Anyone who laments M Performance-branded cars are not entirely true to M GmbH’s spirit might want to remember a little bit of history. For example, the cool M535i sedan and mighty M635CSi coupe came out alongside the first proper M car, the legendary E28 M5.
As such, we really should not hold it against the Bavarian brand for trying to exploit the M GmbH legend with M Performance versions. The idea has been well established from the onset: deliver a magnificent powertrain, spectacular handling, as well as everyday usability, all in the same package.
Now, it’s also true that even back in 1985, an M30B35-equipped M535i was just a tad less uncommon than E28’s all-new high-performance flagship, the M88/S38 straight-six M5. That may be universally true even today, with one major exception. Brought to us courtesy of the videographer behind the Hand Built Cars channel on YouTube, this recent E28 M535i project is something that you may easily call “beyond outrageous.”
And that may still be a little understatement. After all, we are dealing here with a restored 1985 BMW M535i that doesn’t fit the norm... by a mile. We should even refrain from translating this into kilometers (it’s 1.6 km, for the record) since we have a pretty strong feeling that Colin Baker, the owner of this caged monster, is British.
As for his Amethyst Metallic ride, everything started pretty “normal,” with an owner that wanted his old BMW to shine brightly like new, complete with a chrome turbo build, according to the description. Naturally, here is another understatement: it clearly snowballed from there. Today, ahead of another seven months of work in preparation for the next show season, we are dealing with every pirate’s gold car dream.
The 1985 BMW M535i packs around £5 to £6k ($6.7k to $8k) worth of 24-karat gold plating, and that’s just the biggest highlight. Everything is about the minute details, so it’s quite easier to let the videos embedded below speak another thousand words... or more.
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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