7 Vintage Cars Guaranteed To Make You Cool – 1957 BMW 507
Ahead of the 2011 Concorso D’Eleganza Villa D’Este event that starts next week, Forbes magazine publishes a top 7 of vintage cars that they guarantee will give you the cool factor. Among a very selective lineup, we have a 1957 BMW 507.
So what makes this bimmer so special? According to Forbes, Elvis owned one of these. So did Jean Marais. The BMW 507 is a roadster produced by BMW from 1956 to 1959. Initially intended to be exported to the United States at a rate of thousands per year, it ended up being too expensive, resulting in a total production figure of 252 cars and heavy losses for BMW. The 507 made its debut at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York in the summer of 1955.
According to Wikipedia, Elvis bought a white BMW 507 for $3,500 while on duty with the US Army in Germany in 1959. He brought it back with him to the US, and at some point had the engine replaced with a 289-cubic inch Ford V-8. He gave the car to one of his most famous co-stars, the Swiss-born actress Ursula Andress, in 1963. She kept it for some 20 years and, in 1997, it sold at an auction for $350,000.
The 507 is powered in original configuration by a V8 engine producing 150 hp and matted to a four-speed manual transmission. It was initially offered for $9,000 in 1956, a price that quickly escalated to $11,000 (BMW reportedly still lost money on the 251 models they built). This model has its original hardtop. Estimated price: $820,000.
Other famous collector cars were including on the list, a fine selection of vehicles that one can only dream about: 1955 Bentley R-Type Continental Coupe ,1939 Delahaye 135 MS Grand Sport Roadster, 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spyder, 1954 Aston Martin DB 2/4 Competition Spider and 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Berlinetta.
To read more about these vintage cars, head over to Forbes.
Author: Horatiu Boeriu
Source: http://www.bmwblog.com/2011/05/10/7-vin ... 7-bmw-507/