So, only a week after finally getting the car I had been lusting after for more than a decade and it was already damaged and through no fault of my own. Great! Thankfully my insurance company, Liverpool Victoria, got straight to work and the very next day I was down at their approved bodyshop getting the damage assessed. They also quickly informed me that Mr Flatbed's insurance had admitted liability and that I would not have to stump up the excess and that I would be due a courtesy car whilst the work was done on my car.

With the damage being limited to bodywork meaning that the Beemer was still drivable, I was able to try to get used to piloting a rear wheel drive, left hand drive car with a dogleg gearbox. On the open road, there was actually very little to cause any upset. I had to get used to positioning the car differently and using more of the road geometry in order to carry out overtakes but these skills quickly became second nature.

The gearbox has actually taken more time to get used to. Early on there were occasions where I would forget where I needed to be guiding the lever and would end up coasting whilst trying to avoid dropping into the wrong gear and hearing horrible crunching noises.

Driving amongst the parked cars and traffic around home felt rather odd to begin with though. Squeezing through gaps meant that I was directly next to the parked cars rather than the oncoming traffic and this felt strange but after a week or so this became second nature too. Roundabouts have been slightly more troublesome as the left hand seating position means that the off side B pillar is often in the sightline required. Nothing a little leaning forward doesn't cure though.

Shortly after taking the car to the bodyshop for assessment came the first of the setbacks with the repair. They were booked up until well into the New Year and hence it would be late January before they could fit me in. As I had already booked a trackday at Elvington airfield near York in order to try to get to grips with rear wheel drive in relative safety, I decided that rather than cancel the trackday I would delay putting the car in for the work. Trouble was that this meant it would not now go in until late February due to the bodyshop not having any available courtesy cars. With the estimated time for the work being only 2 weeks I decided I would be able to cope.

January the 31st came round quickly and I headed over to meet up with some friends on a chilly and damp Elvington airfield. My main aim for the day was to try to get to grips with driving a car driven from the correct end and to see how it would behave on and around the limit. I managed to see what over-the-limits felt like in the very first session with a lovely, lazy spin on to the grass inside the long right-hander between the two main runways. To my and my passenger's amusement we ended up pointing directly at the official photographer who had managed to catch the whole thing. As the day progressed, I had a couple more half spins but also some very lurid drifts and generally had a ball. The traction afforded by the Goodyear GSD2 tyres was impressive and the way they held up to a full day on the abrasive airfield surface was admirable. I think the linear nature of the power delivery hence there not being a large dollop of torque arriving all at once helped to avoid unsticking the rear tyres unexpectedly. They could be unstuck though with a combination of weight transfer and a well timed lift of the throttle and as long as I was prompt with the opposite lock and quick with some throttle I could get the back to stay out pretty successfully.

The only real complaints that I could level at the car were the seats and the brakes. The standard leather Recaro seats, whilst being very comfortable and having the delight of bum-heating elements, were just not supportive enough for track use and meant that I was sliding about too much inside the car and having to hang on to the steering wheel rather than just steering with it. I pretty much decided there and then that I had to come up with a new plan for the seating. The brakes were providing enough retardation but were grumbling and juddering badly hence denting my confidence in them. When I bought the car it had some unknown-brand drilled discs fitted and suspicion was directed at them for the problems.

When I eventually got the call from the bodyshop that they were ready for me I was delighted. Unfortunately this was not to last too long. Firstly, the courtesy car turned out to be a lovely red 55 plate Astra. To this day I don't know what engine was in the DisAstra. It definitely sounded and behaved like a diesel but without any of the torque or economy advantages. The filler cap said unleaded on it though. The seats were also the worst seats I have ever had the misfortune of sitting on (and please remember, I used to have a Mini). I could not get comfortable at all. Still, I was only due to have it for 2 weeks so I thought I would just grin and bear it.

8, yes 8, weeks later and I finally got to give the Vauxhall back. The repairs on the M3 had taken 4 times longer than expected and turned out to be a lot more involved than first thought. So what had gone wrong?

In order to improve the original E30's aerodynamics, BMW's M-Sport division changed the angle of the rear windscreen by adding a plastic cowl over the existing E30 window aperture. This cowl is bonded to the rest of the body and then the rear screen is bonded into the cowl. Unfortunately, this meant that the cowl and screen had to be removed in order to replace the rear quarter panel and there is no way of doing this without destroying both the cowl and the screen. This added more items to the list of replacement parts and also added to the time needed to spray the car. It also meant a new screen and it was this that turned out to be the main reason behind the delay. It seems that these screens are impossible to find in Britain and at the time were on back order in Germany meaning an indeterminate delay. The bodyshop were good at keeping me informed but for a while it looked like I was never going to get the car back. Eventually I received a call saying that the screen had arrived and that it was being fitted the following day. Trouble was, the following day I got an ominous phone call. The screen that had arrived was faulty and was not fit to be installed so another one had to be ordered. Oh joy, another indefinite delay. Remarkably, the second screen arrived much quicker and turned out to be fine and in the middle of April I finally got to pick the car back up. Just in time for fellow Auto-Journalist, Ben Bradley's stag do trackday at the Ty Croes circuit on Anglesey. More about that and the home journey debacle soon.