On a scale of one to ten cylinders, one being the worst number and ten being the best, where would you place today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe BMW? That's right, you'd stick this silver bullet at the top because it rocks a freakin' deca-mill. We'll still have to decide if its price is a perfect ten.


The seller of yesterday's mid-engine 1990 CRX claimed to have been 'testing the waters' with his ad. Based on your comments, and the 80% Crack Pipe vote for its ten-grand 'fishing' price, I'd say that he's going to be experiencing a severe drought of interest.


Let's compare and contrast that hacked up Honda with today's 2006 Hartge H50 E90 with its V10, shall we? That CRX looked to be the result of a backyard butcher, who made do with whatever he had on hand- boat gas tank, bungie cords, a thermos for a catch tank, probably some chewing gum. This Bimmer on the other hand, comes across as a no-expense spared 200-mph Q-ship made by people with tools other than just a hammer and ready supply of PBR.

This 3-series is advertised on the Turner Motorsport site, but it has also made an appearance on the German Cars for Sale blog, which as you might expect is plum-full of German cars for sale. It's described here as having been built to be 100% street legal in the United States, and is said to be the only one of its kind stateside. The ad also claims that the conversion originally cost a staggering $220,000, albeit with the E90 thrown in.

The work done includes the adoption of BMW's 550-bhp S85 V10 engine, late of the larger M5. Along with that comes all the associated make-it-go parts like the cooling system and emissions stuff. Transmission duties are handled by a 7-speed SMG III, also from an M5.


Add to that proprietary Hartge ECU mapping and an elimination of the top speed limiter and, it's appreciably quick and applaudably fast. In fact,with a zero to 60 time claimed to be just north of four seconds and a run with the Hellcats fast 200-mph top clip, it's day-um fast.


You get some show with your go too, and there are flared fenders, aero aids on the outside, as well as carbon fiber trim on everything but you on the inside. Everything about the car looks top notch, which as we all know is far better than middle notch or bottom notch, and with only 24,532 miles under its belt, there's plenty of life left to go


This is of course a very unique opportunity to buy something that the BMW factory considered too crazy to do, but which is obviously not impossible to pull off. What was it that Kevin Costner hallucinates in the corn field - if you build it, they will come? Well, Hartge built this amazing beast, and I'll bet you'd all like to come and get it.

Of course to do so you'll need to be all kinds of filthy rich. This isn't a car priced for the great unwashed, but that doesn't mean that we can't weigh in on wether or not it's worth its $105,000 asking. What do you think, is this V10 3-series worth that kind of scratch? Or, does that make this Hartge a heartache?


You decide!


Turner Motorsports, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to Mike Murthy for the hookup!

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