Say what you like about the precise nature of Jay Kay’s scattergun car collection, but when he nails it, it's usually with bells on - especially when it comes to note-perfect period BMWs. In the hackneyed, depressingly digital times we live in, the chiselled prospect of a box-fresh E12 M535i, vividly resplendent in Alpine White with M Sport decals, is like a hard, sobering slap in the face. One delivered by Bodie from CI5. In fact, its authenticity and unarguable coolness are so off-the-charts, you'd probably need to be put together like a 1981-era Lewis Collins to pull it off...
Trend-setting originality, of course, is at the heart of what makes the M535i special. As the vendor excitedly reminds us, the pumped-up derivative was the first series production model treated to the attention of BMW Motorsport. It was only built for what amounts to five minutes in car industry terms (from April 1980 to July 1981, according to its manufacturer) and in comparatively low volume (just 1,650 globally) but it laid the track for a tricolour leviathan to follow.
Granted, it was hardly the world’s first fast saloon, yet clearly BMW had struck on something acutely special when, in its own words, it combined ‘a top-of-the-range limousine, compact and businesslike, with the performance and driving potential of a sophisticated sports car.’ It did the concept no harm at all that it came wrapped in Paul Bracq's impeccably well-designed, epoch-inspiring body. BMW will spend much of 2025 talking about what the latest iteration of Neue Klasse means; it will do very well indeed to mimic even a fifth of the E12’s legacy.
As you might expect, wheels and spoiler aside, most of the Motorsport department’s contribution came underneath, where the suspension was overhauled with new struts and dampers alongside a limited-slip differential and disc brakes on both axles. The M535i needed it all to contain the 3.5-litre straight-six installed in the nose, a derivative of the M88 engine first used in the BMW M1.
In the saloon, it produced 218hp which, via a five-speed manual and courtesy of a 1,430kg kerbweight, meant you arrived at 62mph in around 7 seconds and could eventually expect to nudge 140mph. With only 10,820 miles on the clock, we’d imagine this rare right-hand-drive example is still more than capable of living up to those numbers. And even if it weren’t, you’d be living every immersive rev with a wired grin on your boat race, while your aris soaks up the pleasure of being in contact with an impossibly gorgeous Recaro seat.
You’ll have richly earned both sensations if you've parted with the £104,900 asking price - a valuation that eclipses the £98,500 you’d pay for this similarly charming 2002 Turbo or the £92,490 needed to bag a 24-plate, one-owner M3 CS. One is no less historically significant; the other, prodigiously quicker. But we’re inclined, for today at least, in the glum, post-festive fog of early January, to side with the Space Cowboy. If there’s a more uplifting M-car currently for sale on PH, we’ve not seen it.
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