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The tale of an E12 and a
THE TALE OF AN E12 AND A SOLEX CARB… Words and photographs by Fred Marsh-Allen The strange little details drew me in immediately; the single chromed electric mirror mounted in the middle of the driver’s door, the odd seatbelts without a traditional buckle taken from the E3, and the W hen I first saw my E12 528, I had no idea what I was looking at. Having been a fan of BMW’s for a somewhat embarrassed by my faux pas (I had great pride in my BMW knowledge since I got into them in my late teens), I wandered over to the sorry looking first analogue clock sat inside the heater control. All of this made me want it in my life, despite the fact it only drove on part throttle (the carb was not in good shape – more on that in a good 10 years prior and having owned generation 5 Series and started to poke second) and it needed numerous parts many different models, including an about. replaced. E28 525e, E31 840Ci, Alpina B3 3.3 The paint was very poor and flaking; A deal was struck and I took delivery and an E39 M5, I stood in the yard at it had obviously suffered a cheap respray of the car in early January 2017. The my friend’s house looking at the front of at some point prior to its 20 years first thing to do was to replace all of what I mistakenly thought was an E21. storage in a barn in Wales. The interior the ignition and cooling system items; After I had been corrected and feeling was dirty but complete and undamaged. this would give me an engine I knew
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would run correctly once the carb was sorted. Ah, yes - the infamous Solex 4A1 carburettor. Little did I know this was one of the most hated carbs of the era and would explain why this was the last 528 single carb left on UK roads. They need the hand of an experienced mechanic (this, I am not) as they warp and cause all sorts of running issues. I approached many different companies with most
telling me it was a unit not worth the effort of rebuilding. I briefly looked into a twin carb setup but with it being the last example known to exist on UK roads, surely I had a duty to keep it original?
This debacle led me into the capable hands of Steven Crooks, a man working for the classic car restoration company DLF Classics. I had rung the owner and explained the situation and he didn’t
seem to have any doubt that they’d be able to sort it. They had a man. I had the car transported to deep, darkest Suffolk and the carb was subsequently rebuilt by Steven, a chap I’ve kept in contact with and who became a close friend, helping me turbocharge my 635CSi a few years later.
With a car that now accelerated properly, I needed it to stop as effectively. This particular era of E12 used a similar setup to the 2002, twin boosters and a particularly hard to find master cylinder. Thankfully, all were available from Jaymic and Linwar. Suspension options were limited and, after much research, I settled on Bilstein B6 shock absorbers and H&R springs. The car was now running and driving well with a new fuel tank, pump and exhaust system. Paint was next on the agenda and, after sourcing new front wings and multiple trims from BMW and Wallothnesche, it went into the body shop.
And so, after much expenditure (definitely more than the car was worth) I had a very smart looking and performing 1977 528, complete with a set of ETA BETA 16-inch BBS style wheels and a deep Hartge replica airdam. Time to meet up with some more E12s!
Ah, yes, about that. Where were all the E12s? A quick search online revealed a very sobering reminder of how long these cars were left skulking at the bottom of the classifieds in the ‘rusty old BMW’ section. Passed from owner to owner performing daily runabout duties until the complex (for the time) fuelling system failed or the inevitable tin worm set in and they were sent to the scrapyard in the sky. The more modern and better performing E28 no doubt had a lot to do with this huge fall in numbers. Why would you purchase an older, slower, less economical, rusty E12 when a similar looking E28 could be had for a few hundred quid more?
It’s a great shame. The E12 put BMW
on the map in the 1970s. It set new standards in the sector, offering a huge range of engines for the period - the M10, M20 and M30 were all put to use in this handsome, Paul Braque-penned executive saloon. It was the first car which was developed using a computer to calculate front and rear crumple zones and the first BMW to have the indicator stalk on the left side. All of this and I haven’t even mentioned the M535i or Ferrari-slaying Alpina B7S. Pivotal models, indeed.
Looking at the numbers, it’s clear to see that roughly half of the E12s left are the M535i – there was obviously a lot more incentive to keep hold of these. This doesn’t justify the dismissal of the lesser models - in my opinion, they drive just as well as an E28 on the road and once you’ve got your head around the earlier injection systems and carburettors, they are a much simpler platform to maintain with fewer electronic systems and suspension components. It’s just a pity there are so few to choose from. At the time of writing there are just two UK cars available, a 528i at £8,000 and the well-known ‘URN’ M535i at Munich Legends for three times that amount.
Below, I have published the information I can find on the current E12 population. Let’s hope more find their way back onto the road.
