If you’ve ever seen the “Back to the Future” movies, you’d know that the DeLorean used as the futuristic time machine built my the famous Doc Brown and driven my Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox’s character). The DeLorean is the car that everyone knows from the movie and probably the only thing most people know about John DeLorean’s most famous work. However, in Back to the Future II, Griff drives a futuristic version of a 1976 BMW 633 CSI and the actual car used in the movie was just purchased by a big fan of the film franchise.
The story of the car is actually quite interesting. The film studio wanted a cheap BMW to use for the car and found the cheapest BMW it could, a ’76 633 CSI in horrid condition for $400. The car was then fitted with silly body panels a paint job to make it look like what people from the ’80s thought cars of the future would look like. It was put on a forklift for the film, as it didn’t run and was basically a stationary automotive prop for the film. After the film was made, the 633 CSI went to an automotive museum in Branson, Missouri and there it sat for quite some time.
Enter Jeff Chabotte, who was finally able to get his hands on it after it had already deteriorated to nothing. It was in awful condition when Chabotte finally bought it, however he decided to make its restoration a project for him and his father. After hours and hours of sanding, tons of fiberglass and about two tubs of Bondo later, and the 633 CSI looks just as if Griff had just smashed it with a bat.
Recently, Christopher Rutkowski of Aficionauto was able to sit down with Chabotte to talk about his latest project BMW and even got to drive it. If you can call what he did driving. It’s an interesting story and BMW with a ton of history. Check the video out and look at a BMW from one of Hollywood’s biggest movie franchises.
