Amazing what you spot when you own one
You're not far wrong on that one! When I had my e30 Alpina C2 2.5 from '07 to '11 , I would see so many E30's going about the place and I would always wave and flash my lights at them, even when it was a really old couple who had a 316 4 door. I most have freaked them out so much with me always flashing my lights, even when I forgot I wasn't in an e30 a times lol. While not Alpina levels of rare, I know the Z4M's only have about 980 cars on the road in the UK and being near Oxford City, you don't get many people with proper sports cars, due to the car hating nature of the politics of the city. So to know there are at least 4-5 Z4MR's round here just really shocked me (in a good way).
I see you're pretty local to me also. On the Z4 forum, a guy has organised a "midlands" meet on Sunday, but it's all the way up in Donnington, which would be a 200 mile round trip for me and after seeing my Osteopath yesterday, she asked/told me not to do anything that long, as she feels that it is too soon for me to push myself that much at the moment in time.
The reason I mention this, is do you think there are enough Z3 and Z4 owners in our area that we could do our own meet?
On a personal note, if it's ok with you, I would love to have the chance to take a look at the Z3MR? Obviously the Z3 has the same label/stigma attached to it like the MK1 and MK2 MX-5's. I've always been really curious about the Z3M's as the story is just so cool. While I have always thought the Z3MC was a bit ugly, I never knew they had done the M Roadster version.
I actually owned a JDM Import MK1 MX-5, which was my first 2 seat sports car and car with a convertible top. I had stupidly believed for years these snide remarks about the MX-5 to be true until I got one myself and just realised these where REAL drivers cars. I even ended up owning an E30 325i Cab which had an M-Tech II bodykit on and was in the ice white colour, back in '07 , when white cars and especially BMW's , this ended up sowing the seed that lead to my old man getting his E46 M3 Cab Individual when he retired and sold his mobile valeting business. That M3 with the S54 engine, is why I decided to get my Z4MR last month!
I've only ever really liked a few BMW cars during the era the Z3 was produced, mainly the E39 M5/Alpina B10 and the E36 Alpina B6, which is the only E36 models I liked. I still hold the view that the E39 was possibly the greatest set of 5 series made, but was also the reason Angel/Halo headlights got installed in so many modded BMW's in the 00's! I'm starting to get a bit of a soft spot now for the Z3's, which is down to these forums and my own Z4M.
