Fritz: A 1988 BMW 635CSi
Meet Fritz, definitively German
The shark. One of the most iconic faces put on to a car in history. I love it; I've loved it since I was a kid, before I even knew what a BMW was. I just knew the face of all BMWs from the late 60s and early 70s through the late 80s always did it for me. And now I drive one.
This car is now 30 years old, built on August 24th, 1987, but it almost doesn't feel like it. There are so many features, buttons, and electronic toys inside to rival many cars built in the last decade. 10-way power adjustable seats for driver and passenger (sadly not heated in mine, but an option you could order). An on-board computer that tracks time/date, average speed, average MPG, among other things. Full leather interior, even the headliner and sun visors. Plush suspension that honestly rivals modern lower-tier luxury cars in ride comfort. And the superb, legendary BMW M30 straight-6 that has powered various BMW chassis with different flavors from 1968 all the way though 1994. It pulls smoothly, but still has pep and some kick in high RPMs. It's a luxury grand-tourer that can, and does, handle the back roads like any other sportscar.
I love driving it. It really is so smooth and easy to drive, especially for a car its age. You don't feel like you're driving something that's been around since the advent of personal computers. What's most surprising to me is that it has multiple modes of driving; you can cruise around downtown at 20mph, or flying down the highway at naughty speeds late at night, and it doesn't feel any different. It's the same sort of sedate, comfortable ride at any speed; truly a car for the Autobahn. But it can also rip your head off in the corners and get you more sideways than you ever wished you would be. It's so easy and enjoyable to drive it at the limit, or to pitch it into a drift, around empty backroads. It is so well balanced and predictable that you have complete confidence it will respond to your input.
Now all this being said, the car is still 30 years old, and nothing lasts forever.
Plenty of things have gone wrong, and lots of money has been spent to keep the car on the road as a daily driver. Just in the bast few months, we've had to replace the front subframe, front struts, all brake disks and pads, and some rear suspension work that never seems to end. But it's been so worth it to keep this car going. I hope to (figuratively) drive this car into the ground, keep it around forever.
There's a certain feeling of driving a classic car. It's always in the back of your mind that "This car is really old" and "Something could break at any moment". But then you're thinking about "How cool is it that this car is still here driving around all these other new cars?" "Who would've thought this would happen when they built the cars?". And the fact that the car grabs lots of attention while driving. Nothing like a Lamborghini or Ferrari or any other super exotic supercar, but you do get lots of eyes following you as you cross through an intersection, lots of kids stare as you drive past a school or neighborhood. I never craved attention, but driving a classic makes you feel, for lack of a better word, special. You're not better than everyone else, but you are different and unique, and people respect that.
You make a lot of friends going to meets and putting yourself out there. Car shows are so entertaining when so many people of wildly varying ages come to talk to you about the car. Anywhere from little kids to old men into their retirement sharing stories of how they used to own one themselves. Meeting with others who share the same interest and passion in cars that you do, within the same brand/heritage or just in general.
And you always have to have a friend to do stupid stuff with together!
If you've made it this far, thank you very much for reading the whole thing! I could go on and on in person, so condensing all that into many bite-sized chunks with all the pictures I have is a challenge. I have some first-person action footage of me driving through some back roads I would be more than happy to share (as long as the authorities don't see :P). If you have any questions or comments, please share! Hope you guys enjoyed!