SuperVettura, England’s official Koenigsegg dealer, offers a wide selection of used supercars including a 1989 Ferrari F40, a 2016 Aston Martin Vulcan, and a 2008 Lamborghini Reventon. There’s even a Spyker in its inventory. And yet, the car rivaling the 1,360-horsepower Agera RS for attention is a humble, 34-year-old BMW.
“It turns almost as many heads in the showroom as a Koenigsegg,” James Huntley, a member of the store’s sales staff, told Autoblog. It’s not difficult to see why: It’s a 1986 325iX, which is BMW-speak for a second-generation 3 Series with a 2.5-liter straight-six engine and all-wheel drive. It’s one of the more desirable members of the E30 family, especially when fitted with a five-speed manual transmission the way the driving deities intended, and this one is extra-special because it has never been registered. Its odometer reads 508 kilometers (315 miles).
The previous (and original) owner intentionally kept the sedan unregistered, which explains why it’s not as worn as the never-registered Italian and French cars uncovered in Argentina earlier in 2020. The anonymous collector bought it because it was BMW’s first all-wheel drive car, Huntley explained. He felt it belonged in his collection.
“We purchased quite an extensive and eclectic car collection (32 in total) from a Danish collector. It included cars such as the P1 GTR, Enzo, F50, 250, Speciale, Barchetta, 512, 328, Pagoda — and the 325iX. When we arrived to view the collection, everything was beautifully preserved in a number of climate-controlled aircraft hangars.”
Huntley added the protective wax sprayed onto the body prior to delivery is still visible in the door jambs and the engine bay. He also pointed out the car received a full service, an oil change, and a new battery when it arrived in the United Kingdom. The dealer left the Michelin tires fitted at the factory on the hubcap-clad 14-inch steel wheels to keep it as original as possible, but it will install new rubber if the next owner plans to drive it.
Most 325iXs ended up in North America, and a majority of them were driven into the ground by a succession of increasingly merciless owners who considered maintenance intervals ballpark suggestions. SuperVettura’s is undoubtedly the cleanest example left anywhere in the world, and it’s priced accordingly at £48,000, a sum which represents approximately $60,000 at the current (and extremely volatile) conversion rate. That’s on par with a new 2020 M2, but something tells us this time warp of an E30 isn’t going to remain unsold for very long.
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