After some extended mind changing, hassling friends and forum members for advice, I decided that after three Z4s in a row it was time to break with tradition (for a while at least) and go bucket list. Not far enough away from BMW of course, but then it really is the Ultimate Driving Machine and I'm an complete addict.
A few weeks foray into the world of another forum and I found my prospective car. A 70k mile, 1998 Imola S50 Z3 M Coupe with black/Imola interior, looked after and cherished by it's previous owner for a few years. Test drove it on the Sunday, made my offer on the Monday and picked up on Friday. As you can imagine, she's a totally different beast to the Z4M and feels heavier, older and definitely very involving to drive. She oozes character like you wouldn't believe and being an S50, also has that element of extreme danger to her - like you're going to spin at any moment if you accidentally stab the accelerator or don't treat her correctly.
She looks to have been a model launch press car too and it comes complete with a lever arch file jam packed with articles and shots of it in Monaco etc. Bodywork is amazing for a car thats coming up to 16 years old and I checked all the usual advertised areas for issues (rear diff hangers, boot floor welds etc) and all looks good. It comes with a pretty good service history - all the stamps but only receipts from 2006 onwards (my OCD will just have to deal with that). Needs an Inspection 2 in 3k miles time and there are a few other little bits and pieces I want to get sorted too such as new throttle cable, outside temp sensor unit and generally get busy with the toothbrush and cleaner! Wheels are immaculate and all recently refurbished as have the front brake callipers.
Know these are very marmite cars to many (including my gf who literally hates it) but I'm looking forward to speccing and generally looking after this ageing classic. Who knows how it will be to live with but you only live once and why not give those cars you've always loved a shot, right?
Thanks to Bing for letting me bend his ear on a fairly regular basis on my dilemma, and exdos for all of his other-forum senior member advice during the process when I seemed to be PM-ing him option after option after option! You are both gentlemen.
I'll be tinkering with during the coming months and be keeping this as a bit of a build thread for those that are interested.
Anyway, here are a few pictures of my new pride and joy after a very entertaining, sunny drive back from Oxford today
and the Hubby's Topaz Blue Z3 2.8 Facelift
