Now you might have seen a couple of weeks ago on the internet
that RM Auctions was dealing with a sale of around 130 cars
from the '70s '80s and '90s.
I saw the pictures of those cars in that warehouse
and thought, "I got to see them".
Guess where we are? We're with them.
This is, and I don't say this lightly,
the most extraordinary room full of cars I've ever seen.
I don't have the stats but I think if you looked at my browser history for used cars
more time will be spent looking at used BMW M cars,
Alpinas, AMGs that kind of stuff, than anything else.
Those are the cars but for some reason I can't get enough off.
I've just walked into a room... Well, Alpina... Mint.
Mint. That's a B7 turbo mint.
That looks like a 65 CSI, probably an M6.
E60 M5 in Europe. Paddles, remember that?
Big outcry.
Journalists like me saying it didn't have a manual gearbox like the old E39.
But these ones... In America they did a six-speed manual for a while.
They're both manuals over here in Europe.
I wasn't aware of any others in Europe. I mean, that is that's special.
Opens door... Inside. Stick.
Look at the seat bolster on that car.
You show me an E60 M5, that doesn't have a collapsed driver's seat bolster.
They all do. This one doesn't.
Like everything else here it's absolutely mint.
There are three, three, three!
E38 Alpina seven series here.
There's a six litre, a 5.7 and another six litre.
I've wanted one of these ever since I first drove one in 2001.
The only place I've ever seen more than one of these,
was, I think, the Geneva Motor Show.
And I think even then they only had two. There are three here!
Then you just drunk on E38s and you think well what's behind?
Oh look, there's a E28 mint B7 turbo.
I've not seen one of those in the raw before,
So, just stay there while I have a bit of man moment to myself.
And breathe in.
Okay, right so... This is an E28.
With the cloth bucket seats. I mean, look at them.
They're just perfect. Look at the steering wheel.
Fellow sad people, what's the first thing you do when you're approaching an old BMW?
You look in the boot for the toolkit, don't you?
So let's just choose one this is a 65 CSI. Come here.
Come on, pop the boot.
Up it goes, look inside. Undo, undo, undo.
Perfect, absolutely perfect.
Look, a screwdriver!
Why all the spoilers so good? My spoiler is not as good as that.
All the rubber is just right and it's not perished.
And extended wheelbase 7 Series.
Another one, oh no this is older, isn't it? What's that, E32?
These are rare as well. There's a whole load of 8 series.
That's an 850 CI, that's an 850 CSI.
That's a 5.7, I think, these are rare as you like
Look, it's got a NACA duct on the bonnet the
The Aston Martin Lagonda.
Neil tells me that's a Tickford. Let's have a look at it
Wheel rim, tyre.
Okay, that is a 15 inch rim.
This is a 255 65 R15
It's an Avon turbo speed.
LJK Setright would love that tyre.
Loved an Avon turbo speed. Loved a Honda Prelude, as well.
Had a Bristol. I'm not sure if he loved the Aston Martin Lagonda though.
I'll go back and look at my old car magazines see if I can find out.
But just look at it! Come on.
I mean it started out pretty haphazard, but by the end they got it nailed.
This is a great-looking car. Its massive and there's no room inside.
But look how cool it is.
I want one of these. Right, Neil, I want one of these.
We're just gonna take a few minutes out,
because I actually need to go and have a chat with myself,
'cause I I've never seen anything like it.
This feels like therapy.
Feels like I'm finally revealing how much I like cars of this era.
They just excite me. This is what I want to be.
And if BMWs or Alpinas are not your thing there's always the Mercedes AMG corner.
That's actually a lie because behind you there's a load more AMGs.
But let's start with these 600. Another 600.
Look at these, we've got SLs and SECs.
It's an E500.
Look how sexy it is, with the slightly flared arches.
This comes from a time when people understood
quietly demonstrating your potential, you know.
C126 AMGs.
So that's basically the big Merc coupe from the mid '80s,
with the wide arch body kit.
It's just the signature thug car, isn't it?
It couldn't look better.
Come and have a look inside this.
The '80s was the decade of excess and the '80s wasn't smug with hindsight.
The '80s was proud to be the '80s and the '80s loved buttons.
This seat has 13 buttons alone. This one seat.
That means there's 26 across the two of them.
And the dashboards and the clock faces and the...
You know, when it all goes electric soon I think I might want one of these.
I've never done this before but I'm taking photos for myself,
so you just go and film something else.
No, I did your deal, we're gonna go to the estate car.
I never thought I'd say this I'm about to walk straight past a 300 SEL 6.3.
I won't look at that it's one of my dream cars,
but we need to ignore that to get to that.
That is a W123 Turing estate car
It's been to AMG and it has a 5 litre engine in it,
which would have been from an S-class.
You might know of a cooler car on the planet than that...
But I don't.
Look at it.
Yes, so that's an SL 70, the bored out version by MG.
And that engine became the basis of the... Come on...
Answers on a postcard.
You're right, that became the engine that went in the Zonda.
And these are now worth a few quid,
because there aren't any more Zonda engines.
So the only way to get a Zonda engine is to buy one of these
and do something unspeakable to it.
I wonder if you can just sort of live here.
Have a tent or motorhome in the middle and just hang out with them.
How wonderfully random is this.
So, American spec 280, big bumpers.
280 turbo, Neil loves Z cars.
The camera is shaking a bit because he's getting excited.
And they just get better, look at the tiger panels on that.
Another 280 in that sort of late '70s, early '80s metallic brown colour.
And now we come to the 50th anniversary turbo.
You have to see inside this car for the sheer madness of what was going on.
Come on round side.
I'll let you in here. Can you squeeze through?
Look at this dashboard. Can you see that?
That is madness.
Down here, we have...
We have a body sonic amplifier,
with two rotary dials that just say "intensity" in the middle.
We've got electronic dampers, I bet they don't work.
And we've got all sorts of amazing things here.
It's just the '80s.
Climate control.
God, it so cool.
Look at the steering wheel!
This is all the stuff we'll miss when the world becomes electric and boring.
This is just madness.
Look at these dials here.
It has got a stick. That's a manual 928 GTS.
Just done 40,000 miles and is in mint condition.
I don't think that's a repeatable proposition.
It has even got the kind of purpley leather interior that I want.
What you need to know about a 928 is, if you mess with a 928's trim,
it never goes back the same way.
Any interior panel and the exterior panel, a rubber, a union, any of these bits here,
if it's been tampered with, will never go back the right way.
This car is completely mint.
I've never seen one as good as this.
These are perfect, the rubbers are perfect.
So, this isn't a room full of motley old junk,
this is a room full of the best cars I've seen.
These are absolutely perfect Bentleys.
And what's really, really surprising about this era of Bentley now,
is that when I used to see them as a kid they looked absurdly big and ostentatious,
but of course now, because every car is so big
and because people are obsessed with SUVs,
these look just the right size for a large motor car to me.
What's that one? Is that an early Conti?
It looks like it has got big wheels. It might be... It might be a special one.
Let's have a look, that is a Conti T.
Right, so this is really special.
Two callipers.
For the big old beast. I love that. From that era. Twin callipers.
Still with a disc that you'd see on the Ford Focus.
Now we're getting to the era of cars where I actually tested them.
So, I remember driving one of these when it was new.
God, how light that door is!
And this one is definitely in better condition
than the one that I saw that came from the factory.
It's mint, absolutely mint.
These were really good fun
Renault 5 Turbo 2.
Leather interior...
29,000 kilometres. Red.
What more do you say? One of the coolest looking cars ever made.
I still have no idea what Renault was smoking when they did this.
But I'd quite like some.
Mitsubishi Starion? Mitsubishi Starion, come on!
Have a look in here.
This is this is more '80s than Bruce Willis
watching Rocky IV having a beer with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
This is the most '80s thing I've ever seen.
Look here, look at this hi-fi..
Look at these buttons.
Look at this steering wheel.
Let's think of the etymology of the word Starion in this context,
because you must know the story.
If you don't know the story go and look it up online.
Look at the ruffled leather.
This car has done 9,000 miles.
I think the Starion is one of the great looking cars.
Name me a car that's got big box arches on it that doesn't look good.
There isn't one, is there?
Is there a car that's got box arches on it, flared arches like that,
that looks bad... There isn't one.
E30 M3.
So I had to choose one vehicle from this remarkable treasure trove
that I've just loved wandering round and I've chosen one.
Here we go
Can you guess what that is?
How many cylinders is that? Sounds expensive to me.
Look at this alpine head unit here. It's the coolest thing I've ever seen.
It's got a built-in radar detection down there.
It's just so comfortable.
Driver on seats.
Noise... I'll fall asleep.