{"id":3440,"date":"2013-04-29T11:10:11","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T17:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mcoupebuyersguide.com\/?p=3440"},"modified":"2013-04-29T11:10:11","modified_gmt":"2013-04-29T17:10:11","slug":"chasing-unicorns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.mcoupebuyersguide.com\/index.php\/2013\/04\/chasing-unicorns\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasing Unicorns \u2013 The Z3 M Coupe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neil recently purchased this coupe<\/a>, but his coupe history is pretty epic. Read about it below. Thanks for sharing Neil and welcome (back) to the Coupe Cartel!<\/p>\n

Originally posted at: discommon.com\/2013\/04\/my-eleanor-the-z3-m-coupe\/<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

$\"Neil$ <\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the tiniest of memories<\/strong>, but it\u2019s still there. Mum and Dad sitting up in bed on holiday in the North of Scotland, still in PJ\u2019s, eating bowls of cereal, unraveling The Sunday Times. It\u2019s a big newspaper, The Sunday Times, but my dad and I fought over only one small section \u2013 Motoring.\u00a0 Somehow it seemed like the paper always got folded in a different order\u2026that, or we just were not smart enough to predict it.\u00a0 I was unfolding section after section and probably got stuck with something worthless like The Style (I had none of that at all, that\u2019s for sure).\u00a0 My dad found it first, but instead of a victorious snort, a puzzled look came over his face. “Humphh\u2026 well then, what do we think THIS is? How do you like that, Sue? That looks like the golf clubs might even fit!” he said as he thrust an ad on the front page in front of her.<\/p>\n

\u2026Now I should pause to say that at the time my dad had his first real sports car \u2013 a 2.0 Liter Alfa Romeo GTV Twin Spark (to be precise).\u00a0 I LOVED it, but I was seriously outgrowing the hopeless excuse for a back seat.\u00a0 Meanwhile, my dad was outgrowing Alfa\u2019s unique customer service that involved regularly finding dirty rags or indeed tools in the engine bay AFTER picking the car up from a service.<\/p>\n

I grabbed the paper and it made an impression that I still remember.\u00a0 In perfect side profile, a squat, low-slung, big-assed, shoe looking car was essentially being “served” across a desert by a tennis racket with the tag line along the lines of “Real cars are powered from the rear”.\u00a0 I was sold at first look.\u00a0 Sure it was awkward, why on earth was it a mini-wagon? But those hips and those muscles, this car was all business.<\/p>\n

$\"BMW$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure the memory has simplified itself over time, but as my dad and I sat looking at it, I swear I can remember just knowing that we were going to own it.\u00a0 Dad just had that kind of cock-eyed look, with a hint of a grin.<\/p>\n

My next memory of the car was sitting in the dealership explaining that I had to be part of this decision process and that in order to be involved, I should be allowed to pick the interior. Dad must have been drunk on excitement, because nobody seemed to mind when I picked the complete Imola Red interior. Funnily enough, I think it turned out to be one of dad\u2019s favorite pieces of the car. The interior really was great looking.<\/p>\n

From there, my love for the car only grew.\u00a0 Dad traveled a lot and indeed often went to work before I even woke up. However, my room was by the garage, and my bed was up against the adjoining wall. I’d awaken to the garage door rolling up, wait 15 seconds for the clunk of the drivers door to open and then give a “dum, dada, dum dum” knock on the wall. Something my dad and I did for years back and forth as a father\/son little “hello”.\u00a0 But that wasn\u2019t the best bit.\u00a0 No no no.\u00a0 Give it 5 seconds more and the door would thunk closed, only to be followed by the cold and raspy bark of that glorious 100 horsepower per litre straight six, coming alive in our tiny garage. My wall would shake and the pictures rattle as he pulled out to go about his day. That right there is how a passion for the internal combustion engine grows.<\/p>\n

$\"BMW$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Insurance in the UK is really tough for a “kid”, so I never really got to drive the Coupe on the road, but at weekends, dad would pick me up off the bus home from University at the end of a private road that ran the length of a driving range.\u00a0 He’d then let me sit at the bottom of the road in the drivers seat, eying up my own personal runway and setting my best 0-80mph run up the hill every time. It was awesome\u2026but far too short.<\/p>\n

5 years into dad owning the still pristine car, I was 21 and getting really close to being able to convince my Mum that the still astronomical insurance on the car was now worth it to let me drive.\u00a0 I felt like I had paid my dues, as my daily driver was a raspberry red Skoda Felicia 1.3i (strangely I still miss that thing).\u00a0 Then the phone call came.<\/p>\n

I was walking to class with by best friend and my dad rang. “Neil, I\u2019ve got some bad news. Nobody is hurt, but the dealership wrecked the coupe.”<\/p>\n

$\"Z3_M_Coupe_Frontal_Crash-150x150\"$ <\/a> $\"Z3_M_Coupe_Front-150x150\"$ <\/a> $\"Z3_M_Coupe_Rear2-150x150\"$ <\/a> $\"Z3_M_Coupe_Rear_Crash-150x150\"$ <\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Wait what? How does that happen? They are the BMW dealership, they don\u2019t wreck things!?\u00a0 Well, it happened rather spectacularly.\u00a0 While in for an inspection, one of the technicians was taking it for it\u2019s MOT test and used 2nd gear a little too thoroughly going through a roundabout and ended up making out with an embankment and some trees. The front was hit, the back was hit, the sides were hit and I think he got the roof too. \u00a0 The car was dead and I never drove her on the road. the Z3 M Coupe become my Unicorn, the beast I never tamed, never owned and was always just outside my reach.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward 9 years of\u00a0 watching classifieds and doing sensible things like buying a house. I finally found my unicorn and bought her. She\u2019s all mine, is currently on a transporter from Atlanta,\u00a0GA and I couldn\u2019t bee more excited.<\/p>\n

Now I have to tame it. To Be Continued.<\/p>\n

\"My — My Imola Red S54 BMW Z3 M Coupe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Neil recently purchased this coupe, but his coupe history is pretty epic. Thanks for sharing Neil!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.mcoupebuyersguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.mcoupebuyersguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.mcoupebuyersguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.mcoupebuyersguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.mcoupebuyersguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3440"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/archive.mcoupebuyersguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3462,"href":"https:\/\/archive.mcoupebuyersguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3440\/revisions\/3462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.mcoupebuyersguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.mcoupebuyersguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.mcoupebuyersguide.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}