A BMW 507 is not everyday, but the one that once belonged to Elvis Presley is of course just a little bit more special. And that car has now been completely restored.
For a long time it was thought that the BMW 507 from Elvis Presley had been lost. For almost half a century the car seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth, until it was found in abominable condition. BMW Group Classic restored the car, a job that took almost two years. The end result can be seen for the first time on 18 August, because then the car will be on Pebble Beach.
The BMW 507 has been returned to the state in which Elvis received it on 20 December 1958. The car with chassis number 70079 was then Federweiß, a color that Elvis himself had quickly looked forward to; he soon had the car sprayed red, allegedly because he was tired of female fans seeing the white paint as the ideal canvas to express their adoration with lipstick. Apart from the new color, everything remained as it was: a V8 with 150 hp, wheels with a central wheel nut, and of course a Becker Mexico in the black and white interior.
The restoration of the BMW 507 was carried out by BMW Group Classic in Munich. That was certainly not the first time the car was off The King stayed in Germany. This is because Presley used the BMW 507 when he served in the US Army, in Hesse, southern Germany.
Elvis did not purchase a new 507; his copy rolled off the band on 13 September 1957, was exhibited at the IAA in Frankfurt and then used as a press car. In addition, drove Bergmeister Hans Stuck took a number of mountain races with them from May to August 1958. In addition, the BMW 507 could be seen at the London Motor Show and the Turin Motor Show. In passing, Hans Stuck also demonstrated the car to the Belgian King Baudouin.
The car ended up as a second-hand car at a dealer in Frankfurt, where the engine was overhauled and the gearbox replaced. Elvis then picked up the car to drive it back and forth from his home in Bad Nauheim to the American base in Friedburg. When his time in March 1960 was over, he took the car to America. However, he was soon bored with it, because only a few months later the car was at a Chrysler dealer in New York, who sold the car for a paltry 4.500 dollar to a DJ Tommy Charles, who started racing it. This did not benefit originality, because he thought it would go better with a Chevrolet engine. After that, the car changed hands a few times, until Jack Castor bought it in 1968. He used the car every now and then, until he started making plans for a restoration. That did not happen, partly due to a lack of parts, until he sold the BMW 507 in 2014 to BMW - under the strict condition that the car had to be fully restored.
