Vintage, manual BMWs are more in vogue now than ever, and today, you can find what’s perhaps the one to rule them all on the online auction site Bring a Trailer. A minty fresh 1995 850 CSi – #190, according to expert Alec Cartio – has popped up sporting just 22,000 miles, original Hellrot (Bright Red) paint, and all the pop-up headlight, mid-90s goodness you could ask for.
In case you forgot (but…how could you?), the 850 CSi was the M8 of the time in everything but name. The car was developed by BMW’s Motorsport division and featured a stiffer and lower suspension, quicker steering rack, larger wheels, and a bunch of other enhancements over the regular 8 Series. Under the hood is a fiery 5.6-liter V12 engine (S70) closely related to the mill that powers the legendary McLaren F1 supercar. The S70 pairs up to a six-speed manual transmission – like it does in that car from Woking – and a limited-slip differential that spins just the rear wheels. No all-wheel drive nonsense here, folks. And 372 horsepower and 402 pound-feet of torque are plenty, thank you very much.
This one is particularly mint, with the only non-factory component being 17-inch Bugatti BBS wheels that replace the stock units. The car’s Silvergrey Nappa leather upholstery is untouched, and the model- and market-specific Extended Yew wood trim seems to be in excellent shape. As you would expect for a car with 22k miles, everything looks mostly like it did when it left the showroom floor.
Rare and Desirable
With just 1,510 units produced worldwide – according to BMW – this is one of the rarest and most desirable BMW coupes ever produced. According to the listing, this is one of just 26 units finished in Hellrot – and it’s just one of 225 units that entered production for the US market. The E31 8 Series succeeded the E24 6 Series as BMW’s ultra-lux flagship coupe model and left production before the turn of the century. The circle continued with a new 6 Series taking its place in 2011, which was, in turn, replaced by the current G15 8 Series in 2018.
As of this writing, the top bid on this 1995 BMW 850 CSi sits at $95,000. That’s still quite a ways off from the red/black 1994 CSi that sold last year for around $185,000. That’s, indisputably, a huge amount of money to pay for a car. But it’s kind of tough to put a price on such an exotic and hard-to-find piece of BMW history. Get your checkbooks ready, bidders – the auction ends July 2nd.