CD00209 on sale

Did the US CSi come as standard with dumbo wing mirrors and no headlamp washwipe

Zitat von Nifty50;83239

Did the US CSi come as standard with dumbo wing mirrors and no headlamp washwipe

The headlight washer system was always optional in Europe (SA500) and not offered in the USA.

The USA-spec 850CSi misses a lot of features that were present on the ECE-spec 850CSi. No extra engine oil cooler, no final drive cooler, no bigger brakes, no M Technic mirrors, no active rear axle kinematics (AHK),... In return the USA-spec 850CSi received "BMW Motorsport" embossed door handles.

In addition to what Fatih and Revtor already explained as missing, US CSis were the only E31´s to receive the ///M embossed door sills. Those can still be bought (at an 8-series typical price) and make a nice addition
Part numbers 2252693 and 694 @ currently 140 EUR plus taxes a piece.
See attached picture.

Also a very nice addition is the extended fine wood trim (S773) which is exceedingly rare in Europe and was never offered for RHD cars. This was standard for the US CSi´s.

CSi mirrors along with tinted FTP lights did not receive DOT approval. Also the headlight assy for all US cars differs largely from the ECE headlights.

All but one US CSi´s (the loner never made it to the USA) were delivered without the headlight washers.

US CSi´s also were delivered without sports seats - a much sought after extra in the US.

Cheers
Reinhard

Zitat von reinhard;83244

US CSis were the only E31´s to receive the ///M embossed door sills.

I know the door handles were a US exclusive, but are you sure about the door sills? I have seen several ECE-spec 850CSi with the ///M embossed door sills (mine did not by the way). Of course these could have been retrofitted by the owners, but Mike's website e31.net also lists the door sills for both (link - last item in the table). If that's wrong, I may have been spreading some false information in the past :(.

Zitat von revtor;83241

The headlight washer system was always optional in Europe (SA500) and not offered in the USA.

The USA-spec 850CSi misses a lot of features that were present on the ECE-spec 850CSi. No extra engine oil cooler, no final drive cooler, no bigger brakes, no M Technic mirrors, no active rear axle kinematics (AHK),... In return the USA-spec 850CSi received "BMW Motorsport" embossed door handles.

Was the headlight washer only optional on the CSi in Europe? I am fairly certain it was standard equipment on the early 850's.

Zitat von revtor;83245

...are you sure about the door sills?

Yup.
Have not seen a single one with them over here, apart from those that dug deep in their pockets more or less recently.

Zitat

Mike's website e31.net also lists the door sills for both (link - last item in the table).

We will need to inform Mike then that there might be a cross in the wrong column

I have not found any marketing material at all, be it for US or ECE CSIs, where those sills were depicted or mentioned.
Even the door handles were worth a special note in the US catalog "Door handles with "BMW Motorsport" inscription Exclusive to the 850CSi"

Headlight washers (S500) always were optional here but are found on roughly 70-75% of all LHD M70s and >80% of all RHD M70´s. In the special case of the M70`s destined for the UK there is a near 100% rate so that it is safe to assume that it was bundled in the standard equipment for the UK.

Cheers
Reinhard

Thanks for the information, Reinhard! I've just updated a few posts I made in the past .

Some interesting facts came out of this original topic and the depth of knowledge of some members never ceases to amaze me. Thanks R&R

Just out of curiosity and for certainty I have attached an extract from my 1991 original brochure that confirms the headlight cleaning system was indeed standard equipment.