Elvis' BMW 507

[3798j]

Have always thought the 507 to be one of the cleanest/prettiest of sports cars. Right now BMW is displaying Elvis' 507 at their Welt Museum prior to going forward with their plans to restore.
Here's the story: https://ranwhenparked.net/2014/07/24/bmw-restoring-elvis-owned-1957-507-roadster/

 

[Marvin Gruber]

Gotta watch us Alabama boys, we will hot rod anything with four wheels. There is a Jowlett Jupitor close by without an engine, hmmm

marv

 

[aeronca65t]

Sad to see it's lost the original powertrain.

We have one member here at BCF who's family used to own a 507. He may pipe in.

 

[waltesefalcon]

"There is a Jowlett Jupitor close by without an engine, hmmm"

Marv, I've got a spare 472 Caddy laying around.

 

[3798j]

With a production run of just 252, a broken 507 engine rebuild may have been a tough (possibly impossible) job to source parts for. The Welt just happens to have this correct V8 for the restoration.

 

[aeronca65t]

Ahhhh! Nice!

 

[coldplugs]

Sad to see it's lost the original powertrain.
We have one member here at BCF who's family used to own a 507. He may pipe in.

How could I resist?

I've always been surprised at seeing the horsepower number (~150) for that car. It sounded and ran like it had far more. It was beautifully built - the body was a very heavy gauge aluminum with none of the fragility of most aluminum bodies back then. Even the integral tool box under the hood was aluminum. The front suspension used needle bearings that needed constant lubrication - every month or so you needed to pull out a plunger near each wishbone which was spring-loaded to send oil to the bearings.

The engines are certainly rare, but were also used in the late 501 sedans, and the 502 and 503's. In the picture of the engine you can just make out the tray under the carbs - this had a drain tube to the engine's rear and collected the gas that was occasionally spit out the carb intakes when the chokes were used. There wasn't much clearance between the carb tops and the hood and many 507's just used a coarse screen instead of those air cleaners.

As for as I know our 507 no longer exists. Last I knew, it had caught fire (see gas comments above) and was in a junk yard near New Haven CT.



The first picture shows the car soon after we got it. We were working on the exhaust system and the tailpipes weren't fabricated yet. Mufflers were Corvette competition - very small and loud. The rightmost shot shows my mothers Ford and my father's VW Karmann Ghia. I've always been struck by the similarity of the roofline of the VW and the 507 (removable) hardtop. The Corvettes were mine, although I sold the '57 about a week after this shot.

Hard to believe, but I suspect that we paid more for the Ford than any of the other cars in that photo.