bmwe21.net forums

Hello to you all,

May I present my 1978 520/6 automatic in arktikblau. I’ve owned it for two years and is my second e12 after a short-lived and rather underwhelming (sorry!) ownership of an e21 320/6. Much as I love e21s, I find I prefer the e12’s more “stately” character. I also suspect e12s are less prone to overheating...

This car underwent a comprehensive restoration by a previous owner, with upgrades including cream leather-trimmed Recaros, Weber carb and an Alpina suspension set-up. I've also added an Alpina steering wheel and front spoiler, and a 1978 Blaupunkt Essen stereo. A Happich rear spoiler is also to follow shortly.

My compliments to all the wonderful e12s featured on this sub-forum!

I do like!

More pictures please.

Thanks 323baur, here's a couple more:

Do like too!! Great colour!

Well done! Very...

beautiful

Looks lovely, that car is screaming for an m54b30.

That artktikblau is such a nice color.... love it
goes very well with the grey interior

any plans with it ?

Thank you for all your kind comments.

Although I'm not really a performance freak I would eventually like to upgrade the engine, to 2.8 litres at least. I'd be very interested to hear of other e12 owners' thoughts and experiences on uprating engines on these cars.

First thing i should do is get a third pedal in the pedalbox, makes driving much more fun.

If concidering a engine swap, go for a M30 with manual gearbox in one swap and ditch the M20. Easiest done with a donor car to take all the parts needed.

Although I do agree with Bertje on the 3rd pedal, I do see the merits of the auto if you want to keep a relaxed drive.
if you have an M20, I presume any M52/m54 will bolt to your M20 auto box, is it a 3HP20??? advantage is no faffing with speedo cables, pedals, linkages and prop shafts.
yes M30 is good but you will need matching G/Box from e12 to retain speedo output so options would be 3hp20, getrag 262/265.

for manual m30 conversion you will need the m30 getrag prop shaft, only other i think will do is the e12 525 auto prop, it just needs a shim.

If you like the auto you have..... I would M54b30 (240hp out the can) or m52b28, bolt to your auto, and follow one of the E12 M52 conversion topics. for less than the price of a manual getrag.

I ended up going M30b35, only because I managed to get a getrag 265 dog leg from an e12 and wanted a manual.
I actually have a spare belhousing for the 265, which I bought purely to cut, clock to correct angle and weld an M52 flange onto in the future.

really a beauty


greetins loentje

All this advice is tremendously helpful, thank you. I should've made clear that I'm keen to retain the car's auto transmission (ZF 3HP22), not least for the relative ease it would afford in transplanting an engine.

Nice car! A fabulous colour wit a very nice ALPINA kit.

This is more and more becoming an interesting subforum indeed, welcome and compliments on a wonderful car sir!