BMW Festival 2008

It's not often you're stopped in your tracks by a standard 316 but Brian Lake's 54,000-mile example is so immaculate it stood out even in the sea of M Power machinery at Gaydon. Bought new back in 1983, the car's never been painted and is all original right down to the dealer stickers in the window and the unused Pirelli P6 under the boot floor. Brian traded in an MGB for the BMW, which was one of the first UK examples to be delivered, despite a lengthy wait for the Henna Red paintwork which meant he ordered the car in March and didn't take delivery until October. With only a pair of shock absorbers and rear springs needing replacement in 25 years of ownership, Brian probably feels he's got his £8946.99-worth and this must be the only E30 with a full BMW dealer service history.

Rob Godfrey's Racing Dynamics 5-Series is a really rare beast. You might think you've seen one before but it was most likely the firm's K35, which was the firm's most popular model but significantly less powerful than the K38. This car was built in 1990 as a demonstrator for Racing Dynamics and was based on a 535i Sport, the K38 label coming from the 3814cc engine, featuring modified ECU, forged 92 mm pistons, 90 mm crank, stainless exhaust and Racing Dynamics exhaust manifolds. Suspension was Racing Dynamics' own set-up and the firm also fitted its own custom Brembo brakes as well as rocker cover, oil cap, body styling, gear knob and steering wheel. Wheels are 8.5x17 front and 9.5x17 rear Racing Dynamics kit. Rob's example must be the only RD 5-Series in the UK and it's covered just 82,000 miles in the hands of enthusiast owners, one of them having owned the car no less than twice. See more of it in Total BMW.

They love the E46 M3 at Thorney Motorsport and this one was a prime example of the firm's work, featuring a stage 3 engine spec (Shrick cams, Milltek exhaust and Thorney's own remap), KW Variant 3 suspension, AP Racing brakes and full Milltek exhaust. The leather-trimmed Recaro Pole Position seats look superb too.

The firm also brought boss John Thorne's CSL along, complete with a handy 403 bhp thanks to a Supersprint exhaust manifold and now sitting on an impressive set of Rays rims as supplied by Thorney and looking all the better for a healthy coating of brake dust after a session on the Aston Martin track.

Tony Panayiotou's B6 was another rarity, especially in Macau Blue - although as Tony told us, the previous owner was selling the car due to an eyesight problem and had described it as Plum Red...

Tony's owned the car for around three years and it was originally imported to the UK by an owner stationed in Germany with the army. Since acquiring the 3.5-litre E30, he's refurbished the wheels in a slightly darker colour, had it remapped and fitted no less than three front spoilers. "They keep cracking!" he laughs. Tony reckons the B6 can keep up with a Porsche 993 and has even embarrassed E46 M3s. See more of the car in Total BMW.

"I know it puts me in a minority," laughs Shaun Woodward, "but I like the delicacy of the CS." Whatever your opinion of the dainty coupe, there's no denying the 2000CS is a pretty rare sight in the UK and amazingly, Shaun has two more sitting at home. This car had been restored when Shaun acquired it some five years ago from the famous Tim Hignett collection, but he admits to having done a fair bit of detail work since, despite the difficulty of obtaining parts. It looked pretty good to us though.

A familiar name to Total BMW readers, Richard Baxter turned up in this super-rare Brilliant Red E34 M5, a factory prototype for a special '20 Jahre' edition to celebrate 20 years of BMW Motorsport - a limited edition of 20, produced in 1992 and based on the M5 3.8 but never sold in the UK. Built by BMW Individual some six months before the official limited edition cars, this prototype features Recaro SR seats with M coloured inserts, suede covered wheel, gear knob, gaiter and handbrake, plus carbon fibre dash and door cap inserts, red 'Motorsport' seat belts and gloss black wheel caps. The production cars shared this spec but were painted in Mugello Red and came complete with a matching scale model.

Looking like it ought to have green 'Polizei' stripes instead of our traditional jam sandwich livery, Steve Woodward's 528i is a genuine Hampshire traffic car and was in fact Steve's first 'company' wheels when he started traffic duties as a serving officer back in 1988. One of a batch of cars built specially for the UK police forces, the 528i came with an extremely basic spec, which meant windup windows, steel wheels and cloth seats, but came with special police suspension involving uprated springs. Steve bought this car long after it had been retired into civilian life and spent a good while restoring it to original police spec – during which time he discovered that amazingly, BMW can supply brand new a correct Police-spec headlining for the E28 complete with the zip for wiring to the flashing lights.

So what was it like as a police car? "Well we never lost anyone," laughs Steve. We've already snapped the car up for a photo shoot, so read the full confession in Total BMW.