Today’s
Nice Price or Crack Pipe BMW is claimed to have been found… you guessed it, in a barn. It’s dusty but not rusty, and you’ll have to decide if awakening it from its long slumber requires a barn-burner price.

Well, despite my ineptness at reading a price tag, yesterday’s
So-Cal-located 1974 Ford Courier toddled off with a respectable 73% Nice Price win. A lot of that was no doubt based on its cuteness factor, and its turn-key condition. That latter requirement may prove to be the undoing of today’s candidate.

Barns are great things. They have haylofts where traveling salesmen can have trysts with buxom farmers’ daughters; broad sides that are the hopeless targets of incompetent ball players; and mythically, they contain cars such as today’s
1974 BMW Bavaria. Barns truly are the Swiss Army Knives of agricultural buildings.

You may recall that the BMW Bavaria was the brainchild of Max Hoffman, who at the time was the German marque’s American importer. Hoffman was also directly responsible for the 2002Tii, the 507 roadster, as well as Porsche’s Speedster and bringing Alfa Romeo to the States, so he belongs in the pantheon of car-guy heroes.

This 1974 Bavaria might not make Max proud however. It is claimed to have been driven literally into a barn in 1989, where it has waited ever since. While it was there it no doubt whiled away the time by having all of its rubber bits fall apart and developing some interesting smells.

The ad notes that the twin-Zenith 3.0-litre M30 will turn-over by hand, but the seller is leery about firing it up. That’s a wise move on his part as there is a whole methodology to bringing the dead back to life, even when they are cars.

If someone were interested in resurrecting a Bavraria, as some sort of winter project, this might be a good place to start. The car looks to be in excellent shape, with no apparent rust or other major bodywork issues. On the inside, the dash is cracked in places, and the seats are as dirty as Kate’s Sister, but at least they look to be intact.

Unlike our barn find Pantera from a couple of weeks back, the seller of this Bimmer has had the decency to wash the car before taking pictures. Oh sure, there are a couple of shots of it in its as-found state, you know, in a barn, but mostly it’s all shiny and with tires full of air.

What’s not to like about this 97K Bavaria? Well, first off, it’s an automatic, which will both dull the M30’s 170-horsepower, and make for yet another major component that age and lack of use could have majorly eff’d up. It’s also a ’74 which means diving boards for bumpers as the E3 had them hung on rather than tucked in.

That’s not that much to hate on, and in contrast, you might just like the price, which is $1,500. What’s your take on this project Bimmer for $1,500? Is that a price that might make it worth a gamble? Or, does even that pittance make this a barn find that should get lost?

You decide!

Madison WI
Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.