My name is Jon Furley. I am 63 years old and have been a professional photographer since 1978. I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s with a dad who was a passionate petrolhead with Clarke Gable looks, raced Formula 3 against Stirling Moss, and was a member of B.A.R.C. In honour of his massive influence on my car passion, my current CSL wears his membership badge on the front grill today. Although growing up surrounded by various Alfas, a Montreal, and an aluminium Jaguar XK120, my dad began looking at BMWs in 1974. Every Saturday morning, we went to Birds of Gerrard’s Cross, where he would test drive the E9 with me in the back seat! And that’s where it really started for me. Sadly, he reasoned that the rear seats were too small for his kids, so he bought an E3 3.0Si instead. It didn’t matter much to me, and at only 14 years of age, I learned everything by servicing that car whenever I could. My love for BMWs was now blossoming, and when I bought my first car, it had to be a 2002Tii (the other option was a Ford, and frankly, that didn’t cut it). Still, the thought of owning an E9 never left my mind.

Before I can introduce you to the grey CSL, which is the focus of this feature, I first have to introduce a different car. Finally, at the age of 30, I was able to buy my “car for life”: my first 3.0CSL in bright Inka Orange. I bought it from Nigel Gostellow in north London. All I saw was the orange bonnet in a lockup garage and before Nigel even showed the rest of the car, I had already said “Sold!”, and she was mine. After many years of thorough enjoyment, disaster struck on 12th July 2011, when my wife and our cat, Mr. Boots, accompanied me on the drive home from a weekend away. A sleeping driver veered into our lane and crashed into us at nearly 50mph. However, the subsequent  nightmare and full restoration will be featured in the next edition of CS COUPE magazine.

I was now left looking for a new car, and after a year of fighting with the insurance company and searching for a suitable replacement, I found a non-standard grey CSL. My friend and restoration companion Chris came with me to look at this car, which was the better buy as most of the usual rust had already been sorted. So, I bought my second CSL from 4StarClassics near Guildford. It quickly became a bit of a love-hate relationship as I struggled to get my head around the colour and leather combination, especially after having driven a CSL for the last 22 years. Thankfully, I had many years of ownership and experience to fall back on, and I was determined to sort it all out.

The first day of ownership started ominously. My wife, who suffers from PTSD from the crash, was very nervous about getting into the new car, and eventually, I managed to persuade her to come for a short drive to the local pub. About halfway into our 6-mile journey, the car in front flicked up a sizeable log, which ended up punching a hole through the floor right underneath the passenger seat! Not a great start at all… After a much-needed glass of wine, we noticed the car wouldn’t start when it was time to head home, only to discover the wiring was on fire! Indeed, a fire extinguisher was fitted the next day.

From there on, I set about trying to recreate the driving experience I’ve enjoyed in the Inka CSL. The suspension was replaced with Bilstein Fast Road shock absorbers, stiffer and lower springs were fitted, and bushes were exchanged for new ones. The original 14” Alpina wheels were exchanged for a 16” set. I removed the 4-speed Getrag gearbox and installed a “dogleg” 5-speed Getrag in its place, matching it to an appropriate limited slip diff. Whilst under the car, I discovered that the exhaust was from a 2800CS, and the manifold wasn’t CSL either. As I began replacing these, I noticed that the steering column was upside down, and the cold-start mechanism was simply connected to the starter motor, causing the engine to flood when trying to start when warm. Thankfully, all these issues are now sorted.

Yet the list of jobs didn’t end there. By the time I came to buy the car, she had been in storage for over 20 years. The resulting lack of movement caused all of the brake callipers to cease and required a complete rebuild. I have to thank my dad for teaching me all the necessary skills to be able to do all of this myself. Thanks, Dad! With the brakes removed, I replaced all discs and completely flushed the system with fresh fluids. Despite a multitude of errors, the engine was solid and had done zero miles since the £12k rebuild. I did mount an electric fan in front of the radiator to help with the notoriously bad cooling.

With the mechanics now done, I shifted attention to the interior and exterior cosmetics. We all know how badly the E9s are affected by rust; mine was no different. Having been restored in the 90’s and stored since, rust had taken hold once again. I drilled into all sills and box sections and filled them with Fertan Rust Converter, a process I repeated for the next six days, constantly injecting more. I then filled them with Fertan wax and plugged all the holes with grommets, allowing me future access to repeat the process as required.

The exterior of the car was missing the chrome wheel arch trims, the bumpers looked tired, and some of the window trim wasn’t there either. The wheel arch trim is no longer available, and although I had three, it took quite a while to find the last one. Over the years, my hoarding of spare parts finally paid off and took care of the remaining missing items. The bumpers were stripped and then re-chromed, for which they charged me a horrendous price(!), before I reassembled them to the car.

The next challenge was the boot area; the rubber seal was wrong, and the toolbox was missing, as were the boot liner and floor. I was extremely grateful when I was given my dad’s spare tool kit from his 3.0Si, complete with tools! I managed to find the original fabric for the liners and made my own panels for the boot floor.

On the inside of the car, the previous owner had spent £9k on re-trimming the interior in black leather. Granted, it looks great, but it’s not original. Similar to the outside, chrome elements were missing and I was once again able to use some spare parts to replace the missing ashtrays from the doors. I added a pair of original Scheel headrests, as I strongly believe no car should ever be driven without them. Finally, I finished the interior by fitting my original BMW Italvolanti steering wheel, which is the only BMW wheel I’ve owned since 1979 and has been on every BMW I’ve owned (the 2002Tii, 3.0Si, and both CSLs). I acquired this wheel while photographing BMW accessories and had to photograph this exact wheel. My fee was quickly waived in exchange for said wheel—it simply had to be done.

I’ve since swapped for 17” and clocked over 60,000 miles in 12 years as my daily driver. She’s even won a few Concours events. I’ve driven her to Hungary on two occasions to see my Inka car, which Miklos is restoring, and drove to southern Spain and back for dinner! When not on the road, she can be found stabled alongside my Z3M S54 Coupe. Hopefully, the Inka CSL will be home soon, and I can complete my family.