Well, shopping around a few 8 series has turned up the following - a '91 850i, she's relatively high miles at 142k, but the autobox is behaving like new and she's running super smooth once warmed up.

Couldnt resist the V12 in the end, the noise and the torque curve nailed it for me. The fuel economy is going to be horrific, but it'll be a weekend only car slapped a deposit down on it and am picking it up friday...

Body is very tidy, interior needs a bit of a clean and a tidyup, but generally a very very clean car...









Best bit is that once I've got the cash back from the subaru and bought it I'll have £2k left over to throw parts at it and get a decent exhaust on it