Fans of the Back to the Future franchise know that in less than two weeks Marty McFly is supposed to show up in 2015 by accident and notice a thing or two about the future. Apart from the hoverboard that everyone seems extremely excited about, he’s also going to have floating cars all around him.
In the movie, while he’s inside the diner trying not to get his ass kicked, a 1976 BMW 6 Series is shown levitating right outside the window, behind him. Just to make things feel like 2015 in 1985, the producers chose to Bavarian machine because of its futuristic design.
However, they felt (rightfully so) that it wasn’t enough. Therefore, they fitted it with all sorts of ‘add-ons’ to make it feel more like it belongs. The end result is a hideous hybrid based on a 633 CSi model imported through the grey market into the US.
That’s right, back then, the 6 Series was officially offered in the US but the car they used was an imported Euro-spec model. Why did they go with this choice? Well, because it was cheap.
As the guys from Aficionauto claim, the producers wanted the cheapest E24 possible and they got their hands on this ‘beauty’, a hardly-working 633 CSi version they bought for only $400.
And it worked since the BMW didn’t have to actually be driven around the set because... Well, because it was from the future and rolling on the asphalt was so... 1985! As a matter of fact, during filming, the 6er was brought into the scene using a forklift to give off the impression that it was actually flying.
That and the busting of its right rear taillight are the two things it was needed for and the current owner knows it. Even so, when the chance to own it came around he couldn’t just ignore the relic and he bought it, only to bring it back to life later on.
It’s all an incredibly interesting story and, even though the car doesn’t run as you’d expect a BMW to, it’s still rolling (yes, rolling) to this day even though it wasn’t supposed to in the first place. To that, we can only tip our hats in respect, not only to the car, but to the owner as well.
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