People's Reactions to our cars.

[Bigmeat]

So I've had the Baur back on the road for a couple of weeks now but only used it intermittently as the weather has been awful and I only like to take it out when it's sunny.

Over the last week tho it's had a few people waving, and giving the thumbs up as we've driven by. One guy in a van even hung halfway out of the window while he was driving to shout 'your car rocks'

But the best was yesterday. It was a lovely day and in the late afternoon my wife and I went out for a little drive, with a flask and small picnic. We ended up at a country park.
As we were sat chatting and playing with the dog I noticed some young lads, late teens - early 20's, looking at the car from the other side of the car park. One of them was getting quite excited and saying to his mates
'I'm telling you it's an E21, but I didn't know they did it as a Baur'

They ended up coming over to chat. One was a BMW nut, his dream car is the e30 M3, and he was telling me how he's just sold his Triumph Herald so he can go and look at an e30 318is in Scotland (a 5 hr drive).
The other lad was a classic ford fan, gaming of owning the Moonstone Blue Sierra Cosworth Rs500 (also a car I'd love to own).
Both lads knew their cars and were over the moon to see ours. We let them have a sit in it and we ended up chatting for over an hour. They had a couple of other friends, and the BMW fan's girlfriend with them, but they weren't interested, and just stood looking miserable while they waited for the other 2 stop nattering.
It was a real pleasure to talk to people who appreciate the time, effort and money that goes into keeping an old car on the road.

Just wondered what experiences other people have had.

[vinox]

Mine's quite an eye catcher, so it definitely gets a LOT of attention (that can be good and bad ). And I'd be a lying ass sob if I said I didn't like it Mostly it's thumbs up, even from guys in supercars sometimes, but ever so often there's an actual connaisseur and fellow old BMW or even E28 lover, and I always take my time for those, even if it means being late for something. I like to do the talk about Gandalf, but I always also want to hear their story, what they drive, or want to drive. I also absolutely LOVE to give it the beans or rev it a little when there's kids around. They LOVE that shit. I just remember how I was as a kid and young car nut, everything that had four wheels, made noise and went bang made my heart race a million miles an hour. To put a smile on a kid's face man... That's just the best. And ever so often I manage to bring that inner kid out in older people too

If I had to pick one experience it would be last year when I went to the Nordschleife. We went into ED's model car shop aka miniature heaven on earth, and when we came back outside there was a father with his two sons gawking it. When I was about to get in, the son spoke to me, telling me he was from Austria, turned 18 and got his license recently and was looking to buy an E28 M535i as his first car. That in itself was already badass, but the kid knew EVERYTHING about them as even though he just turned 18, he'd been a fan of that particular car for years. He asked me about mine, and I asked him what he was looking for, gave him some tips and advice (as far as my knowledge goes) and I ended up sending my friend with his Caterham to the Ring already, telling him to go do some laps without me. Had him sit in it, started it up, let him rev it a couple times, he took plenty of pics and made an exhaust note vid. The kid was smiling ear to ear, I f*** loved it. Half an hour later we parted ways and you could just see I made his day. I'm very, VERY sure he's driving an M535i around Austria right now and enjoying every bit of it.

[Bigmeat]

Your car is beautiful. And a great story.

[Jeroen]

Two nice stories! It is always nice to get signs of appreciation from others and especially the E21 gets that because of its classic appearance, many car nuts have a story featuring one. On a day out a couple of thumbs up is the least you get, but also people asking how much one would cost or even bidding haha. With a modern car you are easily regarded as a poser, with a classic car you receive appreciation and compliments instead. Nice!

[arshad76]

Nice discussion and I'll add to what other peoples experiences have been, as mine have been very similar.

One that sticks in my mind is an affluent lawyer friend I have who used to drive a Gallardo e-gear. My car was parked up next to his and two youths were walking past.
I could have sworn they weren't looking at the new Lambo, but my little E21. Then when my friend also mentioned that they were admiring my car I was very flattered.

I've also had people chasing me to buy it, and when I took it to a BMW garage to buy some parts all the salesman came out to have photos taken next to it. It's not hard to get attention these days, but I'd much prefer well wishing attention than people getting jealous and I always got the impression that folk were genuiinely happy to see an oldtimer still on the road mixing with the best of new cars.

[vinox]

Spot on mate. I had that experience too when I partook in the End Of Season drive last year. I was surrounded by more money than I will probably ever have, and cars ranging from an Alfa 4C to Ferrari 458s, Lamborghinis, and even a batshit crazy Lexus LFA. And still the E28 was getting looks, I nice convos were had. Later when we took off, they were all farting off with their slushboxes and when it was my turn, I decided I'd show them my oldie would not be underrated that day: https://youtu.be/oTXtz_IlpSk?t=1m13s . Old cars are king in cool car land man, I never knew this until I owned one.

[healeyneil]

Yep same here. Very positive response

[gerrit323]

I have 3 cars and they all give different reactions

The e21 hartge gets medium attention, alot of people don't know exactly what it is .. a nice bmw with some decalls .. a really special car ..
The e30 convertible get good attention because the e30 is a well respected bmw model and a convertible in good condition seems to be what people like
The e36 m3 get alot of attention .. I think the color has to do something with that

The car I got most reaction in is sold in the meanwhile .. that was my green 2.7 converted e30 with 462K on the clock .. the car had alot of patina and everytime I took it out I got some tumbs up or if I stopped at the petrol station people came to talk to me briefly about the car .. if I mentioned the mileage, most of the time I saw unbelieve until they had a look on the counter themselves .. bmw .. they keep on going is what I always said

[joe14]

I agree with the above. I drive my E21 as a daily and I get comments, beeps, looks a couple of times a week.

There's an older lady (about 70ish) who asks can she buy it yet every time she see me out cleaning it and I've also met a kid and his dad who stopped for a chat one day because it was his sons favorite car and he wanted to meet tow owner.

It just proves that people of all ages and interest can love these cars!