It's only a letter. It happens to be the middle letter in the alphabet but is still only a letter. It is the initial letter of my Christian name. It has a nice symmetry but is still only a letter. M. There, nothing special about that is there? But, put a number 3 after it and anyone with any hint of petrol in their veins will pick up on the significance and I am not talking about the motorway joining London and Southampton. What I am talking about is the car that resulted from BMW's Motorsport division being asked to take the standard E30 3 series and turn it into a Group A touring car; the original M3.

The M3 has enjoyed prime position in my motoring desires for a very long time. I remember drawing Frank Sytner's British Touring car for school art project when I was all of 13 years old. I didn't get a very good mark for it as it wasn't really what was asked for but I felt that the intricate detail I went into did the car justice. The evocative BMW Motorsport colours draped over the white bodyshell with those arches was perfection for me. It was a dream car for me that I never thought I would ever get to own.

Fast forward 17 years and the flame still burned. Not as brightly but it was still there and it was given a huge stoke when good friend, and fellow auto-journalist, Tim Skipper took me out for my first ride in an E30 M3. By today's standards it wasn't that fast in outright terms and there are glorified shopping trolleys with better figures but the car felt special and the way that it cornered had me completely sold. Unfortunately, my finances and a threat from my girlfriend that if I did "something stupid" I would be single again meant that the plan had to remain on the back burner. Incredibly though, a fortuitous and very well timed financial bonus came my way and meant the search could begin in earnest.

The re-stoked flame had meant that I had been doing a lot of reading up and researching so when I was actually able to start looking I knew what I wanted. After going to have a look at a couple of cars that were too compromised by stiff suspension and other "improvements" I managed to find my car. It was relatively local too being in Halifax. It was perfect. Exactly what I was looking for and with a good spec, some tasteful modifications and a good price. Higher mileage than some but everything felt very tight and the huge pile of history, receipts and information was enough to convince me that it had been cared for well.

F868UJB was picked up just before Christmas 2005 on a very wet, misty and dark night which when combined with the left hand drive and dogleg gearbox made for a rather nerve wracking journey home. I made it home safely though and was very happy. My first drive to work was an interesting one. Sat in traffic, I noticed the chap in the van to my right gesturing for me to wind the window down. I obliged and was met with a string of praise and congratulations on my choice of car. I'd never had that happen before and it made my morning. I've had to get used to this kind of attention though as it seems that there are two schools of people in the world, well Sheffield anyway. Those who know what the M3 is and love it and those who just think it is an old black BMW and don't pay it much attention at all. Just the way I like it.

The first proper run was a jaunt over to Demon Tweeks in Wrexham. I wanted to move the Momo steering wheel and quick release boss that were in my 106 over to the M3 to improve the driving position and to add some more security to the very good alarm. This meant getting a new boss to allow the fitting of the wheel and this was the perfect excuse for a drive. A bonus of the trip was the chance to meet up with another owner of a Diamond Schwartz E30 M3. The pair of them parked together in the car park looked pretty cool.

Fitting the steering wheel in the car park led to a rather embarrassing moment as the horn came on and stayed on. Forgetting that the horn on the M3 was wired to a wheel mounted button unlike the 106's stalk mounted hornpush meant that I had connected the boss incorrectly and had a horn that stayed on permanently. As I had not brought the key that allows the quick release wheel to be removed left me in a bit of a pickle. My embarrassment was abated after we temporarily fixed the problem by disconnecting the pair of horns.

Unfortunately, the joy of finally owning my dream car only took a week to be soured. Not the car's fault at all and not mine either. Having spent the day buying presents for Christmas I had parked in my usual spot outside my house. A couple of hours later and whilst chatting with my housemate we heard a bit of a commotion outside. The cause of which was a chap trying to reverse park his flatbed lorry on the other side of the road and he was making a right hash of it. We even joked that if he wasn't careful and inadvertently selected 1st gear then some of the cars on the street would be in danger.

I nipped out to the car shortly afterwards to get some presents from the boot in order to start wrapping them and upon opening the bootlid there was a rather horrible cracking noise and to my horror I noticed the damage. Someone, and it wasn't difficult to guess who, had managed to drive into the offside rear corner and then scrape right down the rear quarter panel defacing one of the famous wheel arches. Luckily Mr Flatbed was still around and after having a quiet word with him he owned up and gave me his insurance details. The details of the following saga will have to wait for my next report.