1981 BMW 5 Series 528i review from Australia and New Zealand

Alternator replaced the day I got it.

Ignition timing was retarded significantly.

Idle speed was wound up to cater for ignition timing.

Electrical faults (secondary cooling fan, power mirrors, glove-box torch)

Gear linkages very loose, hard to find gears sometimes.

Body is immaculate, no rust whatsoever, two dings on the whole thing, going to get them removed very soon.

They're a pig of a thing to work on, due to the early fuel injection system crowding the engine bay somewhat, but once you have a rough idea of what everything is, it starts to come together a bit more.

Parts are a bit of an issue to find, and when you do find them, you pay through the nose. Replacing parts with non-BMW endorsed parts usually a task, for instance, the alternator, I replaced it with the alternator out of my wrecked Mazda E1800 van, a Mitsubishi Electric piece, took a good deal of custom fabricating to fit it and a fair bit of electrical knowledge to wire it in.

Insanely fast for a 1981 car, supposedly pulls about 130 kw/184 hp, from experience, I would say this is pretty well correct, it's an even match for my friends Nissan Skyline R31 (3.0 litre, single overhead cam, fuel injected inline six).

Holds onto the road like it's on rails, McPherson front struts if I'm correct, and also an independant rear suspension/differential setup.

Again, very fast, very powerful. I planted it coming through a roundabout and it the wheels broke free, so I snapped into second gear and they still couldn't gain traction for another 3 metres.

Terrific fun to drive if you're young and male!