BMW507
The white BMW 507 that belonged to Elvis Presley on a round red platform in a museum room, under a lit sign reading Elvis' BMW 507.

Elvis BMW 507

Elvis Presley's BMW 507, chassis 70079: BMW's works demonstrator and Hans Stuck's hill-climb car in 1958, Private Presley's car in Germany until 1960, then a re-engined racer in Alabama, forty years in a California barn, and BMW's restoration of 2014–16; it was on show in the BMW Museum in Munich in 2025.

Elvis Presley's 507, chassis 70079, on show in the BMW Museum, Munich, on 23 May 2025, after BMW Group Classic's restoration of 2014–16.Wikisympathisant, CC BY-SA 4.0

On 20 December 1958 a white BMW 507 was handed over in Frankfurt to a 23-year-old private of the US Army. Elvis Presley had test-driven it at the dealer and decided to buy it, and the reigning Miss Hessen gave him the keys. The car, chassis 70079, had already spent more than a year as BMW's demonstrator and Hans Stuck's hill-climb car. It went on to race in Alabama with an American V8 and was stored for decades in California; in 2014 it came back to Munich, where BMW Group Classic restored it over almost two years.⁠1​2​3

A works car first

Sources for Elvis Presley's BMW 507

BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016⁠1; Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' 507: The real story", Bimmer, No. 83, Jun 2009; republished on bimmer-mag.com, 28 Jul 2014⁠4; Jackie Jouret and Helmut Werb, "507s star at Pebble Beach", Bimmer, No. 119, 25 Oct 2013⁠5; Sebastian Renz, "BMW 507 von Elvis Presley: Das Auto des Kings lebt", auto motor und sport, 16/2014; online 23 Jul 2014⁠2; Tom Grünweg, "Elvis' restaurierter BMW 507: Return to Sender", Spiegel Online, 24 Aug 2016⁠3

The car was finished in Munich on 13 September 1957, after the changes BMW had made that June, which by the BMW V8 Club's chassis list start the Series II at 70044. BMW's archive, as Jackie Jouret of Bimmer described its certificate in 2009, records it as one of 65 cars painted Feather White, the commonest colour on the 507, with a Becker Mexico radio, Rudge centre-lock wheels, a removable hardtop and a lit "D" plate above the rear bumper. The interior was black and white, although BMW's colour chart suggested red leather with that paint. It was delivered with what Karlheinz Lange, who researched the car in BMW's archive, called the "standard" engine; BMW says the engine had been upgraded by the time the car went to a dealer in 1958.

A few days after it left the factory it was at the Frankfurt show, where auto motor und sport says customers could test-drive it. Registered M-JX 800, it became BMW's demonstrator and press car, and Hans Stuck, the pre-war "Bergmeister", took it to show to dealers and buyers. The Autocar's "R.B." met him at the London Motor Show that October:

On the BMW stand at Earls Court this year, visitors with long memories may have recognized a racing celebrity of the pre-war days—Hans Stuck, the Bergmeister. From the Munich factory he had brought a 507 with detachable hard top, for demonstrations to prospective customers—or to overdrafted enthusiasts masquerading as such.

"R.B.", The Autocar, 15 November 1957, as quoted in Bimmer, 2009

From London Stuck drove it to Belgium to show it to King Baudouin, and on to the Turin show. Early in 1958 auto motor und sport measured it for Motor Revue against a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, the comparison set out on the rivals page. BMW says it won the concours d'élégance at Wiesbaden that summer, and BMW lent it to the Bavaria studios for the film Hula-Hopp, Conny. Years later Jack Castor studied that film in colour to settle the interior: "If you look at the screen shots, you can see that the top of the dash is black, the sun visor is black, the grab handle is black … This was a black and white car."

Hard use left its marks. Heinz Landzettel's service notes, as Bimmer read them, record the car with BMW's master painter in February 1958, accident damage repaired at the factory on 10 July, the right rear wing (fender) repaired twice and new windscreens (windshields) in October and November. "Its intensive use and high public profile meant that minor repairs and reworking were often required to ensure the car remained in excellent condition," Lange told Bimmer.⁠1​4​6​7​2​8

Contents

Stuck's hill climbs

Stuck raced the car for BMW from May to August 1958, and in BMW's words of 2016 "the racing driver known as the 'Hillclimb Champion' won a number of hillclimbs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland" in it. Its class wins are in the car's results. At Rossfeld in May, Bimmer found, his two runs took 4 minutes 32.8 seconds and 4 minutes 34.0 seconds; at Schauinsland in July auto motor und sport gave his time as 17 minutes 5.2 seconds. Notable BMW 507s tells his 1959 season, in a second works car.⁠1​9​2​4

A black-and-white photograph of a BMW 507 with a hardtop and race number 80, registration M-JX 800, parked on a hill road while men in suits and caps stand around it.
The car as BMW's works car, M-JX 800, entered for Hans Stuck as No. 80 at the Schauinsland hill climb near Freiburg in July 1958.Willy Pragher, CC BY 4.0
A black-and-white photograph of Hans Stuck smiling and holding a large laurel wreath with ribbons beside a car at a hill climb.
Stuck with the winner's wreath of the Grand Tourisme class over 2,600 cc at Schauinsland in July 1958.Willy Pragher, CC BY 4.0

Contents

Private Presley's car

That autumn BMW got the car ready for sale. It was given a new gearbox on 17 October 1958, and Landzettel's notes say its engine was replaced in August, which Lange doubted:

However, it surely cannot be right that a new engine bearing number 094 was fitted in August 1958; perhaps this refers to a 'completely overhauled' reincarnation of 094.

Karlheinz Lange, to Bimmer, 2009

auto motor und sport says the engine was completely overhauled. "It was the best-maintained 507 that BMW could lay its hands on," Lange said. On 12 December 1958 it went to Autohaus Wirth, a small dealer in Frankfurt, where Lange places the test drive and the sale on the word of a sales manager of the Frankfurt dealer Glöckler; Der Spiegel and auto motor und sport put the handing over of the keys at BMW's Frankfurt branch.

Presley had arrived in Germany on 1 October 1958. He served with the 3rd Armored Division at Ray Barracks in Friedberg and lived off the base in Bad Nauheim, and he drove the 507 between the two. At the test drive it wore the dealer plate F 04071, and then the plates of the US Forces in Germany, A-1499 for 1958 and G-1620 for 1959, changed every year, which is one reason the car was hard to trace later.

What finally settled its identity for BMW was an insurance proposal of December 1958 that named chassis 70079 and its keeper, Elvis Aaron Presley. Klaus Kutscher of BMW Group Classic told Spiegel Online in 2016: "Indizien hatten wir viele, aber das war der endgültige Beweis" (in English, "We had plenty of circumstantial evidence, but that was the final proof"). Lange had reached the same car by elimination years before: "The 507 sold to Elvis can only have been 70079. No other 507 had been delivered to Wirth up to that point in 1958."

Fans wrote messages on the white paint in lipstick, as BMW tells the story, and Presley had the car painted red. auto motor und sport dates the respray to August 1959 and places it at a paint shop in Bad Nauheim; Lange dated it from photographs that show the 1959 plate on both a white and a red 507. A book about Presley's army years, Andreas Schröer's Private Presley, says, as Bimmer reported, that he sent the car back to BMW to be painted white again; Lange says that did not happen.⁠4​2​1​3​5

The white BMW 507 that belonged to Elvis Presley, head-on in a red display under a sign reading Elvis' BMW 507.
The car today, with the US Forces plate A-1499 it wore for 1958, in the BMW Museum, Munich, on 15 January 2025.Steve Jurvetson from Los Altos, USA, CC BY 2.0

Contents

To America and the drag strip

Presley left Germany on 2 March 1960. BMW's release of 2016 has him trading the car in to a Chrysler dealer in New York a few months later; no source read shows who shipped it across the Atlantic. Lange told Bimmer: "Indeed, there is no record of what happened to the car after Elvis' term of military service." The New York dealer sold it as "Elvis' car", in 1962 by the German reports, to the Birmingham, Alabama radio personality Tommy Charles.

Charles made it a racing car. He put in a supercharged Chevrolet V8, so big that parts of the front of the frame had to be cut away, with a Borg-Warner gearbox and a Chevrolet rear axle welded to the torsion bars, and at some point the cabin was retrimmed in button-tufted red and white. BMW says he won a race at Daytona Beach with it. Bimmer reports that Road & Track ran a story on the car and its engine in 1962 without mentioning Stuck or Presley. Charles sold it during 1963.

Two more changes of ownership followed, BMW says. Bimmer traced the car to the basement of a BMW dealer in Atlanta, where a young US Air Force pilot acquired it in 1966, and a sticker on its driver's door, auto motor und sport found, records a service by a garage in Chandler, Arizona, on 6 October 1968.⁠1​4​5​9​2​10

Contents

Chevrolet or Ford?

Fact check

Chevrolet

BMW's release of 2016, Spiegel Online in 2016, and Jack Castor, who drove the car with it, as Bimmer reported in 2009

Ford

Auto Bild Klassik, October 2014

Our reading. Chevrolet. The engine itself is gone, but BMW Group Classic, whose restorers took the car apart, says Chevrolet, and Klaus Kutscher spoke in 2014 of "the special frame which was cut for a Chevrolet engine"; auto motor und sport that year could not say which, but gave the rear axle as a GM one.⁠1​3​4​10​2​11

Contents

Jack Castor's 507

Jack Castor, an aerospace engineer from Northern California, had wanted a 507 since college. "I had been to Germany for a summer job with Suddeutsche Bremsen while I was in college … I saw one on the street and fell in love with it," he told Bimmer. In 1968 he saw this one advertised in Competition Press and bought it in Arizona. He knew from its chassis number that it had been Stuck's works car; the link with Presley was only a possibility to him, and he would not claim it: "I don't have proof … It might not be this car."

He drove it with its Chevrolet engine for five or six years, then took it off the road in the early 1970s. For some forty years it stood in a warehouse for pumpkins at Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, among about two dozen other cars. Castor collected its history meanwhile, and bought the early service records that Heinz Landzettel had kept of most 507s serviced in Germany.

In December 2006 Jackie Jouret asked Bimmer's readers where chassis 70079 had gone, and Castor wrote to say he had it. BMW's archive and Lange's research confirmed it as Presley's car. Jouret remembered the visit:

Jack had tied down its engine bonnet with ropes … It took some time until we actually got the engine compartment open and identified the stamped chassis number: 70079, the Holy Grail among BMW numbers.

Jackie Jouret, in BMW's release of 4 August 2016

After the articles of 2009 and 2010, buyers came forward, Bimmer reported, and Castor was in no hurry to sell. "I'd rather have the stuff than the money," he had told the magazine in 2009.⁠4​1​9​3​10

Contents

Back to Munich, 2014

After several years of talks with BMW Group Classic's restoration specialists, Klaus Kutscher and Axel Klinger-Köhnlein, Castor reached an agreement under which BMW Group Classic bought the car and would restore it as he wished. It reached Munich in 2014. Its body panels were almost all there, but it had no engine and no gearbox, a rear axle of unknown origin, rust in the floor, worn-out seats and no instrument panel; auto motor und sport's photographs showed the instruments in a plywood panel and the odometer at 00000 miles. The BMW Museum showed it as it was found, in the exhibition "Elvis' BMW 507 – lost and found", until 10 August 2014.

Elvis's 507 arrives unrestored at the BMW Museum for "lost and found", July 2014, welcomed by seven other 507s.Video: Vintage! Elvis Presley's BMW 507 | Drive it!, DW News, 2014

Whether to restore it at all was argued over. The editor of Auto Bild Klassik wanted it kept as found, on a pedestal. "Wenn man fünf Leute fragt, hat man zehn Meinungen" (in English, "ask five people and you get ten opinions"), Kutscher told Spiegel Online. The decision followed Castor's wish: the car would go back to Feather White, the colour it left the factory in. Kutscher said Castor "wollte eher den 507 von Stuck als den von Elvis" (in English, "wanted Stuck's 507 rather than Elvis's"), being a racing enthusiast.⁠1​9​11​2​10​3

Contents

The restoration

The work took almost two years. Taking the car apart took a week where two days had been planned; the aluminium body was lifted from the steel floor, and the paint came off in an acid bath for the floor and an alkaline bath for the body. Under the rust-red top coat the restorers found seven more layers. The instrument panel was cast again from the original, the leather was cut to the pattern in old photographs and catalogues, and a saddler made the seats over their original frames, with rubberised coconut matting on the springs as in production. The door handles and window winders were 3D-printed from scans of originals and then polished. The front frame member, cut down for the Chevrolet engine, was made again to its original shape, and the wooden strip that holds the hood (soft top) was reproduced in the materials of the 1950s.

The engine was rebuilt from spare parts to the original specification and given no engine number, since it mixed old and new parts. The car went back into Feather White, its primer, filler and top coat laid on by 1950s methods to avoid a modern gloss, with a black-and-white interior and a Becker Mexico radio; a patch of Presley's red, the size of a palm, was left showing in a door frame. Castor did not see the result. He died in November 2014, and Ulrich Knieps, head of BMW Group Classic, said in 2016 that "Jack would undoubtedly have been delighted by the outcome."⁠1​3

BMW Group Classic's Manfred Grunert, Ulrich Knieps and Klaus Kutscher, with Jack Castor, on tracing the car to the pumpkin barn at Half Moon Bay and restoring it, 2014–16; the Feather White is Castor's wish.Video: BMW 507 - The Rock'n'Roll Phoenix., BMW Group Classic, 2016
A worn chrome Becker Mexico car radio with a station dial and two knobs on a red display stand.
The car's Becker Mexico radio as it came out of the car before the restoration, on show in the BMW Museum, Munich, on 23 May 2025.Wikisympathisant, CC BY-SA 4.0

Contents

Pebble Beach and the museum

The restored car returned to California in August 2016, stood in BMW's tent at Laguna Seca, and on 21 August 2016 was shown at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, its first appearance since the restoration. BMW presented it "not simply as the automobile of the 'King', but also as the legacy of Jack Castor and a masterpiece of BMW Group Classic". BMW had said in 2014 where it would end up:

After the restauration the car will stay here in the museum so it will be available for the public.

Ulrich Knieps, BMW Museum, July 2014, as BMW transcribed him

In October 2016 Bimmer expected it to be shown at the reopened BMW Zentrum in South Carolina as well as in the museum in Munich. Photographs taken in January and May 2025 show it in the BMW Museum, under a sign reading "Elvis' BMW 507", with the plate A-1499 on its nose.⁠1​9​11​12

The white BMW 507 that belonged to Elvis Presley seen from the side on a red platform, with an old microphone on a stand in front.
The car from the side, with its centre-lock wheels and a stage microphone in front, in the BMW Museum, Munich, on 23 May 2025.Wikisympathisant, CC BY-SA 4.0

Contents

One car, not two

Motor Sport wrote in 2020, in an auction column, that Elvis Presley "had two" 507s and gave one to Ursula Andress. The second car of that story is chassis 70192, which BMW completed in 1958 and shipped new to New York on 25 May 1959, while Presley was driving 70079 in Germany. "It could not have been shipped to the U.S. that May as he was plainly driving his 507 in Germany at that time," Lange said. Andress owned 70192 from 1963, and when it was sold in 1997 as "Elvis' 507" the story spread. She told Bimmer in 2013 how she remembered it:

The car was a present from Elvis after we finished work on the movie.

Ursula Andress, to Bimmer, 2013

Filming of Fun in Acapulco, the film they made together, ended on 16 March 1963. Bimmer found no document showing that Presley bought the car or put it in his name, and another version of the story has Andress's husband giving it to her.

Contents

Where it has been

  1. 1957

    Completed in Munich

    13 September 1957. Chassis 70079 was completed after the changes BMW made in June 1957, which by the BMW V8 Club's chassis list begin the Series II at 70044, and had been registered M-JX 800 two days earlier. BMW's archive certificate, as Bimmer reported it, records it as one of 65 507s painted Feather White, with a Becker Mexico radio, Rudge centre-lock wheels and a removable hardtop

    BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016⁠1; Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' 507: The real story", Bimmer, No. 83, Jun 2009; republished on bimmer-mag.com, 28 Jul 2014⁠4; BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Czech Republic), "Zeitlose Eleganz: 50 Jahre BMW 507 und BMW 503", chapter of the press kit "Legenden der 50er Jahre: BMW 507 – BMW 503 – BMW Isetta", German, Apr 2005⁠6; BMW V8 Club Deutschland, "Technische Daten 503 507 3200CS"⁠7

  2. 1957

    Shown at the Frankfurt show

    September 1957. A few days after leaving the factory it was at BMW's display at the Frankfurt show (IAA), where auto motor und sport says customers could test-drive it

    BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016⁠1; Jackie Jouret and Helmut Werb, "507s star at Pebble Beach", Bimmer, No. 119, 25 Oct 2013⁠5; Sebastian Renz, "BMW 507 von Elvis Presley: Das Auto des Kings lebt", auto motor und sport, 16/2014; online 23 Jul 2014⁠2

  3. 1957

    BMW's demonstrator, driven by Hans Stuck

    October 1957. BMW's works demonstrator and press car. Hans Stuck showed it to prospective customers at the London Motor Show at Earls Court in October 1957, then drove it to Belgium to show it to King Baudouin, and on to the Turin show

    BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016⁠1; Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' 507: The real story", Bimmer, No. 83, Jun 2009; republished on bimmer-mag.com, 28 Jul 2014⁠4; Sebastian Renz, "BMW 507 von Elvis Presley: Das Auto des Kings lebt", auto motor und sport, 16/2014; online 23 Jul 2014⁠2

  4. 1958

    Measured for Motor Revue

    February 1958. auto motor und sport measured the 507 against a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL for Motor Revue, in figures published in February 1958; the magazine itself (2014) and Bimmer (2009) identify the 507 as M-JX 800

    auto motor und sport, "Wie sie beschleunigen", Heft 4, 15 Feb 1958⁠8; Sebastian Renz, "BMW 507 von Elvis Presley: Das Auto des Kings lebt", auto motor und sport, 16/2014; online 23 Jul 2014⁠2; Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' 507: The real story", Bimmer, No. 83, Jun 2009; republished on bimmer-mag.com, 28 Jul 2014⁠4

  5. 1958

    Filmed for Hula-Hopp, Conny

    BMW lent it to the Bavaria film studios in the summer of 1958 for the musical comedy Hula-Hopp, Conny, with Cornelia Froboess and Rudolf Vogel; it was one of two 507s in the film

    BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016⁠1; Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' 507: The real story", Bimmer, No. 83, Jun 2009; republished on bimmer-mag.com, 28 Jul 2014⁠4

  6. 1958

    Given a new gearbox

    17 October 1958. Refurbished at BMW in the autumn of 1958: a new gearbox, and an engine that BMW says had been upgraded and auto motor und sport completely overhauled. Karlheinz Lange called the engine it was delivered with the 'standard' engine

    Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' 507: The real story", Bimmer, No. 83, Jun 2009; republished on bimmer-mag.com, 28 Jul 2014⁠4; Sebastian Renz, "BMW 507 von Elvis Presley: Das Auto des Kings lebt", auto motor und sport, 16/2014; online 23 Jul 2014⁠2; BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016⁠1

  7. 1958

    Delivered to Autohaus Wirth, Frankfurt

    12 December 1958. Its first customer was a small Frankfurt dealer

    Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' 507: The real story", Bimmer, No. 83, Jun 2009; republished on bimmer-mag.com, 28 Jul 2014⁠4; Sebastian Renz, "BMW 507 von Elvis Presley: Das Auto des Kings lebt", auto motor und sport, 16/2014; online 23 Jul 2014⁠2

  8. 1958

    Bought by Elvis Presley

    20 December 1958. Elvis Presley, then serving with the US Army in Germany, test-drove it at the dealer in Frankfurt; BMW, Der Spiegel and auto motor und sport date the delivery to 20 December 1958; it wore the dealer plate F 04071 at the test drive, then US Armed Forces plates, A-1499 for 1958 and G-1620 for 1959. An insurance proposal of December 1958 naming chassis 70079 and Elvis Aaron Presley later settled its identity for BMW. He drove it between his home in Bad Nauheim and the Army base at Friedberg

    BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016⁠1; Sebastian Renz, "BMW 507 von Elvis Presley: Das Auto des Kings lebt", auto motor und sport, 16/2014; online 23 Jul 2014⁠2; Tom Grünweg, "Elvis' restaurierter BMW 507: Return to Sender", Spiegel Online, 24 Aug 2016⁠3; Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' 507: The real story", Bimmer, No. 83, Jun 2009; republished on bimmer-mag.com, 28 Jul 2014⁠4

  9. 1959

    Painted red

    Elvis had it painted red after fans had written on the white paint in lipstick, as BMW tells the story; auto motor und sport dates the respray to August 1959

    BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016⁠1; Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' 507: The real story", Bimmer, No. 83, Jun 2009; republished on bimmer-mag.com, 28 Jul 2014⁠4; Sebastian Renz, "BMW 507 von Elvis Presley: Das Auto des Kings lebt", auto motor und sport, 16/2014; online 23 Jul 2014⁠2

  10. 1960

    Taken to the United States

    It came to the United States in 1960, the year Elvis left the Army; Bimmer found no hard evidence that Elvis imported it. A New York Chrysler dealer presented it as "Elvis' car"

    Jackie Jouret and Helmut Werb, "507s star at Pebble Beach", Bimmer, No. 119, 25 Oct 2013⁠5; Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' 507: The real story", Bimmer, No. 83, Jun 2009; republished on bimmer-mag.com, 28 Jul 2014⁠4; BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016⁠1

  11. 1962

    Bought by Tommy Charles

    The Birmingham, Alabama radio personality Tommy Charles bought it from the New York dealer and raced it with a supercharged Chevrolet V8, a Borg-Warner gearbox and a Chevrolet rear axle; the front of the frame was cut to fit the engine. BMW says he won a race at Daytona Beach with it. He sold it during 1963

    Sebastian Renz, "BMW 507 von Elvis Presley: Das Auto des Kings lebt", auto motor und sport, 16/2014; online 23 Jul 2014⁠2; AUTO BILD Klassik, "Elvis' BMW 507 wird restauriert: Rettung oder Verlust?", 8 Oct 2014⁠10; BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016⁠1; Tom Grünweg, "Elvis' restaurierter BMW 507: Return to Sender", Spiegel Online, 24 Aug 2016⁠3; Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' 507: The real story", Bimmer, No. 83, Jun 2009; republished on bimmer-mag.com, 28 Jul 2014⁠4

  12. 1968

    Bought by Jack Castor

    Jack Castor, an aerospace engineer, bought it in Arizona after it had passed through other hands. He drove it with its Chevrolet engine until he took it off the road in the early 1970s; it then stood for some 40 years in a warehouse at Half Moon Bay, California

    BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016⁠1; Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' 507: The real story", Bimmer, No. 83, Jun 2009; republished on bimmer-mag.com, 28 Jul 2014⁠4; Jackie Jouret and Helmut Werb, "507s star at Pebble Beach", Bimmer, No. 119, 25 Oct 2013⁠5; Sebastian Renz, "BMW 507 von Elvis Presley: Das Auto des Kings lebt", auto motor und sport, 16/2014; online 23 Jul 2014⁠2

  13. 2006

    Traced to Jack Castor

    December 2006. Bimmer asked its readers in December 2006 where 70079 was, and Castor wrote to say that he owned it; with BMW's archive and Karlheinz Lange's research it was confirmed as Elvis Presley's car

    Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' 507: The real story", Bimmer, No. 83, Jun 2009; republished on bimmer-mag.com, 28 Jul 2014⁠4; BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016⁠1

  14. 2014

    Acquired by BMW Group Classic

    BMW Group Classic bought it from Castor under an agreement that also covered its restoration as he wished. It was shown unrestored at the BMW Museum in Munich in the summer of 2014, in the exhibition "Elvis' BMW 507 – lost and found". Castor died in November 2014

    BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016⁠1; Tom Grünweg, "Elvis' restaurierter BMW 507: Return to Sender", Spiegel Online, 24 Aug 2016⁠3; BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507: lost & found, BMW Museum Special Exhibition" (TV footage PF0004053), 28 Jul 2014⁠11; Sebastian Renz, "BMW 507 von Elvis Presley: Das Auto des Kings lebt", auto motor und sport, 16/2014; online 23 Jul 2014⁠2

  15. 2016

    Shown restored at Pebble Beach

    21 August 2016. BMW Group Classic restored it over almost two years: a 3.2-litre V8 rebuilt from spare parts and given no engine number, door handles and window winders 3D-printed from scans of originals, Feather White paint, a black-and-white interior and a Becker Mexico radio. It was first shown restored at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance

    BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016⁠1; Tom Grünweg, "Elvis' restaurierter BMW 507: Return to Sender", Spiegel Online, 24 Aug 2016⁠3

Contents

Results

A yellow year marks a win.

  • 1958

    Rossfeld hill climb 1958

    11 May 1958, Rossfeld, Berchtesgaden, Germany. Hans Stuck: 1st in GT over 1,600 cc⁠9​4

  • 1958

    Freiburg-Schauinsland hill climb 1958

    27 July 1958, Freiburg-Schauinsland, Germany. Hans Stuck: 1st in GT over 2,600 cc⁠2​9​4

  • 1958

    Ollon-Villars hill climb 1958

    31 August 1958, Ollon-Villars, Switzerland. Hans Stuck: 1st in its class⁠4

Contents

Sources

Every source the site cites is on the sources page.

  • Primarymade at the time, by the maker or by people who were there
  • Referenceserious later work: clubs, specialists, magazines, books
  • Databaseresults and listings, entry by entry
  1. BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507 lives on: Comeback at the Concours d'Elegance in Pebble Beach" (press release), Munich, 4 Aug 2016, 20 December 1958; the works car; the restoration; the build date; the IAA; Stuck, London, Belgium, Turin; Wiesbaden; the film; the interior; the quotation; the gearbox; 20 December 1958; the insurance proposal; the commute; the lipstick; the Chrysler dealer; Tommy Charles; the engine and frame; Daytona Beach; two more owners; the Chevrolet engine; Castor; Half Moon Bay; Jouret's quotation; the agreement; the shipment; the condition; the restoration in detail; Castor's death; Knieps's quotation; Pebble Beach, 21 August 2016; the quotation; Jouret's search from 2006; the purchase in 2014. press.bmwgroup.com/global/article/detail/T0262726EN/elvis Primary
  2. Sebastian Renz, "BMW 507 von Elvis Presley: Das Auto des Kings lebt", auto motor und sport, 16/2014; online 23 Jul 2014, the handover in Frankfurt; the IAA test drives; King Baudouin; the 1958 test; Schauinsland, 27 July 1958; the overhaul; Wirth; Elvis in Friedberg and Bad Nauheim; Miss Hessen; the plates; the respray of August 1959; 1962; the service sticker from Chandler, Arizona; "ob von Chevy oder Ford"; the GM rear axle; the exhibition to 10 August; the condition; 70192 sold as Elvis's car; King Baudouin. web.archive.org/web/2015id_/https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/reise/bmw-507-von-elvis-presley-das-auto-des-kings-lebt Reference
  3. Tom Grünweg, "Elvis' restaurierter BMW 507: Return to Sender", Spiegel Online, 24 Aug 2016, the keys, 20 December 1958; the keys; the insurance contract, Kutscher's quotation; the Chevrolet engine; the pumpkin warehouse; Kutscher on the opinions; Castor's wish; the saddler, 3D printing, the seals, the paint layers, the red patch; Kutscher on Castor's wish; Castor's arrangement with BMW. spiegel.de/auto/fahrkultur/pebble-beach-bmw-zeigt-elvis-presleys-restaurierten-507-a-1109090.html Reference
  4. Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' 507: The real story", Bimmer, No. 83, Jun 2009; republished on bimmer-mag.com, 28 Jul 2014, the certificate; M-JX 800; the engine; The Autocar as quoted; the film and Castor's quotation; Landzettel's notes; Lange's quotation; the repair of 10 July 1958; Landzettel's records; Lange's quotations; Wirth; Life with Private Presley; the plates; the paint and the photographs; Schröer; Lange's quotation; Charles's conversion; Competition Press; Castor on the Chevrolet V8; Castor: the summer job, Arizona, the drive, Half Moon Bay, the 2006 item, the quotations; Lange on 70192; the 1997 sale; bought outright; no record in America; the car from new; The Autocar, 15 Nov 1957, as quoted; the 1958 comparison test; the film; Landzettel's records; Lange; Life with Private Presley; Lange on the photographs of 1959; the Tommy Charles clipping; Charles and the Chevrolet V8; Castor; the Back Page of Bimmer #63; Lange on Stuck's 1958 wins. web.archive.org/web/2016id_/http://www.bimmer-mag.com:80/news-blog/elvis-507-the-real-story Reference
  5. Jackie Jouret and Helmut Werb, "507s star at Pebble Beach", Bimmer, No. 119, 25 Oct 2013, pp. 2–3; p. 3, Elvis's dates in Germany; p. 3, the Atlanta dealer and 1966; pp. 2–4: Andress, the quotation, the film's end, 70192; p. 3. bimmer-mag.com/issues/119/articles/507s-star-at-pebble-beach Reference
  6. BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Czech Republic), "Zeitlose Eleganz: 50 Jahre BMW 507 und BMW 503", chapter of the press kit "Legenden der 50er Jahre: BMW 507 – BMW 503 – BMW Isetta", German, Apr 2005, the changes of June 1957. press.bmwgroup.com/czech/article/attachment/T0066597CS/96056 Primary
  7. BMW V8 Club Deutschland, "Technische Daten 503 507 3200CS", running changes from chassis 70044; changes from chassis 70044. bmw-v8-club.de/fahrzeuge/8-zylinder-baureihe/techniche-daten-503-507-3200-cs.html Reference
  8. auto motor und sport, "Wie sie beschleunigen", Heft 4, 15 Feb 1958, the runs for Motor Revue. archive.org/details/auto-motor-und-sport-1958-heft-4 Primary
  9. Jackie Jouret, "Elvis' Little Sister", Bimmer, No. 143, 20 Oct 2016, Rossfeld, 11 May 1958: the runs; the Road & Track story of 1962; Landzettel's records; the buyers after 2009; the summer of 2014; Laguna Seca; the BMW Zentrum and the museum; Rossfeld, 11 May 1958; Freiburg-Schauinsland, 27 Jul 1958. bimmer-mag.com/issues/143/articles/elvis-little-sister Reference
  10. AUTO BILD Klassik, "Elvis' BMW 507 wird restauriert: Rettung oder Verlust?", 8 Oct 2014, Alabama, 1962; "ein Ford-V8"; 1968 and the years in storage; the editor's view; Vierlein's quotation. autobild.de/klassik/artikel/elvis--bmw-507-wird-restauriert-rettung-oder-verlust--5308362.html Reference
  11. BMW AG (BMW Group PressClub Global), "Elvis' BMW 507: lost & found, BMW Museum Special Exhibition" (TV footage PF0004053), 28 Jul 2014, the shotlist: Kutscher on the frame; the exhibition; Knieps's quotation. press.bmwgroup.com/global/tv-footage/detail/PF0004053/elvis-e2-80-99-bmw-507-lost-found-bmw-museum-special-exhibition Primary
  12. Wikimedia Commons, "Category:BMW 507 d'Elvis Presley in the BMW-Museum", the dated photographs of January and May 2025. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:BMW_507_d%27Elvis_Presley_in_the_BMW-Museum Database
  13. Simon de Burton, "BMW 507 Roadster: a folly no longer", Motor Sport, Nov 2020, p. 127, "had two". motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/november-2020/127/bmw-507-roadster-a-folly-no-longer Reference

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