Taking a trip down BMW’s memory lane in a beautifully restored SA-built rarity
Freshly re-minted BMW 530 MLE goes on a Kyalami cruise. Picture: SUPPLIED
The 530 MLE is probably less well known to the general public, but it too has a rose-tinted South African story. High classic-car values are all about rarity and provenance, and this Beemer ticks both those boxes as only a small number were built and this is car number 100, one of the last of the original motorsport-inspired 5 Series models.
The racing version turned out to be a great success, scoring 15 wins from 15 consecutive starts, and taking three championship titles. When it was retired in 1985 the 530 MLE was the most successful racing 5 Series in history. BMW entrusted the conversion to Luis Malhou of Custom Restorations, and the fact that he was assisted by some of the original members of the BMW team that built this car back in the 70s just adds to the warm and fuzzy allure of the whole project.
The same attention to detail prevails in the restored cabin with its wide and comfortable velour-covered seats, wooden dashboard panelling and a radio with exactly two knobs — one for volume and the other for tuning the station; the height of luxury back in the 70s. But even at a plodding pace, some of that typical sporting BMW feel was evident, revealing the genesis of the brand’s reputation for building driver’s cars, an early step into BMW building track-oriented cars for the road.It has typically direct BMW steering and the small-diameter wheel presents a sportier interface than the hula-hoop efforts of some of its peers.
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