• Early 1990s: restored in California by Scott Melnick, Beverly Hills, including a repaint in the original color Baikal Blue metallic (042). The seller elected to remove the side stripe decals himself, a procedure which damaged some of the clear coat on the driver’s door. Additional flaws include two dings in the right-rear bumper rubber, a ding in the upper-right rear quarter panel, and a capped hole drilled in the left-rear upper fender from a previous radio antenna install. 
•  The seller states that the rest of the wood trim was likely redone years ago.

 

 

History:

This 1972 BMW 3.0 CSL  was delivered new in Italy on November 20, 1972. The car was reportedly brought to San Francisco by the original owner in 1982 and remained in California with several owners until being relocated to Washington in 2000. It moved to Texas in 2005 with the previous owner and was acquired by the seller in May 2007

Malcolm McDowell (actor) owned this car in the late 80s, and commissioned a “restoration.” But as the work dragged on, he lost interest and sold the partially-completed car to Ned Tanen (president of Universal and Paramount Pictures). Tanen moved the car/parts to a different shop, Scott Melnick Auto Engineering, where work was completed. According to my source, Tanen was anxious to get the car back on the road. It’s speculated that the change of shops and the pressure for completing the work may have caused parts to be lost and/or non-original parts to be sourced, but that’s just his guess.
He recalls that the work did include a repaint in the original color of Baikal metallic and reconditioning of the Scheel interior including new fabric. There’s no record of exactly what else was done.

It seems that McDowell and Tanen both used it infrequently.
The person I spoke with brokered the sale of this car in 1999 to a physician in Seattle.

I remember this car if indeed Ned tanen owned it. In 1993/4 ish I used to spend time in Ned’s hangar at Santa Monica airport where kept his car collection, his mechanic Alan and myself spent many a Saturday afternoon waffling about cars and this CSL was one of my dream cars, I loved the colour and it sat next to an AC 289 cobra, 275 GTB, a series 1 E type to name but a few.

Also ….. related to the interior, last year I was able to reach the second owner (Garner Handy Tullis; 1984-87) and he told me that this car had the Scheel interior when he purchased it from the original owner. Garner was a print artist.

 

As I was told by the second owner….this car came to the US as a vehicle owned by an Italian restauranteur who also had a restaurant (and part-time residence) in San Francisco. He bought it new in Rome and brought it to the US in 1982. The only two changes from Euro spec that I am aware of are: mph speedometer, and rear (red) sidelights. It doesn’t even have the “extra” front (orange) sidelights that US-imported 3.0 CS versions had.

 

 

 

Recent repairs around 2018:

• The clutch master cylinder was recently replaced.
• The front calipers have been rebuilt,
• and new front wheel bearings were recently installed.

Defects: 2019:

• A torn rubber passenger window seal is noted along with cracks in the wood instrument panel.
• Some scratches are noted on top of the painted air box and black coating on some of the firewall. Per the seller, downshifting into second gear is balky when cold.

BAT 2019 description:

This 3.0 CSL is now offered with a set of factory 14″ Alpina wheels, removed parts, service records dating back to 2000, and a clean New Jersey title in the seller’s name.

A message from the BMW Group archives in 2007 confirms that this car is a CSL model delivered new to Italy and originally finished in Baikal. This CSL was manufactured on September 29, 1972 according to BMW.

 

 

Transaction: 2019 April 30 sold on BAT for $160,000 to Best_of_Show https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1972-bmw-3-0-csl-series-2/