BMW Z3 M Coupe: Catch It While You Can

Flawed gem or a quirky irrelevance? Recent market moves very much suggest a classic in the making

Is it just me, or do cars that have serious flaws carry far more appeal than any cold pinnacle of engineering perfection? For me, flaws don't detract from an experience, they add character, and character is exactly why I love the quintessentially quirky BMW M Coupe.

Fancied one of these? Get your skates on

And it seems I'm not alone: the M Coupe embers are starting to glow hot in the classifieds. A growing band of us are increasingly appreciating the unique charms of one of Munich's oddest creations. Odd - or barking mad. Looking like a mash-up of MGB GT and the sort of 'shooting brake' that Leslie Phillips might have driven in a 1960s cad-flick, it is an exceedingly cool object.

Let's face it, though, it grew out of pretty inauspicious beginnings. The Z3 M Roadster on which it's based was slammed by almost everyone as one of the biggest disappointments ever. The 1998-2002 M Coupe did redeem many of its faults, however, in particular the torsional rigidity issue, transforming the handling.

The M Coupe is indeed a cracker to drive. At its 2006 Z4 M Coupe launch, BMW wheeled out an example of its old Z3 M Coupe, an opportunity too good for me to miss. Driving the two cars back to back, it would be hard to imagine a bigger demonstration of the difference between 1990s engineering and the sophistication that had galloped in less than a decade later.

Big six, small car, large grin

But assured and rapid though the Z4 was, the earlier car was loads more fun. Its charms are very much of the old school. It's a bruiser, with plenty of horses transmitted to the rear axle, which you're pretty much sitting over, and no traction control (very late cars got it, but not the example I drove). I recall snap oversteer on demand on damp roads, a surprisingly comfortable ride, pace on a devastating scale (5.2 seconds to 60mph is darned strong even by today's standards) and that fabulous gem of a 3.2-litre six.

This is a car with 'classic' writ large upon it: a pukka BMW 'M' two-seater with an utterly unique character and extreme rarity. Just 986 RHD M Coupes were built (821 with the 321bhp S50 engine, the rest with the S54 engine from 2001). Only 609 examples came to the UK, and remarkably around 500 still appear on DVLA records. This is a rare beast in anyone's books.

So what price an M Coupe? Two or three years ago you could have bought one for under £9,000. Today, the cheapest in the classifieds is £11,950, and even though it's a right-hooker you'll have to go to Holland for it.

Is Chris right about the bold Dakar Yellow?

Values are on the rise, for sure. A 1999 Cosmos Black example in RHD with 43,000 miles on the clock came up for auction at the recent NEC Silverstone Auctions sale. Despite an estimate of £15,000 to £18,000, it eventually sold for £23,625. Top whack in the classifieds is now £29,995 for a low-mileage one-owner car.

Colour? Estoril Blue is the classic, and most numerous, colour. This one looks great at £12,995, although it's leggy at over 100,000 miles now.

Personally, I'd hunt down one of just 42 Dakar Yellow Z3 M Coupes registered in the UK, like this one. A striking colour like this always enhances a charismatic shape, and the M Coupe has a boredom bypass the size of the A1M.

So: a BMW M GmbH coupe that's rare, generally speaking easy to get parts for, not outrageously expensive to run, genuinely interesting to drive and uber-cool. A flawed gem and still eminently affordable - but probably not for very long.

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misterblonde

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