True legends live forever.
After a year of careful work, BMW South Africa showed off the track-inspired BMW 530 MLE at the "Home of BMW Legends," BMW Group Plant Rosslyn.
BMW South Africa showed off its newest classic project car, a "homologation" special made by BMW Motorsport just for South Africa. This was done a year after the car had been fixed up. At BMW Group Plant Rosslyn, the carefully prepared BMW 530 MLE made its first public appearance with the help of four employees from BMW Group South Africa who were there when the first one was made more than 40 years ago. William Mokwape, Walter Mahlangu, Jacob Matabane, and Cassie Calaca all gave their ideas without expecting anything in return while Luis Malhou of Custom Restorations worked to fix the amazing car.
"This plant didn't just make the 530 MLE," said Johan Mouton, who is the Director of Technical and Logistics at BMW Group Plant Rosslyn. He said this at the unveiling event. "Legendary cars such as the Gusheshe – the second generation BMW 3 Series (also known as the E30) – in particular the 325iS and the South Africa-only 333i, rolled off the assembly line at this plant more than 30 years ago.
"We are a future oriented company, but we take immense pride in where we come from," Mouton adds.
Tim Abbott, CEO of BMW Group South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, adds: "The BMW 530 MLE at the time demonstrated how competitive sporting events were the ideal setting to impress the motoring public with the performance of new vehicles.
"The success of the 530 MLE was a pure example of ‘What wins on Saturday sells on Monday’, and it paved the way for BMW South Africa as a sporty brand and a serious motorsport contender in the country. To this day, M remains the most powerful letter in the world!"
The long road back to recognition
BMW South Africa decided to enter a race in the mid-1970s and sought out renowned racer and BMW Racing head Jochen Neerpasch. Soon after, two BMW 5 Series (E12) race vehicles from the first generation were getting ready to take part in South Africa's premier Modified Production Series.
In the 1976 Modified Production Series, the BMW 530 Motorsport Limited Edition (MLE) pulled up to the starting line. After winning 15 races in a row, BMW made it clear that it was the best racing company by winning three championships in a row. When it was discontinued in 1985, the BMW 530 MLE was the most successful racing BMW 5 Series model ever.
However, in order to be eligible for entry, BMW South Africa had to offer 100 530 Motorsport Limited Edition (MLE) road-going models of the first-generation BMW 5 Series to the general public.
110 pieces of the Type 1, created by BMW Motorsport as a limited-edition "homologation" model for South Africa, were made in 1976, while 117 examples of the Type 2 left the factory at BMW Group Plant Rosslyn in 1977. The six-cylinder engine, a factory-tuned version of the 3.0L's motor, boasted numbers like 147kW, 277Nm, a maximum speed of 208 km/h, and a 0–100 km/h sprint time of 9.3 seconds. It turned out to be the first move in BMW's foray into road-going track cars.
Car number 100
After years of looking, BMW South Africa in 2018 purchased one of the few BMW 530 MLEs that are known to have survived past their 1970s prime. The racing 530 MLE team boss and race driver Peter Kaye-Eddie was the owner of car number 100, and both the engine and chassis numbers are a match.
The Rosslyn factory made cars with weight-saving features that had never been seen before, such as bodywork and controls that were hand-drilled, manual windows without air conditioning, and Mahle wheels. South Africa has a long history of making special editions of BMW cars that are famous and hard to find. The first BMW plant outside of Germany opened in 1973 and stayed open until 1990. During that time, it made a number of models that were only sold in that area. In the years that followed, BMW South Africa carefully fixed up more and more of these cars, including the famous BMW 333i.