BMW 5-7 formerly owned by Elvis
Elvis Presley may have left the building, but his BMW 507 is
making a comeback.
Following a two-year restoration by BMW's Classic division,
the sports car will appear at the 2016 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance on
August 21.
Driven by Elvis during his military service in Germany, the
Feather White sports car was thought to be lost to history until it was uncovered—in
a warehouse full of pumpkins, of all places. The video shows what it looked
like prior to the restoration.
The 507 was unveiled at the 1955 Frankfurt Motor Show. While
designer Albrecht Graf Goertz's beguiling shape has made the car a
classic, an expensive sports car did not fit the needs of most buyers in
postwar Germany. Just 254 cars were built between 1955 and 1959. Elvis
purchased his—chassis number 70079—used in 1958. The car had previously been
owned by racing driver Hans Stuck and ended up on a used car lot in Frankfurt.
Elvis drove the 507 between his house in Bad Nauheim and the
U.S. Army base in Friedberg, until his enlistment ended in 1960. He shipped the
BMW back to the U.S. but apparently didn't keep it long, trading it in to a
Chrysler dealer in New York a few months after returning to the States. The 507
passed through a series of owners over the ensuing five decades, and eventually
fell off the radar.
The car was acquired by Jack Castor, an engineer
living in California, in 1968. Castor drove the car briefly before stashing it
away for a restoration that never came. Castor was never able to confirm the
connection to Elvis. It wasn't until 2006, when he read an article in Bimmer magazine,
that Castor and journalist Jackie Jouret were able to put the pieces together
and confirm that chassis number 70079 was Elvis' 507.
Castor contacted BMW, which acquired the car and began an
extensive restoration. While the 507 was mostly intact, its engine and
transmission were missing, and there was significant rust and interior decay to
deal with. Restorers also had to undo some modifications made to the car for
racing in order to bring it back to stock form.
The result of all of that work will be on display in
Monterey in just a couple of weeks.
source: http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1105405_bmw-507-owned-by-elvis-fully-restored-heading-to-monterey#image=100560048
by Stephen Edelstein
http://www.boscheuropeancom
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