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Originally Posted by bailyhill
What a wonderful story on Pal Bracq. I have been fortunate enough to own many of these as DD over the past 50 years--mostly at the bottom end. It was nice to see them represented here, and a nice walk down memory lane. Wish I had kept a few of them now.
Bailyhill
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I own one of Paul's design too the classic E21 323i with a few M bits... We've had it in our family since new and I am the current custodian. I love the simplicity and elegance of the design of this era's BMW's. The 323 for example has a nice balanced shape with great details such as a fantastic clamshell hood, dual exhausts showing it has the more powerful inline 6 and a clean, almost simplistic dashboard but ergonomically fantastic! the dogleg Sports 5 speed manual has a fantastic mechanical feel too as well as the sports steering wheel and seats (Regards I believe)... for a car so small nowadays compared to even compacts, it has a great feel of solidity and weight: the notion that German cars are built like tanks is true. The car is not very quick by modern standards but the oversteer biased handling is as predictable as fun thanks to the light rear axle (heavy 6 up front) and LSD... I have loved this car since I was a kid and still do now ;-). The only gripes I have is a heavy clutch for urban driving and slightly vague steering... But the best part is probably the smoothness and great sound of the inline 6, especially above 3000 rpm!