Meet the Man Who Restored Griff’s ‘Back to the Future Part II’ BMW

By Tony Markovich - October 6, 2015

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Let’s go back to the past so we can revisit Back to the Future and talk about what the forgotten future prop cars are presently doing today. In order to do that, you need to meet a man named Jeff Chabotte, who considers himself a caretaker of the 1976 BMW 6-Series CSI from Back to the Future Part II.

After spending some time in a Bronson, Missouri museum, this car was first purchased by a fan of the movie. When that guy couldn’t fully commit, he passed it on to Jeff, who worked with a friend to bring it back to show condition. That meant completely swapping the interior and bondoing and painting the exterior before giving it its final trademarks.

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As Jeff mentions in the video below, the DeLorean is the star of the series. That’s the car everybody knows, but if somebody can point to this 6-series and know that it was Griff’s car, that certifies that person as a true, true BTTF fan. At this point, eve the Nike Air Mags and the hoverboard probably have more fame than this BMW.

The scene you see in the GIF above partially explains why this car can barely move. The movie people found the cheapest possible BMW ($400), because they knew they didn’t need it to drive anywhere. Director Christopher Rutkowski even mentions that it was a gray market import. All they needed was to put it on a forklift and lower it into this scene to make it look like it was flying. A car that doesn’t get past 2,000 RPMs can do that quite well, but today, it’s a bit difficult to move around.