who wants this 7series??? I DO!

[freeride53]

Nick, are you talking about the blue one, or the bronzit one? That dude's hella funny, we were both Rollin down park st, and he noticed my euro plates and we revved at each other at the stop light in front of peet's. His a stick.

[Streichholzschächtelchen]

Nick, are you talking about the blue one, or the bronzit one? That dude's hella funny, we were both Rollin down park st, and he noticed my euro plates and we revved at each other at the stop light in front of peet's. His a stick.

The blue one, by Goddfrey or sometimes it's parked in the side lot next to Starbucks. Super clean! Ay whose the guy with all the BMWs by Follow Charlie, with the white 2002 on Borbets?

[shiftbmw]

Yup.... A fifth gear was an added bonus (overdrive) not long after this. Just like 6th gear was something out of this world back in 1991.

I didn't realize you could get 745i's in 4 speed manual. I thought they only came from the factory with a 3 speed auto, 4 speed auto, or 5 speed manual. Learn something new every day...

[kway]

The factory never offered a manual transmission on the e23 745i. The engineers felt it made the turbo lag more noticeable than with the automatic.

I've read over the years that one or two were built, but only by special order, and the customers were real heavy hitters; BMW executives or something. Any others that you see have either been converted (like this one), or are the South African spec M88 (M5/M6 engine) powered 745i.

[CleanAzzE30z]

Holy shit no way!!! There are quite a few manual E23's here in the states and in SoCal...but I guess it didnt transfer over to the 745i. Man You learn something everyday. Im sorry for the misinformation, all.

[Alpina]

The factory never offered a manual transmission on the e23 745i. .

WRONG,,,

6 cars were made on special order for German customers ,,, extremly cool

i have driven 3 differnt cars of these magnificent 745 .. all auto.. and they were unbeliveble powerful back in late 80 or early 90,,,
belive it or not ,, a healthy e23 745 will beat a e32 750 without problems

[M-technik-3]

Corky Bell had a 745i manual car. Ask Todd about it, He owned it for awhile, it was Twin turbo and then they converted back to single. Had the BEST interior I have ever seen in an older car!!!

[kway]

WRONG,,,

6 cars were made on special order for German customers ,,, extremly cool

Did you not read past the first sentence, or did you just feel like quoting me out of context? I said a small number of manual transmission 745s were built by the factory for a select clientele. I thought there were only one or two, you say there were six, I'll buy that. The point is, they weren't intended for the mass market.

belive it or not ,, a healthy e23 745 will beat a e32 750 without problems

I know, I've owned three of them. I bought my first one eleven years ago, and that's what's in my garage right now. My favorite prey back when I was younger and dumber were 5.0 liter Fox body Mustangs. They never knew what hit 'em. It was pretty much the same every time; they'd hold their own until about 110-115, then fall on their face and I'd just walk away. My theory was that that's where their 4-5 shift came in, but I'll never know.

Corky Bell had a 745i manual car. Ask Todd about it, He owned it for awhile, it was Twin turbo and then they converted back to single. Had the BEST interior I have ever seen in an older car!!!

Yeah, I owned that car for four years. It had a Corky Bell Twin Turbo system on it, but it was built and owned by Ken Adair, who was Korman's engine builder at the time. I knew of the car from when he put it up for sale on the BMW Digest (old school; in the days before message boards, there were e-mail message groups) and it was bought by Jan Nelson in Seattle. Jan put it up on ebay in '01, and since I knew of the car and its history, I felt comfortable buying it sight unseen.

Flew out to Seattle with a duffel bag full of tools and was going to drive it back to Boston. Probably would have made it if I had just driven normally, but I decided to do a top end run in Montana. Used up all of 5th gear at a yawn inducing 135 (car was geared stupid low) and saw steam in the rearview and temp gauge heading into the red. Yup, blew the head gasket. Spent the rest of the trip to Boston driving a U-Haul, with the 7er in tow (still made it in three days by the way, even with the breakdown).

I lost interest in the car and it spent most of its time with me tucked away in a storage unit. Eventually I had the head done, turbos rebuilt, and put back together, but I just wanted out of it. Sold it to Todd at a loss, but I kept the Alpinas and sold them separately to make up for some of it.

Yeah, that was a Lotus White Highline interior, and those were probably the most comfortable seats I've ever sat in. Incidentally, the twin turbo system sucked. Just way over turboed; boost didn't come on till over 3,000 rpm. Yeah, it kicked you in the ass at that point but you were into the rev limiter before you could do anything with it. I thought something was wrong, checked and rechecked my work, figured it was just fucked. When Todd came back from test driving the car, he said "nope, that's just the way they are."

I didn't even have to put it up for sale to the public, just ran it by Todd and he jumped on it. I knew he was the right buyer for the car, and I was glad he worked his magic on it and made it into what it should have been all along. I thought I had some pics of it on my old laptop, but I must have deleted them at some point.