Lost Alpina C1 2.3

[Bimmerpilot]

Has anyone seen or know the whereabouts of this car?



I was the original owner and sold it in the early 1990's (The license plate GUMBAL 2 was my personal California plate), and the photo was taken by European Car Magazine when they did an article on it .

The car can be distinguished buy it having a CARB (California Air Resources Board) sticker in the drivers door jamb due to my installing a M20 2.5 from a 1991 E30 in it, an Alpina finned differential cover, and a OEM power glass sunroof. I sold the car back in 1995 or so to a gent in San Diego, CA.

If anyone knows the whereabouts of this car please post here or PM me, I spent a LOT of time, labor, and love building her..

Thanks in advance,

Chad

[Jeroen]

Hi Chad, yes I do. I need to do some digging but it was offered for sale not that long ago. It's not in the same condition anymore though. I'll try to come up with contact info and photos.

[Bimmerpilot]

Thank you Jeroen,

I hope that is hasn't been trashed over the years..

[Jeroen]

Well, here are two pics, only ones I have. Apparently the car still had the Gumbal 2 vanity plate and has a salvage title for unknown reasons. If you're convinced this is your ex I can forward your contact details to the guy who had found it but I'm afraid some things have changed condition wise. So here's a warning before you scroll down... this is going to hurt

[uwbuurman]

Omg....

[bmw e12 e21]

That hurts....

[Mihajlo]

5487250
it says
7/1979
320i M10 manual
USA market

yep, it hurts.. I guess it can be saved though...

[Bimmerpilot]

Well, here are two pics, only ones I have. Apparently the car still had the Gumbal 2 vanity plate and has a salvage title for unknown reasons. If you're convinced this is your ex I can forward your contact details to the guy who had found it but I'm afraid some things have changed condition wise. So here's a warning before you scroll down... this is going to hurt

Thanks Jeroen,

The fact that the car is still in existence over 20-years since I last saw her makes me feel warm and fuzzy. I hope that it's partially due to my building the car to be maintained with easily available parts such as the engine being a E30 325i w/ OEM Motronic (albeit a Dinan chip in the ECU, and match-ported intake and exhaust manifolds), rear brakes being converted to E30 rotors and calipers, E28 cooling system , and the list goes on. Aside from the Alpina pieces the only truly difficult stuff to source would be the flywheel from a E21 323i (it was about 10Lbs lighter than the E30 325i), and the OD 5-speed (also from a E21 323i), it could be replaced with a E30 325i unit, though there would be no provision for the speedometer drive. I bet the Alpina front rotors have long since been replaced (easily done with a pair of E21 ventilated rotors). Due to visible rust I'm guessing that car has spent a fair amount time near the coast, I was very careful to sand and fill any bare metal, nicks, and holes prior to having it repainted.. I do wonder if it still has the later-style gold Alpina striping? It took me over 48-hrs to pin-stripe the car.

Thank you again for finding my lost C1,

Chad

I'll refrain from posting "Lost Bauer 323i", though at the time it was a nice stable-mate to the Alpina.. well..


Current cars:
1991 300CE-24 AMG
1995 E320 Touring
2008 X-Type 3.0/AT/AWD
(I'm now too old to be changing a clutch slave-cylinder at 3:00am in the middle of no-where on Route 66)

[Bimmerpilot]

Understeer is when you hit the wall with the front of the car. Oversteer is when you hit the wall with the rear of the car.
Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall. Torque is how far you take the wall with you.

OUTSTANDING! Simply the best explanation that I've heard!

[Jeroen]

Thanks for the additional info Chad! I made Will, the guy who had found the car, aware of this forum thread, hope he will chime in at some point.

It's always difficult, many things can happen after you sell a car you've cherished for such a long time and of course what happens after is not always good. I've seen some of my previous cars deteriorate rapidly in the hands of a new owner. Over the years I've learned that you should not mourn over cars you sold (in fact I only really regret selling 1 car in my life and it wasn't even a BMW haha), it's more the regret about the cars you didn't buy!

Lost Baur 323i sounds interesting as well, at least to me as a Baur owner haha! And I must say, I'm still enjoying every minute in my oldies. And with some proper preventive maintenance the risk of breakdowns should not be higher than with a more modern car. But in the mean time the drive is more involving and the car you're in looks better hahaha!

[Jeroen]

BTW if you have a scan of that magazine article or additional photos, please share!

[Bimmerpilot]

Hi Jeroen,

I still have the original article from European Car Magazine and will be happy to scan and post it.

Teaser.. Questionably the most potent road going E21.. Mike Dietal's 345i..

A friend that owned a Texaco gas station in Vista, Ca had an old BMW sitting in his storage lot and asked me if I would drop by to tell him what is was worth, and how much he could sell it for.

I pulled off the rotting car cover.. It was the "Dietal 345i"!

I "broker" the sale between a longtime friend (the gas station owner) and a friend that truly loved E21's (He had a Alpina B6 E21).. He also helped me prep my C1 2.3 for the photo shoot with EC Mag.

I had/have all the pics of "lost" Dieta 345i in a photo album somewhere.. The interior was pigskin leather and the thing that really sticks out in my mind to this day.. It had a BLAUPUNKT BEQ-60.

'last I heard of the 345i; It was being offered for sale at Barrett Jackson.. some dumb-ass called me wanting me to send him all the info that I had on the car (so that he could boost the price). FU buddy!

I had the opportunity to meet Mike Dietal back in 1991 or so.. When I asked him questions about Alpina cars and Alpina West (his defunct distributorship), He asked me if i could get him a headlight for his Mercedes (for free).. He had been hired as a sales manager by CEC (Mercedes parts people)..

just a bit of factual E21 lore..

[Jeroen]

Haha always nice to hear some stories! I do have some old backup files from the 1990's with pics of several special cars including the Dietel, but compared to nowadays standards these pictures are almost stamp size haha. I'll have a look if I can dig up some of that, but old stories, articles, pictures, always more than welcome!