A few weeks after hearing that the owner didn’t want to sell the Monterey BMW 319, I found I still had a growing desire to experience that type of motoring, and I went back over my past emails.
It was 9 years since I’d been given the name of the guy in Germany who’d supposedly restored my father’s car, but in frustration for getting nowhere, I googled his name again. And this came up.
Translated it says
‘In grief and gratitude we say goodbye to the always passionate BMW veteran hobbyist, animal lover and music lover Wolfgang Schrunder’
He’d died on the 23rd January last year.
My father had bought the car together with his brother Jack. I let Tony my cousin know that I may have found our father’s car.
I decided to write a letter to the widow of the restorer, telling her I understood her husband had been restoring my father’s car, and if that was the case, would she be able to tell me what had happened to it, and was there ever any chance it may be for sale?
Just a few days later I had an email. Wolfgang’s widow had passed my letter on to the new owner.
He sent me what I at first thought was a curt response. In single lines (Google translated) it said
Video from the dashboard.
Pictures will follow
Wolfgang Scrundher bought the engine from England with the 319.
The original transmission is included
The three carburettors are included
Make a price proposal
I was pretty anxious - this was close to making an unbelievable dream come true, but if any negotiations went wrong it could all slip away. I feared the seller may not be realistic about the price as he obviously now knew it was my father’s car.
But then the pictures arrived and I could see the car had been faithfully restored - right hand drive, and in its original colours.
I showed the full set of pictures to the specialists in the BMW Historic Owners Club. They agreed that with the German BMW Owners Club certificate, all looks to be right, chassis number and engine number correct etc
We negotiated a price.
It’s been painful process because a car has had to go. I’m afraid this is the last I saw of my lovely 911T restored by Matthew - TangerineT on here.
But I’m sure you’ll understand. My father was very giving with his love of cars to me. He let me drive them all as I became old enough, and so buying back the one that I suspect probably excited him the most in his formative motoring years was a one time opportunity.
On Monday my cousin Tony and I drive out to Northern Germany, to meet the owner and talk all about its restoration and its more recent story. And then we’ll see it safely loaded on a transporter to begin its journey back to England. And of course then begins the next phase - to get the DVLA to issue it with its original number.
It’s a car with history.
This is it going up the Bo’ness hillclimb with its original owner at the wheel
And this is the very ad that my father and his brother must have responded to when they bought it. It is the actual car.
Slowly, more history is being unlocked
I’ll let you know how it goes in Germany, and beyond.
