Romancing The Six
Looking for love in all the right places.

"A great car needs to have strong emotional appeal. After all, this is how romance begins."

Good and true words, published a few months ago in BMW Magazine. As you look at, walk around, and touch a great car, the emotional response it evokes is, without doubt, akin to the beginning of romance.

Think about it. Why else should a Jaguar E-type or XK8, Corvette Stingray, Austin-Healey 3000, Aston Martin DB7,  Porsche 911, BMW 6 Series or Z8 attract and hold the eye exactly the same way as does a beautiful woman or a handsome man?

"You can't really describe a sports car with words, not even after seeing one," says BMW design chief Chris Bangle, in a recent interview about the new Z8. "You have to experience it. Before a sports car is even taken out for a ride, the driver should wash it, quite literally, wash it down by hand. That's the only way to get acquainted with this kind of car."

This kind of car. You get acquainted with a precise and beautiful piece of sporting machinery, not an appliance. Bangle's expert opinion legitimizes quite nicely the affection we feel toward vehicles which transcend mere transportation. We don't need psychologists to tell us (although they do) that the motorcars in which we enclose ourselves become literal extensions of who we are. For the enthusiast owner/driver, cars are not and never can be appliances. Cars are objects of romance.

Because of this relationship thing, the choice of which vehicle we park in our garage or driveway assumes significance out of all proportion to the simple selection of transportation. Our choice of vehicle becomes, in many ways, like the choice of a significant other. We dearly hope that the relationship will be a happy and fulfilling one.

This is exactly the hope I had in mind a few weeks ago as I stood inside the showroom of my local BMW dealer, gazing out the window at the newest object of my affection. I had just made yet another commitment to a car, trusting and believing that a beautiful alpine white coupe in the dealer's lot would fulfill my hopes for a happy, longterm automotive relationship.

To be at this point only six months after acquiring my silver E30 convertible was surprising, to say the least. I did not expect the dealer's service manager to tell me that the source of my 325ic's substantial oil leak was the head gasket. Both he and an independent garage estimated the cost of repair at $900. Add the expense of a new top, which the little cabrio needed, and I was looking squarely in the face of $1500 expense. This, after spending some $2000 in the last six months to bring the convertible up to standard, was not welcome news.

At such a time, one basically faces three alternatives: spend the money and fix the car, sell it, or continue to drive the vehicle in its wounded state.

Which brings us back to the topic of relationships. Given a sufficient level of affection, I'll do just about anything to make things right. The silver 325ic was my first 3 Series, a little jewel of a car fun to drive top up or down. But it was a bit on the wee side, with constraining sport seats and limited space for my 6'3" frame. Would another $1500 make the car a perfect fit, physically or otherwise?

There was also the matter of my two previous Sixers. Both my '83 and '84 633CSi's had pushed my button in a big way. BMW chief of design Paul Bracq outdid himself in the 1970s with his drop-dead gorgeous design of the E24 coupe. I had loved this shape for years, but circumstance had seen me sell my '83 to a CCA friend for what I had invested in it (rare for me), while I had used the '84 as needed trade-in for a new car for my wife.

So here I was, looking out at a BMW dealer's lot where there sat a 2-owner, 81,000-mile 635CSi. The dealer had sold the elegant coupe new in '86; each owner had traded the car back to the dealer, complete with books and records, for a new BMW. Specs included full-sized blue leather sport seats, M Sport steering wheel, 15" factory sport alloys, new BMW remanufactured automatic transmission and driveshaft, and new front suspension upgraded to 7-Series specification. After a flawless test drive and a day to think it over, my wife and I decided to offer the dealer my '87 325ic and $1500 for the Sixer.

And he accepted (yes!)

So, dear friends, there now sits in our garage my third 6 Series coupe. It is a magnificent motorcar, one which I immensely enjoy driving or just simply looking at. I could tell you about the way it makes me feel on the road (very special). I could talk about its sweet, smooth 3.5 liter big-six engine, with plenty of torque and all the power I'll ever need. And I could try to describe the way it smells, a potent mixture of leather and fabric and mechanical aroma unique to older German cars.

But Chris Bangle was right. You really can't describe this kind of car in words. A picture of my new Bavarian beauty will have to suffice, since you can't wash her. That's my privilege.  -Rick Sparks

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