A BMW 325iX Rally Car – The First All-Wheel Drive Production BMW

The BMW 325 iX was the first BMW road car to be offered with all-wheel drive, it was first released back in 1986 as an answer to the Audi Quattros which were dominating in the world of rally and enjoying a sales boost as a result.

It was clear by the mid-1980s that AWD was the future of rally, some went so far to argue that it was the future of road cars too due to the improved control on snow, ice, mud, and other slippery surfaces.

Development Of The BMW 325iX

Rather than developing an all-new AWD car from scratch BMW’s engineers created a new version of the popular E30 with a newly developed center differential to send power both forwards and backwards with a 37/63 front/back split.

Complex computer controlled traction systems did exist in the 1980s however they were beyond the scope of the BMW iX project. BMW instead fitted the car with a Ferguson-type viscous coupling filled with silicon to split the torque front and rear, with a second silicone filled viscous coupling in the rear to act as a limited-slip differential.

Although relatively simple by today’s standards, the central viscous coupling could send up to 90% of torque to the front or rear depending on which wheels had the best traction and it was lauded by journalists in period magazine reviews.

Rather than going into too much detail about how the drive system worked I’ve added an excerpt below from the comprehensive history on the BMW iX from the (highly recommended) Bimmer Forums below:

“Two “limited-slip” Ferguson-type viscous couplings are fitted on the 325iX. These are filled with silicone and are not computer controlled. The one behind the transmission splits torque front to rear (nominally 37/63%). A series of plates with holes and slots turn in the silicone fluid. Some plates are attached to the front axle driveshaft and some are attached to the rear axle driveshaft.”

“Normally the plates turn at the same rate without relative motion. The silicone becomes very viscous as soon as it is heated by friction and shear caused by differences between the motion of the plates. This tends to lock the driveshafts. If the rear wheels and driveshaft are slipping and turning faster than the front, friction between the plates increases, slippage is reduced, the rear wheel spin is reduced and the power from the input shaft is transferred to the front.”

Above Image: The 325iX has slightly wider wheel arches than the regular 325i, there are a number of other significant changes under the skin too, all to get the AWD drivetrain to fit in.

Although from the outside the BMW 325iX looks almost indistinguishable from the regular BMW 325i there have actually been significant changes made. The track width of the iX is slightly wonder and so the wheel arches are wider, the ride height of the car is about 20mm higher as well, and the front suspension was modified to fit the new front drive system in place which is immediately noticeable when you open the hood.

In the years that have passed since the 325iX was introduced the model has proven reliable, particularly remarkable when you remember that this was the first all-wheel drive production BMW and many of the engineers were designing these system for the first time. Once notable difference between the iX and the regular car is that the iX needs to have its viscous couplings rebuilt approximately every 70,000 miles.

Over the course of the 1986 to 1991 production run a little over 15,000 examples of the iX were built, all left-hand drive save for a few that were converted after leaving the factory. Both two and four-door versions were offered and some of these cars were converted by their owners into rally specification to try their hand at racing.

In the years since the 325iX left production BMW has released dozens of all-wheel drive vehicles, all of which can trace their lineage back to the boxy little modified E30 from 1986. It’s not known how many 325iXs have survived, many succumbed to rust and neglect, a few were put sideways into trees by owners who found a gravel road and decided to try their hand at being Walter Röhrl.

The 1986 BMW 325iX Shown Here

The car you see here was driven in the 1991 Spanish Rally Championship by José María Ponce with co-driver José Carlos Deniz finishing second in class at the 1991 Rally de Catalunya.

The vehicle features a Group N rally pack, including Bilstein shock absorbers, Ferodo racing brake pads, Sparco seats with Sabelt harnesses, a roll cage, an uprated exhaust, and a limited-slip differential.

It’s accompanied by FIA Historic Technical Passport and homologation book sheet, along with a raft of photographs documenting its life as an active rally car.

It’s not everyday we see a 325iX come up for sale that was raced in-period, and the fact that this car comes with its FIA Historic Technical Passport means that it will be eligible for a slew of vintage motorsport events should the new owner wish.

The car is currently being offered for sale by Collecting Cars and you can click here if you’d like to read more or register to bid.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

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The Rare Norton MM 961 Flat Tracker – Just 5 Were Made

Just five examples of the Norton 961 MM Flat Track were built starting in 2017 by 72 Motorcycles in England. If the styling looks somewhat familiar it may be because a hearty dose of design inspiration was taken from the legendary Ron Wood “Big Tube” Norton flat trackers, a custom racer that won the AMA Ascot Park Half-Mile National event three years in a row in the early 1970s.

The Norton Commando 961 is a far more recent creation, it was developed when the company was in the hands of American ownership under Kenny Dreeer, with strong design links to the original Norton Commando of the ’60s and ’70s. When Norton was bought by British owners in 2006 and production returned to England the 961 formed the backbone of the company. The 961 is still in production now in updated form with Norton’s new owners TVS, and they’re rapidly spooling up to get the company into a position to challenge companies like Triumph and Ducati.

The Norton MM is far more than a mild custom motorcycle with a few bolt on parts and a paint job – this was a ground up reimagining of the platform and it includes a completely new frame design based somewhat on the architecture of the Ron Wood originals.

This new frame has a thick spine that double as the oil reservoir, with a twin down tube duplex and a box section swing arm in the rear. If you’re thinking that that all sounds like a job for a serious engineer you’d be right, 72 Motorcycles co-founder Jamie Ireson is a design engineer with years of experience working on everything from power stations to Formula 1 components – the first step in the build of the new Norton MM was comprehensive CAD design work for all new parts including the chassis.

Jamie and fellow co-founder Merry Michau, a celebrated motoring photographer, first struck upon the idea of building the Norton MM when visiting the Norton factory and chatting to the previous company CEO Stuart Garner. He loved the idea for the new bike and gave them a deal on a freshly built Norton Dominator, which would form the basis of the first prototype.

The air-cooled parallel-twin used in the 961 is an entirely new design with strong influence from the final 850 Commando twin from the 1970s. It has a capacity of 961cc, a compression ratio of 10.1:1, two push-rod actuated valves per cylinder and a total power output of 80 hp and 65 ft lbs of torque.

Above Image: The Norton MM features a combination of new and retro styling cues that have given the rare semi-production motorcycle strong appeal on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Norton MM benefits from the fitment of fully-adjustable Öhlins suspension front and back, with braking provided by two four-piston calipers on floating rotors up front and a single piston Brembo disc in the rear. A new fuel tank was hand formed from alloy for the MM and paired with a slim seat reminiscent of the seats used on the original Norton flat trackers.

The most eye-catching feature on the MM is doubtless that bold red and white paint scheme featuring the oversized “Norton” logo first used on the Ron Wood bikes – the theory being that a bigger logo would be easier for spectators to see as the bikes flew around the track. It had originally been planned that 12 examples of the Norton MM would be built, however just five would be finished before production ended – making them a rare, factory-approved special build with significant curb appeal.

In recent years there have been well-publicized problems at Norton that culminated in external administrators shutting the company down in 2020, eventually selling it to TVS. This period of turmoil had a significant negative impact on the values of modern Nortons as people were concerned about parts and servicing availability. These concerns appear to have been addressed directly by TVS and current Norton CEO John Russell. Production of the Norton model range is now underway once again and much to the relief of the Norton faithful, the company looks to be on the best financial footing it’s had since the 1960s with spare parts sales and motorcycle servicing back in full swing.

We only see these Norton MMs come up for sale extremely rarely now, in fact I can only recall one other example being sold and that was a few years ago. The 2017 Norton MM you see here has just appeared for sale on Collecting Cars, at the time of writing there are six days left on the live bidding, with the current high big sitting at £6,000.

If you’d like to read more about this unusual Norton or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

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The Lamborghini Countach-Powered Rambo Lambo – The First Super SUV

Of all the extraordinary vehicles in the Lamborghini back catalogue there are no production automobiles quite as extreme as the four-wheel drive Lamborghini LM002, better known now as the Rambo Lambo.

When it was first released at the 1986 Brussels Auto Show the LM002 caused jaws around the world to drop as people saw an entirely new automobile genre come to life right before their eyes – the super SUV.

Luxurious SUVs have been around since at least the 1960s of course, with 4x4s like the Jeep Wagoneer and Range Rover offering V8 powertrains, air-conditioning, and a slew of other luxurious amenities usually only found in higher-end road cars.

What Lamborghini did with the LM002 was take a gamble that there was a small but affluent global market for a luxurious SUV powered by a Countach V12, weighing in at almost 3 tonnes and featuring a brutalist road presence that looked like it belonged in a dystopian sci-fi Hollywood blockbuster.

As it turns out, they were right. There was a market of well-heeled folk who thought that the LM002 looked like an ideal daily driver and as a result, Lamborghini sold hundreds of them to a vast array of people, from oil sheiks to Hollywood celebrities like Sylvester Stallone, pop stars like Tina Turner, and even Formula 1 driver Keke Rosberg.

The Countach-Powered LM002

Lamborghini engineers developed a tubular steel frame for the LM002, this was then fitted with a combination of aluminum alloy and fiberglass body panels. A modified version of the Lamborghini Countach V12 was fitted up front, and power could be sent to all four wheels or to the rear wheels only depending on terrain.

Above Image: The Countach V12 under the hood and no-nonsense styling attracted celebrity owners including Sylvester Stallone.

Although from the outside it looks like a relative to the American military Humvee, the inside is vastly different, with full leather upholstery, thick carpeting, air-conditioning, tinted electric windows, ample sound proofing, and there’s even a surround sound stereo.

It was only a matter of time before someone came up with a nickname for the new Lamborghini, it would be Brock Yates’ famous piece for Car and Driver magazine that would coin the new moniker, an excerpt of which is below:

“Meet the Mad Max machine. Meet the closest thing to a street-legal Tiger tank known to man. Meet the Lamborghini LM002. Meet the Rambo Lambo.” – Brock Yates, October 1987 issue of Car and Driver.

The performance specifications of the LM002 were almost unheard of for a four-wheel drive at the time, it could dispatch 0 to 60 mph in just 7.8 seconds onto a top speed of 118 mph or 190 km/h.

Due to the weight and the engine choice the fuel tank needed to be borderline oceanic in its proportions, the tank used in the production vehicle measured in at 290 litres or 76.6 US gallons and the vehicle achieved an average of 8 mpg.

The LM002 would be kept in production from 1986 until 1993, 328 would be produced in total and a small number were fitted with the prodigious 7.2 litre V12 developed by Lamborghini for off-shore powerboat racing.

Above Image: The luxurious interior boasts full leather upholstery, air-conditioning, a state-of-the-art stereo (for the era), and plush carpeting throughout.

When Lamborghini unveiled the Urus in 2018 there were many who reacted negatively to the new high-performance Lamborghini SUV, however very few of them realized it had been this same Italian automaker who had first created the genre all those decades ago.

The Lamborghini LM002 Shown Here

The Rambo Lambo you see here is one of the earlier production models from 1988, it’s a carburetor-engined version which always proves popular with collectors, and the engine was previously rebuilt at Lamborghini Lausanne in 1996.

Later work includes a 2009 engine overhaul and in 2012 the differential was serviced. The vehicle is now being offered for sale with a price guide of €225,000 to €275,000, which works out to approximately $274,000 to $335,000 USD.

If you’d like to read more about this unusual Lamborghini or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on RM Sotheby’s. It’s due to roll across the auction block on the 15th of June in Milan.

Images: ©2021 Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

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Alfa Romeo 2.5 V6 Engine Coffee Table By Custom Brothers

Each of these Alfa Romeo V6 engine coffee tables is made by the team at Custom Brothers from a damaged or non-running engine. This will help appease those who don’t believe that a running engine should be used to make furniture – particularly not the Alfa V6 which is sometimes referred to as “Alfa’s Violin” due to the beautiful sound it makes, particularly in motorsport trim.

This generation of Alfa V6 first started appearing on engineer’s drawing boards back in the late 1960s however a production version would appear in a car until 1979. The 1973 Oil Crisis had caused Alfa to pause its development however by the late 1970s it was clear that a new engine was needed to replace the aging Alfa DOHC inline-4.

The new V6 was developed by a team led by Giuseppe Busso, as a result it’s sometimes just called the “Busso V6” by Alfa Romeo enthusiasts. Initially the engine had a single overhead cam per bank with carburetors and two valves per cylinder, however this would eventually be upgraded to double overhead cams per bank with four valves per cylinder and electronic fuel injection.

The production run of the Alfa Violin would be a remarkable 26 years from 1979 until 2005, it almost stayed in production longer too as British engine development company Cosworth wanted to buy the tooling and create their own version – though Alfa ultimately decided against it.

Each of these Custom Brothers engine coffee tables gets a thorough cleaning and detailing before it’s affixed to a red steel base that utilizes the original engine mounts. A glass top is then fitted courtesy of four metal mounts and a set of six short slash cut header pipes are bolted into place.

The final table sits at 73 cm high by 85 cm wide and 75 cm deep, that works out to 28.7 inches, by 33.4 inches, by 29.5 inches. For any fan of Italian engineering there can be no better coffee table to have sitting in your living room or garage, just don’t kick your toe on it in the night.

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