual event!

I believe the white E21 is Barry's Baur, but I have no information on the others.

Thanks, Barry!

Sunday, August 21, 2016

BMW 507 - THE ROCK'N'ROLL PHOENIX----The Long-Lost Elvis BMW 507!

In honor of BMW's 100th Anniversary Celebration this week in Monterey, CA, Baurspotting is pleased to offer this video from BMW: the story of the discovery and restoration of the famous BMW 507 once owned by Elvis Presley when he was stationed in the Army in Germany. The 507 is considered by many folks to be the most beautiful BMW ever designed, and it is one of the rarest, since only about 250 were built. It is a brilliant car, and a great story!

This 507 has been stored in a barn since 1968, and it is being presented ---completely restored to the Highest Standards by BMW--- for the first time this week at the BMW Celebration in Monterey!

So, stop whatever you are doing and watch this video. You can thank me later. Our thanks to Frank Greppo of the BMW CCA Patroon Chapter for sharing it with me. Enjoy!

Happy 100th Anniversary, BMW!

Baurspotter of the Week Award: Tom Jones!

Our friend, Tom Jones, was on the track at Laguna Seca today with his dad riding in his cousin Matt's tii. Their car was following Tery and Deb Sayther's 'M2" Cabrio Targa by Baur, with Mike Pugh and Bo aboard. Mike shot a great little video which we have posted here already earlier tonight*.

But now we have a couple of pics taken by Tom of the Sayther Baur on the track!

First we will set up the scenario:

This pic is a screen shot from Mike Pugh's video, and you can see the '02 that Tom is riding in behind the Baur on the course. That is Deb's hand on the Cabrio Targa's roll bar, and Mike pug's baseball cap in the lower part of the pic.

Here are the two pics that Tom posted! It appears that Terry is about to hit that downhill curve that he mentions in the video! Nice timing, Tom!

You will note that the back seat passengers are boosted up in the back seat and they are utilizing the roll bar! You can't do that in a regular cabrio, folks!

I love these pics! Thank you, Tom, for shooting them and sharing them with us! Just know that you have put a smile on a lot of Baur owner faces with these pics!

Baurspotter of the Week Award: Tom Jones!

Honorable Mention: Terry Sayther for getting the Baur on the track and Mike Pugh for the great video!

*Here is the link to the video from Mike Pugh that we posted a little while ago!

https://www.facebook.com/mike.pew.7/videos/10207462495108784/

What a great night! Thanks Terry, Mike and Tom!

Terry and Deb Sayther Run The Corkscrew at Laguna Seca in their "M2" Cabrio Targa by Baur! VIDEO! Woo Hoo!

Thanks to Mike Pugh for posting this video in Facebook tonight! How cool is this! ;)

Terry and Deb Sayther, with Mike Pugh and Bo along for the ride, today running their Cabrio Targa by Baur through The Corkscrew at Laguna Seca as part of the BMW 100 Year Celebration in Monterey CA this week!

Pic by Scott Stowell

Wow! Yet another highlight of the week!

https://www.facebook.com/mike.pew.7/videos/10207462495108784/

The pics are screen shots from the video. In the first pic you can see Deb's hand touching the Cabrio Targa roll bar, and in the second you can see Terry enjoying the drive!

Thanks, Mike!

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

The Road To Monterey

Just a quick note.... as you may, or may not, know, BMW is having a huge 100 Year Anniversary Celebration in Monterey California this week. Baurspotting is located on the East Coast of the US, some 3,000+ plus miles away from Monterey, so we were unable to make it to the celebration. However, we have a number of friends and Baur owners who WILL be in Monterey, and they are enroute as we speak! !

There is a group of our friends from the Patroon (NY) Chapter (The Greppos, Stowells and Verengias, et al), Andrew and Cindy Wilson from Maine, Paul Wegweiser from Pittsburgh, Mike Ura and Terry and Deb Sayther from Texas, and many, many more that are actually DRIVING to Monterey from locations all across the land! Here are some pics along the way

We are very excited for them and wish them all the best on their EPIC cross-country adventure! Wow!

There are also a couple of links* that will hopefully enable you to follow along with their adventures.

And, yes.... there are Baurs in this run! Here is a screen shot from a video being produced by BMW of the Road to Monterey. In fact, all of the following pics are screen shots from that BMW video**: