As readers of Jalopnik, you’re doubtless familiar with the concept of Project Car Hell. It’s that special place you end up in when you buy a cool but cataclysmically unreliable car that takes all your time and energy and, of course, money to try and make functional.
Of course, there’s Project Car Hell, and then there’s buying a suspiciously cheap E65 BMW Alpina B7 from another continent which is a whole other thing that I don’t think they have a name for yet. This is where YouTuber Sreten from the utterly fantastic M539 Restorations channel found himself recently, but unlike the rest of us, Sreten has the time, talent, and utter lack of a sense of financial self-preservation to have seen the project through.
The “Project Chicago” series of videos (which is almost finished) has seen some of the biggest peaks and valleys of any project car I’ve ever heard of, with multiple engine rebuilds in the span of months, but seeing the big, black Alpina moving under its own power has given me a new level of appreciation for the most hated 7-series.
So, block out 12-plus hours to watch the whole series, prepare for some dad jokes and enjoy more automotive schadenfreude than you can shake some BMW rod bearings at.