Well I can say with a reasonable degree of certainity that this BMW is not a CSL, but that does not detract from the fact that it is still a formidable road car, and a very very pretty one too.
The Alfa Romeo 2600 had two coupe versions, Bertone and Zagato and one convertible which of course was by Touring. The family DNA of Touring is very distincitive and you can see it in designs of the same era in cars like the Lancia Flaminia Touring convertible and also the Maserati designs by Touring. There has never been a more beautiful badge than the Touring badge, that in itself is a work of art.
My Uncle had the 2600 Sprint Bertone in Lahore in 1965, that car was then sold to Tahir Ayub. Where it is now is unknown, and will be one of the finds on Pakwheels I hope.
It was white with black upholstery, had Factory fitted air conditioning (very very rare option), power windows.
It was the first car in which I travelled at over 200 km/hr, in 1966, on the Peshawar - Nowshera road. The memory of that drive is vivid in every detail in my mind even though I was all of 11 years of age.
As for the S800 Honda, what a marvel it was. These were imported by Shahnawaz Limited and I saw one for the first time in 1969, at the Pindi workshop of Shahnawaz, it was being put through pre delivery checks to a lucky owner. Later on in in 1973 one of my friends in Pindi bought the coupe version in a lovely yellow color and I drove that car quite often.
What really had me shocked was that when you hit the keys to churn the starter motor the rev counter would be reading about 1500 revs. That engine would easily spin to 7500 RPM, an unheard of figure and a complete new experience to me. The car I normally had the privelage of being allowed to drive then only operated in a very narrow band with a 4500 RPM redline, and an idle at 450, yes 450 RPM. So the Honda was a totally different experience.
So sad that it seems that none have survived, they were really lovely cars.
