For Sale: A Tesla Powered 1975 BMW 3.0 CSi “Batmobile”

This is a 1975 BMW 3.0 CSi that was discovered in storage in almost unrestorable condition – the barn roof had been leaking rainwater directly into the car’s open sunroof for decades.

Rather than going down the more traditional restoration route, the car was sent to Electric Classic Cars in Wales for a full electric conversion, and it’s had a conversion to CSL “Batmobile” exterior specification. It can now do the 0 – 60 mph dash in just 3.0 seconds.

Fast Facts – A “Tesla” Powered BMW 3.0 CSi

• The BMW 3.0 CSi “E9” was originally released in 1968 as a replacement for the 2000 C and the 2000 CS. It was powered by the M30 engine with sizes varying from 2.8 to 3.2 liters over its production run.
• The E9 platform would prove to be incredibly successful in the world of motorsport, it won the European Touring Car Championship in 1973 and then again in every year from 1975 to 1979. The model took a slew of other race wins over its racing life, and a class win at Le Mans in 1973.
• The most famous version of the E9 is the 3.0 CSL, a special competition version of the car with an outlandish body kit, a lighter curb weight, and higher performance. It was nicknamed the “Batmobile.”
• The BMW 3.0 CSi you see here has been restored to outwardly resemble the CSL Batmobile, its drivetrain has been replaced with lithium-ion battery packs and a 450 bhp Tesla electric motor driving the rear wheels.

Electric Cars, Sacrilege, And Horsewhips

When it comes to fitting electric drivetrains to classic cars there are two distinct schools of thought. On one side you have the purists who think it’s sacrilege and that everyone involved should be horsewhipped. On the other side you have people who are interested in the technology and don’t mind the conversions – so long as no genuinely rare cars are chopped up of course.

Above Video: This is the YouTube episode on the converted BMW E9 shown in this article with the man who built it, Richard Morgan, taking you through all of its upgrades.

This BMW conversion was done by a British company called Electric Classic Cars, it was founded by former rally driver, engineer, and classic car restoration expert Richard “Moggy” Morgan in Wales.

In just a few short years ECC has gone from being the first electric car conversion company in the United Kingdom to one of the biggest in the world, with dozens of projects on the go, a lengthy waitlist, and a slew of celebrity clients including Slumdog Millionaire actor Dev Patel and singer Ellie Goulding.

I’ll turn it over here to Richard himself to give you some insight into his philosophy in his own words:

“The naysayers may say it’s not a classic because it hasn’t got the smell of petrol or the noise but our clients tend to bring us cars where the engines are not special  – for example, in the 911 we just converted the engine numbers didn’t match – or they may have a non-working engine.

“Often our customers’ projects will have an issue with the engine and there’s work required on the car.”

“Doing restomods in classic cars is already a popular thing to do. Classic car owners are already swapping classic engines for resto engines for more power and performance. In some cases the original parts and engines are no longer available. Converting classics to electric can be a logical step to give these cars a new lease of life.”

“We’re not trying to replace combustion-engined classics, we’re expanding the classic universe.” – ECC Founder Richard “Moggy” Morgan

The interior looks remarkably original, the most notable change being the removal of the original gear lever, it’s been replaced with a series of controls for the electric drive system.

Richard has faced more than his fair share of enraged purists in his time, everyone would likely be far better served if the naysayers channeled their anger into actually restoring cars themselves, in the way they believe it should be done. Preferably without the horsewhips.

Building The Tesla-Powered BMW Batmobile

This car started out as a relatively standard 1975 BMW 3.0 CSi, the history of its early life is largely unknown, however we do know that it spent decades sitting in storage.

Unfortunately the storage facility was a barn with a leak in its roof, a leak that sent rainwater directly into the open sunroof of the BMW. As a result, the car was in terrible condition when it was placed up for sale and bought by a super yacht captain named Michael who had a poster of an E9 on his wall as a boy.

He sent the car off to Electric Classic Cars and its restoration was documented in season one of the the TV series Vintage Voltage. The rebuild included a full restoration and modification to the CSL Batmobile exterior, a full interior restoration that was necessitated by that leaking roof, and a total drivetrain replacement.

There’s a large battery pack in the front and a smaller one in the trunk, the team at ECC adjust the weight of the battery packs forward and back to get the best possible weight distribution.

The original 3.0 liter straight-six M30 engine was removed, along with the gearbox, propshaft, and differential. A 450 bhp Tesla electric motor was sourced and fitted in the rear, with power coming from dual lithium-ion battery packs – one in the front and a smaller one in the rear.

ECC develop battery packs specifically for each vehicle, and they tend to alter the amount of battery weight carried in the front and rear to give the cars the best weight distribution possible. The original BMW CSi produced somewhere in the region of 200 bhp at 5,500 rpm, so the significant power upgrade called for considerable upgrades in the braking and suspension.

High-performance Wilwood disc brakes have now been fitted front and rear, and the improved suspension has helped improve handling. The battery packs have added a little weight, however it’s been compared to driving with a small passenger and a full tank of fuel – not a major factor.

The completed car has a range of approximately 200 miles (322 kms) and the 0 – 60 time is just 3.0 seconds – vastly quicker than the original 3.0 CSi.

The car is now due to roll across the auction block with Bonhams on the 24th of June in Chichester at the Goodwood Festival of Speed with a price guide of £175,000 – £200,000 which works out to approximately $217,000 – $248,000 USD.

If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.

Images courtesy of Bonhams

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An Ex-Military Mercedes-Benz 250 GD ‘Wolf’ By The Expedition Motor Company

This is a completely restored Mercedes-Benz 250 GD, it’s an ex-military model better known simply as the “Wolf.” It now looks considerably different to the standard Wolf as it’s been through a nut-and-bolt rebuild with the Expedition Motor Company.

Truth be told, the Wolf is the most honest of all the G Wagons. The iconic Mercedes 4×4 has now become a six figure AMG mall-crawler but it started out as a rugged four-wheel drive designed specifically for military use.

Fast Facts – A Restomod Mercedes-Benz 250 GD Wolf

• The original G Wagon went on sale in 1979 after seven years in development. It was designed to be a rugged competitor for the Land Rover and Land Cruiser with an eye on winning military contracts.
• Civilian versions of the G Wagon were offered also, one of which was modified into the Popemobile and used for carrying the Pope around on public appearances.
• In the 1990s the G Wagon began to diverge from its original design brief and two distinct model families were developed – the rugged W461 and the more luxurious W463.
• The G Wagon you see here has been restored and modified by the expert team at the Expedition Motor Company in Frenchtown, New Jersey. It’s been stripped down to the nut and bolt level and put back together with a number of improvements over the original.

The G Wagon: How it All Started

Many think of the G Wagon as the most quintessential of the German four-wheel drives, with the possible exception of the Unimog of course.

The Mercedes-Benz 250 GD is powered by the naturally aspirated OM602 inline-five diesel producing 93 bhp and 117 lb ft of torque.

It was actually the brainchild of the Shah of Iran, a major Mercedes-Benz shareholder at the time, who conceived of the idea of a utilitarian, military 4×4 and talked the German automaker into building it.

Mercedes partnered with Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Austria on the development, in part due to their expertise in the field of four-wheel drive engineering and manufacturing. The project began in 1972, by 1973 a 3D model had been made and presented to the board of directors, and by 1974 a drivable prototype had been completed.

Further prototypes were made and sent around the world for testing, cold weather testing was done in the Arctic, warm weather testing was done in the Sahara Desert, and testing was done at home in Germany using the country’s coalfields.

The Germans are famous for their fastidious design and as a result the total time of development between pen to paper and the final production model was seven years, a little longer than the five to six year average.

The Wolf: A Military G Wagon

The military versions of the G Wagon used by the German armed forces are referred to as the “Wolf,” they’re ruggedized, barebones versions of the W461 (and the earlier W460) that have almost no parts in common with the luxurious W463.

The interior of this Wolf has been upgraded significantly over the spartan original, but it still has the efficient minimalist look of the vehicle it started out as.

Two and four door versions of the Wolf are in use, and there are a slew of model variations to fill all of the roles required by the armed forces.

Over 60 armed forces around the world use military versions of the G Wagon, and the model has largely replaced the original Land Rover Defender (which is no longer in production) in many of these cases.

Wolves are typically specified with diesel engines designed for toughness, reliability, and longevity. Power isn’t much of a concern as speed isn’t considered a priority.

As a result of this the engines can produce somewhere in the region of 90 bhp and 110 lb ft of torque, but they can last for hundreds of thousands of miles with just regular servicing and maintenance.

The 1990 Mercedes-Benz 250 GD Wolf Shown Here

The vehicle you see here is a 1990 250 GD Wolf that now benefits from a full restoration at the hands of the experts over at the Expedition Motor Company in Frenchtown, New Jersey.

When the Expedition Motor Company restore a Wolf they strip it back to every last nut and bolt, the engine and drivetrain are fully rebuilt, and the interior, suspension, brakes, wheels and tires are all upgraded.

Each of the G Wagons rebuilt by EMC starts life as a standard military Wolf before being inspected, acquired, shipped to their facility, stripped back to the last nut and bolt and rebuilt.

This rebuilding process includes a full engine, gearbox, and transfer case rebuild.  The original suspension, brakes, wheels, and tires are all upgraded, as is the interior and the soft top roof.

The completed vehicles are renowned within the global G Wagon community for their quality, and they’re among the most desirable Wolves in the world – with price tags to match.

The 1990 250 GB you see here is due to roll across the auction block with RM Sotheby’s in late May. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.

Images courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

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1 Of 100 Ever Made: The Incredibly Weird 1997 Toyota Classic

This is the 1997 Toyota Classic and if you’ve never seen one before that’s probably because just 100 were made back in 1996, and little has been seen of them in the years since.

The Toyota Classic was made to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the release of Toyota’s first passenger vehicle, the Toyota AA. The chassis, drivetrain, and some other parts, like the doors, were sourced from the Hilux.

Fast Facts – The 1997 Toyota Classic

• The Toyota Classic was unveiled in Japan in 1996 as a celebration of the 60th anniversary of the company’s first passenger car, the Toyota AA from 1936 – a car with styling closely based on the DeSoto Airflow.
• The design of the Toyota Classic is a reasonably close approximation of the Toyota AA, with allowances given for modern safety and comfort standards.
• Each Classic was based on a rear-wheel drive Toyota Hilux chassis, and it used the brakes, suspension, and 2.0 liter inline-four from the Hilux, as well as the doors.
• The Toyota Classic you see here has approximately 15,000 miles on the odometer and it remains in remarkably original condition throughout.

The Toyota AA – Or Is It “Toyota”

The Toyota AA, or perhaps more correctly the Toyoda AA, was released in 1936. It was the first production passenger car built by the Japanese automaker and it had more than a passing resemblance to the DeSoto Airflow.

This is the 1936 Toyoda Model AA, it was the first production passenger car built by the Japanese automaker. Image courtesy of Toyota.

This similarity to the Airflow was no accident, Toyoda had bought one and had it sent it to Japan for reverse engineering.

There are many differences between the cars under the skin of course, but the bodies look closely related, with the exception of some features like the headlights and one-piece windshield.

Toyota had started out under the name Toyoda Industries however the name was changed to Toyota (with a “T”) in 1936 after a competition was held to find a name that would work well in English and in Japanese.

The Japanese kanji script for “Toyota” is considered lucky as it is made up of eight strokes, and eight is said to be one of the luckiest numbers.

As a result of all of this, the Toyoda AA is also known as the Toyota AA, and we’ll be referring to it using that latter name from here on for the sake of simplicity.

The interior of the Toyota Classic has been given a slew of luxury treatments, like a woodgrain dashboard, thick carpeting, leather seats, and a classic wood-rimmed steering wheel.

The AA was built from 1936 to 1943, just 1,404 were built in total which seems like a low number considering the staggering automobile production numbers the company would be putting out just a few years later.

As with almost all production cars of the 1930s the Toyota AA uses body-on-frame construction, with a steel four door body that featured rear suicide doors. Power was provided by a 3.4 liter Type A inline-six cylinder engine with power going to the rear wheels via a 3-speed manual transmission and a live rear axle.

Up until the past few years it was believed that there wasn’t a single surviving example of the original Toyota AA. A global search was undertaken by Toyota to find one in 1987 and they came up empty handed, as a result they built a replica that is as exact as they could get it – this car is now in the Toyota Automobile Museum

As luck would have it, a surviving Toyota AA was found in Russia in 2008. It was in derelict condition and the original engine had been replaced with a drivetrain from a locally-produced GAZ-51 truck. The decision was made to preserve it in as-found condition, and it can now be seen at the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands.

The Classic is powered by the 2.0 liter 3Y-E OHV inline-four cylinder engine producing producing 96 hp and 118 ft lbs of torque.

The 1997 Toyota Classic

In the early 1990s, with the 60th anniversary of the Toyota AA release fast approaching, Toyota executives decided to develop and release a modern homage to the car in very limited numbers – just 100 would be made.

The project started out with a new design that was a close visual approximation of the original AA design. The chassis from the rear-wheel drive Toyota Hilux was used, along with its suspension, brakes, and drivetrain – this vastly simplified development.

Interestingly the doors were also sourced from the Hilux, which you may have noticed already, though they did a good job of integrating them into the overall design.

Power is provided by the 2.0 liter 3Y-E OHV inline-four cylinder engine and buyers could choose from either a 4-speed automatic or a 5-speed manual with a column shifter.

The Toyota Classic sold out after release, it has proven a little divisive from a styling perspective and it’s often been compared to the unusual vehicles from the smaller Japanese automaker Mitsuoka.

Due to the small number of cars produced we only see the Toyota Classic come up for sale rarely, as luck would have it there’s one currently listed on Bring A Trailer.

It’s being sold out of San Mateo, California and at the time of writing there are still some time left to bid.

Images courtesy of Bring A Trailer

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