1974 BMW 3.0 CS

Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Here's an example of one of BMW's best-looking designs.

The BMW New Six cars aren't hard to find on the island; we've seen this '73 3.0 CSi and this '74 3.0 CS, and now we're adding another '74 today.

Remember when BMW wasn't afraid to run with weird science-fiction-esque styling touches on their cars? If so, you also remember WIN Buttons. In '74, the 3.0 CS came with a 170-horsepower six-cylinder engine, which made 25 more horses than Chevrolet's base 350-cube V8 that year. See, Malaise wasn't ruining all the cars!

This car is owned by the same BMW lover responsible for this '82 633CSi, and he also owns that turbocharged, Euro-grade 745i in the driveway. I mentioned that I was considering an E9 for my personal Hell Project and his horror stories ("lots of 'em just break in half from hidden rust") did a good job of steering me away from the idea… of course, now I've got a line on one of those 745i turbo engines, which I may have to drop into a '75 Nova 4-door.