Pre-Production S54 M Coupes

[jrmartin03]

I recently came across a 2001 M Coupe sales listing saying it was the 5th of 12 pre-production S54 M Coupes. I hadn't heard of this before, so with some help from Z3Couper and JoshS we were able to determine that this is indeed true, making all of my production numbers slightly off. The full story can be found at: https://www.mcoupebuyersguide.com/pr...n-s54-m-coupes. If anyone owns one of the cars mentioned in the article or knows any other information, I'd love to hear about it as this is all news to me.

[Jeremy]

Very interesting stuff Jon. Thanks for putting this together.

[ikknown]

When I have been to BMW training I have been told about pre production car being made and used for training. And that not everything is in the car that should be there that would be in a production car. And once the car is done with as a training vehicle it is destroyed. Just what I have been told.

[jrmartin03]

When I have been to BMW training I have been told about pre production car being made and used for training. And that not everything is in the car that should be there that would be in a production car. And once the car is done with as a training vehicle it is destroyed. Just what I have been told.

I've heard the same. It makes me wonder how many of these 12 cars are still out there. We know at least 2 are, so there's some hope for the others.

[Jonttt]

In the UK we established with BMW UK (who were suprisingly helpful) last year all the details for the 73 RHD S54's roadsters built. These include "pre" production cars.

They are usually produced for final testing / BMW brochures / press photo & test driving etc.....

There can be some unusual specs on these cars (eg redundant colours) and I think on at least some of the UK cars they had manual roofs (electric was standard on full production UK spec models).

[JoshS]

I believe that for most manufacturers, maybe BMW included, most pre-prod vehicles for training or whatnot are not assigned VINs, ultimately cannot be sold, and are destroyed. Some cars from some companies end up as race cars since they can never be driven on the street. I've come in contact with several such cars from various companies.

For some reason, at least some of these cars were sellable made it to the market through the used-car channel eventually. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them were destroyed though.

I'm also confident that 25 or so cars from the early part of the S52 range (LC600xx) were the same sort of thing. Certainly ALL the ones that got 1998 VINs (WLC600xx vs. XLC600xx) were pre-production, and at least 2 of those eventually made it to the used car market.

[Z3racer701]

My race car's vin is valid, but doesn't show any records in any of the vehicle history reports, it's also the 34th 2.8 manufactured in October 1996. I've considered getting it licensed in Nevada. I guess that'd make me the first owner

[jrmartin03]

I just found LK60007 referenced in a thread in 2003: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48158

That makes 3 so far.

[akreis]

Go to:

http://www.bmwmdata.com/E36_M_Coupe.html

choose "PRE-SERIES MANAGEMENT" (2nd to last one) as an option in the custom query. Hit "Submit Query" and it will list them all.

The option code is S991A.

[JoshS]

Good point. So LC60000-LC60025 are the pre-prod S52s, all '98 models, just as I suspected ... EXCEPT I did learn something: LC60026 and LC60027 are '99s, but also pre-production.

More interesting are the two pre-prod '00 models: LC60915 (smack in the middle of '99 production, there's an '00 pre-production instance) and LC61271 (built well after '00 production was well underway, curious).

[s54nz1]

Here is my pre-production S54 that now resides in NZ.

https://duttongarage.com/2000-BMW-Z3...r-in-NZ-~48617