These of you who love the model and prefer to YouTube-and-chill, have most likely come throughout M539 Restorations. Sreten Milisavljevic, a one-time resident of Santa Barbara, California, now holds-forte in a small workshop in Frankfurt, Germany. Since 2020, Milisavljevic has racked up hundreds of thousands of views and a whole lot of 1000’s of followers by doing one thing that could be mundane to the common particular person: fixing BMW’s.
Milisavljevic has launched into varied rescue missions of BMW’s with issues starting from superficial and beauty points to full blown engine rebuilds and restorations. Those who watch his video’s would largely state that there’s a viewing catharsis that comes with the success the viewer will get in watching as Milisavljevic bolt-by-torque-spec reconditions every venture which, it needs to be famous, is called by the town by which he acquired the topic car.
Challenge Fresno
Historical past hasn’t been type to E60 BMW M5 powered by the F1-derived S85 engine which delivered over 500 horsepower when new, particularly since most had been paired with an SMG transmissio. Apart from the 1,364 models that weren’t. Most of the time, BMW presents European spec fashions that don’t come to America. However on this case, BMW gave the E60 M5 a six-speed handbook transmission for the U.S. market.
Milisavljevic paid consideration to the market and when one surfaced at a salvage public sale, he pounced on the chance to make a venture out of it. Chronicled by a 3 episode-arc on his YouTube channel and culminated by a exhibiting at Monterrey Automobile Week, Milisavljevic triumphantly put this M5 again on the street—however not so subtly as you would possibly discover from the photographs. Along with mechanically refurbishing this M5, Milisavljevic determined to transform its Alpine White exterior into the proper show-car by replicating its look to match the BMW Ring Taxi of the E60 period. Milisavljevic did this replete with vinyl’s depicting the late (legendary) BMW taxi-driver, Sabine Schmitz, who handed away on the age of 51 in 2021.
Enter Chris Marino, GM Spokane BMW
“I had adopted Sreten’s channel since 2020 and so there I used to be on the gymnasium watching Episode 2 of Challenge Fresno—and I used to be every week late in watching it,” Marino tells us. “I used to be most likely endorphin-high from the exercise, however I assumed to myself that I needed to purchase this M5, however I assumed that since I used to be so late in catching the episode, the automotive could be gone.”
Effectively, it wasn’t gone and Milisavljevic and Marino labored collectively on a purchase order settlement and Marino acquired Challenge Fresno for Spokane BMW. Having been chronicled by us for practically 15 years, Marino is not any stranger to buying and promoting distinctive BMW fashions. There are lots of at BMW who would credit score Marino for his constructive propagation of BMW as a model and his (simultaneous) daring and unique factory-design requests.
“The day I picked it up, I left Oakland, California round 7 AM and arrived in Spokane at 10:45 that evening. Excluding about 45 minutes when the automotive was off for meals or gasoline, it was in steady operation for about 15 hours and behaved precisely such as you would anticipate a model new M5 to behave—as if it had been model new in 2010,” Marino says.
What’s subsequent for Spokane BMW’s Ring Taxi?
Marino is proud to have this E60 M5 on the showroom ground of his retailer. “It’s the largest speaking level when any buyer walks into the shop no matter why they’re visiting,” Marino states. “You possibly can’t miss it—and no person does. Distributors, guests and even clients who aren’t accustomed to BMW as a model, all flock to the automotive within the showroom.” Marino has seen spectacular social media engagement for the shop, pushed just by buying the M5, and plans to carry onto it for the quick time period.
Whereas Marino expects that will probably be showcased, regionally in Spokane, the sheer variety of how few had been produced with a handbook transmission, actually makes this M5 a historic discover—one that’s now exhibited correctly: On the showroom ground of a franchise BMW dealership.
[Photos for BMWBLOG by Chris Marino / Spokane BMW]
