Fair enough. With just 200 in the U.S. and none ever having reached the beater corner used-car lot, they are all likely well taken care of, so the rarity, high performance, pedigree and looks almost guarantee these things will be collector car with lots of investment potential.

That being said, BMW had set the bar…

That makes a lot of sense. There was no way of knowing that during my drive.

Fair enough. I respect that.

Are you driving the Euro edition or a U.S. edition? I ask because in my afternoon or driving if, I could find no way to adjust the suspension. My co-driver and I spent probably 20 minutes trying to find a way to adjust the suspension and never found it. That could be part of the problem.

Amen. I seemed to think it understeered while taking an exit ramp only a click or two above “leisurely.” It was a huge disappointment.

But he also has been making millions for years in terms of salary, bonus and stock options, not to mention likely deferred comp and a retirement package that is probably beyond obscene. He’s in his 50s and if he did not already have pretty stacked back bank and investment accounts, then he would just be an idiot.

As…

I think that point about competent executives is highly debatable, particularly because the only time a golden parachute cord gets pulled is when the board decides to can somebody. There is plenty to debate about Fields’ effectiveness and competency, but shouldn’t the incentive be the other way around: Do a good job…

I bought a low-mileage V70R six-speed some years ago and loved driving it...when it was not broken. The angle gear (transfer case) went out right away. A year later, the Haldex pump failed (another point of failure in the AWD system). I replaced wheel bearings on a seemingly annual basis. And since the car had Bosch…

I agree on the understeer. I recently drove one and it pushed where it really shouldn’t have been pushing. As a former V70R owner, I was extremely disappointed.

Isn’t the record-setting car quite different from the Polestar version they sell here in the U.S.?

Good point—because this is the championship game, it should have been allowed to go the distance, even if that meant finishing the game the next day.

Not writing it off completely. It just wasn’t magically delicious. A car that gets a bigger engine, no automatic option, flared fenders, bigger brakes, etc., should be magic, but the 850 CSi wasn’t. And the base car was already a bit “meh:” heavy, ponderous and totally disconnected from the driver—everything the 635…

Of contemporary cars? Perhaps the Aston Martin DB7, Porsche 928 GTS, Ferrari 456. Yes, they are all GT cars, but they are also benchmarked on the track.

I take umbrage with the “magic” mentioned here.

Then why give it more power, a six-speed, flared fenders and bigger brakes, among other go-fast bits, and call it a “CS.” Sport is implied in that name. As in motorSPORT. .

Definitely a looker, but it was a stumble for BMW, who were otherwise hitting on all of their proverbial cylinders in the early to mid-1990s.

I just have a beef with these guys calling it “magic.”

And they DID turn those other machines into track cars, which is my point. The contemporary E36 M3 was a truly groundbreaking car, even with the somewhat crippled American S50/S52 engines. That car was a track demon. Even the E34 M5 was amazing on the track, particularly when compared to the Audi S4 (first version) or…

I drove a U.S.-spec car. (I’ve also driven 840Ci and 850Ci, auto and stick on the latter.)

Interesting. Nice route this time of year. I don’t do the junkets that often any more. I do miss some of them, as long as there is driving involved.

The CSi promised a lot more performance. Being a BMW, I think a lot of us expected it to be harder edged. It was simply faster, with sexier body work and a better…

Yes, a truly gorgeous design and a leap forward from the Seventies-era 6 Series, which remains a favorite.

It was a unique circumstance some years ago. It was a privately owned car with some truly open track time (The guys handed us the keys and said “Lock the gate when you’re done.” No more to say in that story.) Not being my car, it did not get beat that hard. Perhaps 9/10s in acceleration and braking, 7/10s on the…

Interesting take. Not what I would have expected from the fanbase.