So I started corresponding with the owner-eBay is really as much of a chat room as it is an auction house-and learned that the carburetors were indeed triple Webers, and that he had spent nearly six grand on a Stage II rebuild by a North Carolina performance shop, Karzundpartz. He didn't know any particulars on the rebuild, but he had a five-page invoice from the company. It was here that I departed the sane world and punched the "bid" button. I plugged in a modest amount as I believe in risking what you have in your pocket and no more. Then I crossed my fingers and hoped that the rebuild included a Schrick cam, high-compression pistons and some sort of performance exhaust header. Might as well hope for the best of all possible worlds.
When the auction ended and I was high bidder, I said to myself, "Now all we have to do is pick up our winnings...yes.... right! And just where the hell is Dewey, Ill., anyway?" Try Chicago and you'll be close. An agonizing 26-hour roundtrip later, I was the proud owner of a 1972 Bavaria, silver in color and rotten to the core. You see, Chicago is not a kind environment to early unit-bodied BMWs. The Bavaria, in fact, makes the Greyhound seem rust-free. But it's the motor that I coveted, and, as luck would have it, I got what I bargained for.
The invoice says that what we've got here is basically a hot street motor with a few little goodies thrown in for good measure. The cam is a Schrick 292, a good performance compromise. The pistons are new and raise compression to 9.5:1. The header is a tubular item from an aftermarket supplier. I would have liked a Stahl, the BMW performance header, but this one will do for now. The Weber carburetors are 45 DCOEs, and you just can't get any better than that. Then there's the new distributor and radiator upgrades. All-in-all it's an ideal package for a new race car: Good horsepower with nothing wild enough to cause problems.
When I finally get the Greyhound out on-track, flawless reliability will be my number-one priority, since it's impossible to sort a car while that car is sitting in the pits with a blown whozits. From that standpoint, a motor from the long-dead days of mechanical everything is ideal. This motor, even I can figure out. And how does the motor run right now? Like a scalded goat, thank you very much. It drags that heavy Bavaria around as if the car were made of something much lighter....like, say, white glue and toothpicks.
I've got my motor. I've got my place in the cage queue. Stay tuned.