New BMW Art Car… The 8 by Jeff Koons

Here goes BMW with yet another art car, bringing this tradition into its 7th decade. This time celebrated sculptor Jeff Koons has a go...

The 8 X JEFF KOONS

www.jeffkoons.com

BMW Advert 1986 - 635CSi, M6, E9 3.0 CSL, M1 - 'The latest in a short line of supercars...'

Another great advert from BMW, this time from 1986, promoting the benefits of their tuned straight-six power plants and their innovative (for the time!) use of four valves per cylinder. 24-valves were first seen in the E9 3.0 CSL 'Batmobile' in 1974, again in the M1 supercar in 1977 and finally making its way to the general consumer in the 1986 635CSi model E24 6er. 

As BMW discovered years ago, when you need extra power from an engine - on the race track for instance - just double the valves per cylinder.

The extra valves mean the the cylinders can take in more air and fuel on each stroke, burn it more efficiently and expel it quicker. So much so that 6 cylinders with 4 valves can produce more power than 12 cylinder with 2.

Take the three cars above, developed by BMW Motorsport.

The 3.5 litre CSL, affectionately known as the Batmobile, won the first of many races at the Saltzburgring in 1974, beating a 7 litre Camaro in the process.

A 192 mph version of the M1 won its class at Le Mans for the last 3 years. (At the Nurburgring in 1981 it won the race outright.)

The M635CSi, however, is merely a luxury road going coupe. Although it's capable of 158mph, it hasn't won a thing.

Except praise.

E30 Ute / Pick-up / Off-roader!!

Another ‘Ute’ pick up conversion of a BMW, in keeping with the 1600 Ute from THIS POST, but this time it’s an E30…

Bit more rough and rugged this one though and not so much of a show pony, but I still love it. 

Tall suspension and a heavy front bull-bar suggest that this does have some off-road capabilities. Shame X-Drive wasn’t around back then because this thing deserves it!