News

All news and announcements from 8coupe.com are listed here in chronological order. So you can read about the history of 8coupe.com all the way back to its beginnings here.

Migration of 8coupe.com to 8er.org

Migration of all 8coupe.com data to the 8er.org platform

Over the past few months, the 8coupe.com website has been migrated to the 8er.org platform. The 8coupe.com website is based on web technologies that are no longer available, making it nearly impossible to modify its content or change its web hosting. It also no longer complies with the requirements of the new data protection laws and therefore had to be partially shut down in 2018.

The time has finally come: 8coupe.com is once again…
Christoph
August 1, 2026 at 8:00 PM

GDPR (EU General Data Protection Regulation)

The GDPR has been directly applicable in all EU member states since May 25, 2018, and governs the protection of personal data throughout Europe.

Background and Scope

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, EU Regulation 2016/679) was adopted on April 27, 2016, and entered into force on May 25, 2018. It replaces Directive 95/46/EC and harmonizes the rules governing the processing of personal data in the EU. The goal is to ensure the protection of natural persons while safeguarding the free…
Christoph
May 25, 2018 at 2:05 PM

News and Announcements

18 months after passing the 10k cars milestone we are pleased to announce that the 8Coupe team has managed to again add more than one thousand new 8ers to the archive which on this 11-11 coincidentally holds data for 11.111 8-series cars.


The overall per annum distribution did not change significantly and we now see more than 50% archived for the production years from 1995 onwards with the maximum at near two thirds for the last production year 1999.



Percentage of archived cars by production…
Christoph
November 11, 2015 at 6:00 PM

10,000 8-series cars in the 8Coupe.com archives

Less than a year after passing the 9,000 cars and the 30% archived threshold we are proud to announce having reached another milestone. As of this month we are in the 5 digit range and now hold data for more than 10,000 8-series cars in the 8Coupe archives.
Only a few hundred cars need to be added to achieve yet another long term goal - 1/3 of the entire production. We hope to be able to surpass this number during Summer 2014.

This past year saw near linear increases based on last year´s…
Christoph
April 27, 2014 at 8:00 PM

8,888 8ers in the 8Coupe archive... and more!

A very busy year of the 8Coupe team has led to another milestone - more than 9,000 cars were in the archives at the end of May 2013 and en route in the same month we also passed the "magic" 8er number of 8,888 cars. During the past year and despite one of the major markets, Japan obviously running out of cars, the 8Coupe team managed to find and identify more than 1.000 E31´s previously unaccounted for.

With more than 9,000 cars in the archives we are only a few cars shy of 30% (9187 cars) of…
Christoph
June 4, 2013 at 8:00 PM

News from the archive - 8.000 cars milestone

A new milestone - 8.000 cars in the 8Coupe.com archives has been reached today. Passing this mark we now have knowledge of 26.1% of all produced E31´s one way or the other.



  • A near linear growth rate has been maintained for more than 3 years now and on average just over 100 new 8ers were added to the archive every month.
  • The 8Coupe archive currently contains 124.000 pictures, nearly 69.000 PDF files and some 10k misc files.
  • We now store more than 200k files adding up to near 27 GB of data.
  • Since
…
Christoph
June 11, 2012 at 8:00 PM

Vehicle Build Sheet Report (VBS-R)

Vehicle Build Sheet (VBS)

Vehicle Build Sheet (VBS) - The build sheet is the “birth certificate” of the 8 Series. It reports the technical specifications, colors, and options of a particular vehicle. Dealer add-on accessories are excluded from the factory build sheets.

Vehicle Build Sheets are available upon request to registered and approved 8Coupe.com users in almost ten languages. They can also be requested through the BMW customer support and from most BMW dealerships.

The report comprises of…
Christoph
March 5, 2012 at 8:00 PM

25% archived 8ers milestone reached

After more than 7 years of data collection the fundamental milestone of archiving one quarter of the worldwide 8er production has been reached on February 29th, 2012.

Numerous 8er enthusiasts have contributed to the growth of the archive over the years, first and foremost Jud Spencer, who retired from his active duties for 8Coupe.com in August 2010. Most of the content of this website is a direct result of this enthusiasm and dedication which has continued to date.

Without the initial idea to…
Christoph
March 1, 2012 at 8:00 PM

Vehicle Build Sheet Report - VBS-R - finally available

Just ahead of Santa Claus the 8Coupe.com team has eventually managed to finish a project long in the making.

The Vehicle Build Sheet Report (VBS-R) is filled to the brim with VIN specific unique background information that puts every conceivable statistical aspect for any given 8-series vehicle into a perspective.
The information contained is not available elsewhere and by far surpasses what even the manufacturer would be able to offer.
You will find precise figures for your car in relation to the…
Christoph
December 21, 2011 at 8:00 PM

2.000 cars & owners registered with 8Coupe.com

Nearly ten years after the first steps into becoming the worldwide 8er registry and archive were made, we have received the personal registration of the 2.000th 8-series car today. The 8-series was delivered to more than 80 countries and owners from no less than 66 thereof have signed up with 8Coupe.com

The majority of cars registered are located in North America with 50% of all registrations from the US (1.008) and more than 150 from Canada. The largest number of registrations in Europe stem…
Christoph
November 30, 2011 at 8:00 PM

Oct 1, 2011 - half the 8-series has turned 20

Half the produced E31´s today exceed the age of 20 years. 22 months into the series production but with almost 8 years to go, the majority of 8-series Coupé´s roamed the streets worldwide. The onset of the production for the E31 was very bright but a sharp decline in demand and consequently production numbers late in 1991 reduced the output from a maximum of near 70 cars per working day to only 20 and below in the years to come.

By October 1, 1991 the distribution of cars looked like below - all…
Christoph
October 1, 2011 at 8:00 PM

Current status of the 8Coupe.com registry archive project

Nearing 7,000 cars in the 8Coupe.com registry archive in the following is an overview of how those cars are distributed amongst the different production variants.

On average more than 35% of each variant has been archived with the largest percentages for the cars with higher intrinsic values (Alpina, CSi), later model years and North American (NA) based cars. The lowest rates are assigned to the old M70 based cars, be it with manual or automatic gearbox of which many did not survive the tides of…
Christoph
July 15, 2011 at 8:00 PM

More than 6.000 cars in archives - 20% milestone passed

The Registry Volunteer Team is pleased to announce that we have reached two milestones during the past month, namely passing the 6000 archived cars mark in November and the 20% milestone of cataloging the 30,621 8er's produced by BMW AG earlier this month.

As part of the Registry mission to collect information for future preservation efforts CC61020, a Switzerland based 840CiA was cataloged as the 6,124th 8er out of 30,621 produced thus marking the 20% threshold.

This means the archive now has at…
Christoph
December 7, 2010 at 8:00 PM

Brian Eales named new E31 Registry Contact for USA

Brian Eales named new E31 Registry Contact for USA

Effective immediately Brian Eales will become the new USA E31 Registry Agent. Mr. Eales is assuming the USA responsibility from Jud Spencer, who is retiring after 8 years of service to the global BMW 8 Series community.

Mr. Eales is an active Kansas member of the 8 series scene since purchasing his BMW 840CiA 06/2001 and the overall BMW community since the late 1990’s. His positive energy for the E31 led to his current duties as a co-moderator…
Christoph
September 17, 2010 at 8:00 PM

Passing the Torch

Effective August 8, 2010, Reinhard Wolf will become the new Global E31 Registry Agent. Mr. Wolf is assuming this responsibility from Jud Spencer, who is retiring after 8 years of service to the global BMW 8 Series community.

Mr. Spencer began his E31 journey in the late 1990’s through the purchase of multiple BMW 8 Series, including a 1991 BMW 850i 6spd and a 1994 BMW 850CSi. He took over the E31 Registry from Mr. Bert Smith, the founder, August 1, 2002. Under his 8 years of Registry…
Christoph
August 8, 2010 at 8:00 PM

Catalog Update: 1992 850i 6spd (NA)

An accounting of the highly sought-after BMW M70 850Ci 6spd manuals was recently completed for the 1992 model year. Previously the 1993 850Ci 6spd model year was completed (see news). The North American 850i/Ci 6spd was produced for the 1991-1993 model years, including one special-ordered 1994 model for the Canadian market, for a total of 847 cars.

BMW carried over the 1991 model year to the 1992 model year relatively unchanged until late 08/1991 production. For the annual engineering change,…
Christoph
June 5, 2010 at 8:00 PM

Sweden E31 Owner Joins Registry Team

Mr. Per Helmer joins the Inventory Project Team from Sweden. As the proud owner of a 1992 German-spec M70 850i since 04/2004, Mr. Helmer brings his life-long 8 Series passion to the E31 Registry by coordinating the catalog effort for E31's residing in Sweden (approaching 175 8's).

Mr. Helmer joins a growing global team of 8er enthusiasts dedicated to the preservation and cataloging effort of the E31 for future BMW fans. For more information about the BMW Inventory Project team, please visit here…
Christoph
May 17, 2010 at 8:00 PM

Inventory Update: 1993 850Ci 6spd (NA)

An accounting of the highly sought-after BMW M70 850Ci 6spd manuals was recently completed for the 1993 model year. The North American 850i/Ci 6spd was produced for the 1991-1993 model years, including one special-ordered 1994 model for the Canadian market, for a total of 847 cars.

BMW introduced many upgrades and changed the model name from BMW 850i to BMW 850Ci, however, BMW drastically cut production of the 6spd to only 106 6spd cars for the 1993 model year.

BMW carried over the 1991 model…
Christoph
March 29, 2010 at 8:00 PM

Milestone - 5,000 8er's Cataloged

The Registry Volunteer Team is pleased to announce that we have reached the milestone of 5'000 8er's cataloged for the Registry archives. This means the archives now has at least one of the following on file: 1) photos; 2) sales ads; 3) online discussions; 4) owner-supplied information; or 5) salvage data (if applicable).

As part of the Registry mission to collect information for future preservation efforts, 5'000 8er's cataloged translates to 16.3% of the 30,621 8er's produced are now archived.…
Christoph
February 25, 2010 at 8:00 PM

Norway E31 Owner Joins Registry Team

Mr. Terje Nordhus joins the Inventory Project Team from Norway. As the recently proud owner of a 1994 S70 850CSi, Mr. Nordhus brings his newly acquired passion to the E31 Registry by coordinating the catalog effort for E31's residing in Norway (approaching 100 8's).

Mr. Nordhus joins a growing global team of 8er enthusiasts dedicated to the preservation and cataloging effort of the E31 for future BMW fans. For more information about the BMW Inventory Project team, please visit here. The team is…
Christoph
January 29, 2010 at 8:00 PM