WIDEOPN-X5
Well-known member
Hi Fanatics. I made an interesting discovery on Friday on a trip to the Big Smoke when I bumped into an old mate who I literally hadn't seen in 25 years. Now my mate (I'll call him George for now) was always something of a hoarder of things motor and motorcycle and I don't think that, aside from a traumatic sale of an Opel Superboss back in the early 2000s, he has ever sold any car he's ever bought.
When I used to see him regularly (he was actually my ex brother in law's best mate from school) when we rode offroad bikes at De Wildt when I lived in Joburg, he had a somewhat eclectic collection of cars even then. From a fin-tail 220s Mercedes Benz to various Alfas and some yank tanks, he stored these at his home onto which he had built a double deep and A -framed roof garage at the end of the house. In this garage, he could house up to eight cars as he also had 3 hoists in the garage. In the gaps, the already then growing collection of bikes had started.
Enough background yap and to the point now. So in bumping into "George", we spent half an hour or so catching up on divorces, the wisdom of re-marrying, the fact that I haven't aged well (cheeky sh8t) etc etc. The conversation turned to cars and I say to the 3rd party with us, "George gave me the grey hairs with the way he used to drive the Opel Astra tS he owned"....to which "George" says "Oh ya that thing, I still have it across the road. Come lets go look"
We proceed to go into a warehouse off his factory and stepped back into a motoring archive..... the word "hoarder" does not do "George" justice.... under various tarpaulins and sheets are Alfas, BMW's, Opels (including the tS with under 100k km on it) and more. At the house he mentions in a typical "George" matter of fact way, he has a Ferrari 308GTS (carb version).
But the one that made my eyes light up and was inaccessible to look at in the time available, "George" points in the back corner to a tarpaulin and says "there's an E36 M3 Convertible there"......I say "Convertible?? We didn't get those here did we?"
"George" proceeds to then tell me that back in the day, BMW SA imported 2 units (one red and one silver) for the then CEO and CFO of BMW SA. He has the silver one. I am positively salivating at the prospect of seeing this car "uncovered". Unfortunately, all the cars in the factory facility are not well preserved and not all of them are covered. There is a LOT of dust and grime on the one's that really interest me and I am now trying to figure out my approach to get "George" to allow me to get the "good ones" out, clean them up and get them on display because tragically as they are now, they have all the potential to be lost forever.
I will report back after my next get together which we've agreed in 2 weeks I'll come back up.....
When I used to see him regularly (he was actually my ex brother in law's best mate from school) when we rode offroad bikes at De Wildt when I lived in Joburg, he had a somewhat eclectic collection of cars even then. From a fin-tail 220s Mercedes Benz to various Alfas and some yank tanks, he stored these at his home onto which he had built a double deep and A -framed roof garage at the end of the house. In this garage, he could house up to eight cars as he also had 3 hoists in the garage. In the gaps, the already then growing collection of bikes had started.
Enough background yap and to the point now. So in bumping into "George", we spent half an hour or so catching up on divorces, the wisdom of re-marrying, the fact that I haven't aged well (cheeky sh8t) etc etc. The conversation turned to cars and I say to the 3rd party with us, "George gave me the grey hairs with the way he used to drive the Opel Astra tS he owned"....to which "George" says "Oh ya that thing, I still have it across the road. Come lets go look"
We proceed to go into a warehouse off his factory and stepped back into a motoring archive..... the word "hoarder" does not do "George" justice.... under various tarpaulins and sheets are Alfas, BMW's, Opels (including the tS with under 100k km on it) and more. At the house he mentions in a typical "George" matter of fact way, he has a Ferrari 308GTS (carb version).
But the one that made my eyes light up and was inaccessible to look at in the time available, "George" points in the back corner to a tarpaulin and says "there's an E36 M3 Convertible there"......I say "Convertible?? We didn't get those here did we?"
"George" proceeds to then tell me that back in the day, BMW SA imported 2 units (one red and one silver) for the then CEO and CFO of BMW SA. He has the silver one. I am positively salivating at the prospect of seeing this car "uncovered". Unfortunately, all the cars in the factory facility are not well preserved and not all of them are covered. There is a LOT of dust and grime on the one's that really interest me and I am now trying to figure out my approach to get "George" to allow me to get the "good ones" out, clean them up and get them on display because tragically as they are now, they have all the potential to be lost forever.
I will report back after my next get together which we've agreed in 2 weeks I'll come back up.....
. He has 68 motorcycles in that factory warehouse - mostly offroad. He spent 20min chewing me out for selling my CR500 that "we should never have sold Davey"....notice the royal "we"
