Yahoo Autos Junkyard Gem: 1985 BMW 635CSi
During the middle 1980s, well-heeled American car shoppers wishing to drive a flashy, powerful coupe had plenty of tempting options. Detroit would sell you an Eldorado or Mark VII, for example, while Mercedes-Benz offered a two-door version of the mighty W126 proto-S-Class and Jaguar had the XJS with two doors and a V12 under the hood. If you wanted the evilest-looking new coupe of them all in 1985, the one that looked like its trunk was full of kilos of white powder and maybe a deceased business rival or two, you had but one choice: the BMW E24 6 Series. Today's Junkyard Gem is one of those cars, a first-year 635CSI now residing in a Northern California self-service car graveyard.
BMW sold the E24 here from the 1977 through 1989 model years, and it shared much of its chassis design with that of the E12 and E28 5 Series. In fact, the cheaper 5 Series generally proved to be quicker than its 6 Series cousin, due to the E24's heavier weight, but the E24 looked faster.
For 1985, U.S.-market BMWs with the "Big Six" engine got a displacement upgrade over the previous year, from a nominal 3.3 liters to a nominal 3.5 liters. This meant that the 533i, 633CSi and 733i became the 535i, 635CSi and 735i here. This engine was rated at 182 horsepower and 214 pound-feet.
