Nathan Williams posted this shot of a BMW 3.0Si wagon he found at a wrecking yard/storage lot in Swansea, assuming it was homemade. It’s easy to see why anyone would assume that, as it does look a bit cobbled together. But it turns out this was one of some 10-12 built by Thomas Ditton and sold officially through BMW GB dealers, for a hefty price.
If it looks a bit amateurish, don’t blame Thomas Ditton, as they only replicated what the factory had built first.
Here’s the ones the that were built by BMW to use as support vehicles to the rally campaign of the works 2002 Tis. These left hand drive versions were never made available to the public.
Estate cars back then had a much higher image in the UK than in Germany, where they were still seen as mostly utilitarian vehicles for plumbers and such. But not so in GB, where even the name conveyed the image of hunting and thoroughbreds. So BMW GB took it upon themselves to have some of these built.
I can’t seem to find just how much more these cost than the E3 saloon, which was already a very expensive car in GB at the time. We’re talking about very exclusive.
But it’s not really all that compelling to me, as it really does look a bit amateurish. The ledge in the middle of the tailgate is not working very well for me.
It suffers from the same problems that almost invariably plague station wagons converted from sedans: the sloping roofs of sedans necessitates too much of a slope in the rear. It’s just not the way you would design a wagon from scratch. It looks like its melting back there.
Mercedes showed how it was done with their first production wagon in 1977, when they introduced their T series of wagons (W123). And of course it instantly became the most desirable estate car in GB, as well as just about everywhere else.
It’s a bit unfortunate, as I have had a huge thing for the E3 ever since I first laid eyes on it. And I’m a big fan of wagons. But I’ll pass on this. A bit to homemade for me.
A wagon will always look more coherent in design with bespoke rear doors than one designed using sedan rear doors. Obviously, when custom houses build a handful of wagon conversions, building bespoke rear doors (or even window frames and custom glass) is very costly.
As with any rule, there are exceptions, and to my eye, the flatter that the roof of a sedan was, the easier it is to hide the sedan doors in the longroof body. One only needs to look at the first two generations of Saturn wagons to see this.
The old Volvo 240 wagons and the Rambler wagons used sedan rear doors, complete with a little filler piece where the curved sedan door met the flat roof, an example of cost-cutting parts sharing.
I was amused a few years ago to see the big, fat Nissan Armada reproduced this gap, purely for ( dubious) aesthetics as there was no fat sedan SUV for parts sharing.
That being said, the AMC Hornet Sportabout really nailed the sedan-with-a-backpack look, unfortunately complete with a 2/3-height rear hatch in a fully factory-built car. But aesthetically it was the best of the Hornets, and it was the best seller too.
First and second generation Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable wagons used sedan rear doors with a wider-than-ideal gap in the upper cutout for the door.
Third and fourth generations used Sable rear doors with a wide C pillar.
I’m glad you said there are exceptions. On some wagons, I don’t find the downward sweep of the roof awkward in certain cases where the sedan’s doors were used. In fact, I find it to look rather sleek. But alas, that’s not always the case.
One terrible sedan-to-wagon conversion that leaps to mind is the Nissan Wingroad, which makes me cringe whenever I see one.
I love this site for many reasons, and being introduced to something I have zero knowledge about like this is a big part of that. As for the car? Ugly and weird tailgate.
The tailgate doesn’t open to the floor, so it’s really just a four-door hatchback, not a wagon at all. No advantage over a sedan.
Well, you do get the additional space above the boot/trunk area, and the ability to carry taller, longer items with the rear seat folded.
And apropos Paul’s mention of hunting and thoroughbreds, tack – and in particular, saddles – is more easily hauled with a wagon than with a comparable sedan.
I can assure you that practical details were not the primary purpose for this wagon’s existence. It was all about exclusivity.
hi paul,has the e3 estate been crushed,or is it still in the yard ?
Sorry, but I have no idea. Nathan Williams found it and posted the pictures at our CC Cohort Flickr page, and I re-posted them here.
Set the trend for BMW “life style ” estates of the nineties then. Ford Zodiac “Farnham and Vauxhall PA Cresta “Fiery” estates looked more professional and are highly prizes.
I believe that on this model BMW, the gas filler is located in the center of the rear panel behind the license plate. That precludes having a liftgate or tailgate going all the way down to the bumper. In order to fix that, one would need to relocate the gas filler to the side, which would likely necessitate a different tank.
The same problem exists with making a wagon out of a 1970’s Cadillac. The advantage in that situation is that many of the conversions are made using the rear structure from a donor Buick Estate or Chevy Caprice wagon body, including its side-saddle tank and fender-mounted filler. The one exception to that is the Castilian, which preserves the center-mounted gas filler and under-floor tank, at the expense of a higher load floor and no third seat.
People who didn’t want the Mercedes-Benz estate in 1977 had to wait fifteen years for BMW to offer its own in-house 5-Series estate in 1992.
Having seen many of estate conversions from saloons by the coachbuilders in the 1970s and 1980s, this one wins the grand prize for the ugliest conversion ever. I wonder how the hapless owners put up with snickering and condenscending comments from the public.
What I dislike the most about many estate conversions is the C-pillars and windows in rear passenger doors not reshaped properly for cohesive and smoother appearance. Many looked like afterthought or awkward or ridiculous.
Mercedes-Benz W 123 estate in a way set the design standard and template for best and most harmonious looking estate. The conversion specialist indeed did the homework correctly for the 560 SEL estate.
That 560 SEL wagon looks fine.
Just like Paul, I have a thing for BMW E3s and wagons, but this conversion, which is ebicj I was previously aware of, and does not work at all..
Holy you know what, get that and restore it, and you have a true unicorn. That deserves to be saved.
Brochure car is still on DVLA records and was last taxed back in 87!. Interesting to find how many survived out of the 12?. These E2 or Bavaria go up to £13k .Suspect this one be £20k restored?.
There’s at least one restored one, where I got those images from:
https://www.classicheroes.co.uk/bmw-e3si-estate
There is a nice video on the car here –
14 year restoration.
Here is the – rather costly – successor.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2020/12/rare-rides-the-one-off-1981-bmw-735i-touring/
Yours for 136.000 bucks
Based on the online photos, you have to suspect the rear tailgate has been borrowed from a Merc W123
The W123 doesn’t have that big lip, or shelf, or whatever you want to call it. It went straight down from the bottom of the window.
But the window may well have come from the W123.
Here’s an alternative that would use the lower half of the door, but with revised upper frames and vertical support for the new, extended roof, largely following the style of the Triumph 2000 estate. An advantge of this style is the easy access to the rear seat.
The brochure car’s vinyl top just looks wrong on a wagon – that’s what woodgrain side paneling is for, to be the wagon counterpart of a sedan or coupe’s vinyl top – and is a red flag for a bodge of the welded-on roof extension.
Ford Australia exported the XR (1967/68) Falcon wagon to the UK, I recall reading an old review and there were believe it or not comparisons in looks to the Aston Martin DB6, guess that’s an indication of the market station wagons were aimed at in the UK.
Yeah the back doors dont work Ive got a wagon version of a sedan and that is one of the different panels the rear doors have vertical window frame and no quarter window strange too this is when BMW had good styling and churned out some good looking cars.
As I was reading this and looking at the pics, I kept thinking the roof’s downslope over the wayback was a spectacular design felony. Then came the pic of the straight-roofed T123 Mercedes and proved it beyond any doubt.
Britain has a history of making estates from saloons, sometimes for volume makers and sometimes for premium marques. Everything from a Ford Zephyr to a Jaguar XJ will have been under the knife at one time or another, sometimes to create a practical car and sometimes to add something over and above for the premium buyer wanting even more, as was the case here.
Indeed, a lot of Volvo’s success in the UK in the 1970s can be put down to the 145 and 265 estates rather than the 144 and 164 saloons. The estate said you had labradors, golf clubs or needed to carry a saddle to the pony club or sails to the yacht club…….just like the XC90, X5, or Range Rover Velar do now. Outright practicality didn’t always matter, which is why the CX Safari was often overlooked.
The Triumph 2000 and 2500 estates were an example – little more space than the saloon, slightly awkward visuals but nevertheless made it as official models, with a very odd manufacturing logistics, with the body being built separately to the saloons by another supplier before being delivered to Triumph for final assembly. Indeed, the Mk 2 estate was 5 inches shorter than the saloon, as the MK2 saloon had a longer rear end for a bigger boot….
Rover had a version of the P6 as an estate, built only in the aftermarket by Crayford and FLM but sold in very small numbers through BL dealers. It avoided the awkward step in the roofline seen on this car by sweeping to the rear in a pronounced taper…….as below.
This car suffers as there was no budget to reshape the rear fenders, so the rear window had to be blended in between those, the shoulder line and the continuous roof line which dictates a fade away as well. The fit of the tailgate as a clamshell doesn’t help.
For a study on the importance of the roof line and door frames on an estate, you’re best off here.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/the-rear-door-dilemma/
And is that an Austin Maxi rear screen? And are those rear side windows from the SIMCA 1500 estate (see Tatra87’s superb post today for evidence)?
And Jaguar XJS based Lynx Eventer…the name tells you all
Some S-Klasse conversions
Another one
I like it more than a sedan
Side view
Another view
Business end
While it does look good, even my W123 Mercedes 300TD still has more slope in the hatch than I’d like. If I’m loading a large appliance carton, I need to fold the rear seatbacks flat so I can slide the item forward and close the hatch.
The cargo area of a wagon should be as square as possible, like Volvos used to be –
or my ’71 Audi Super-90 ‘Variant’. I once loaded a large square chest freezer in the back of the Audi, and was still able to keep the rear seatback upright for passengers.
Sorry, but I have no idea. Nathan Williams found it and posted the pictures at our CC Cohort Flickr page, and I re-posted them here.