Most people spend agonizing amounts of time deciding what car they want to replace their existing one with. Not me, oh no, not this time. The decision to purchase this vehicle was made in a heartbeat. There I was at home one evening browsing some car forums when I receive an email from my friend David Yu. It turns out that he had finally got round to the task of selling his lovely E36 M3 Evolution that was sitting forgotten about and gathering dust in his garage. Now I understand it’s easy to forget a minor detail such as owning one when you have taken delivery of a 7.0litre 505bhp American pantie-wetting monster!

Two years ago when David told me he had bought the M3 I did mention to him that when the time comes that he decides to sell it I would be very interested to take it off his hands. Now having said that before about his wife’s (The Brunette) Prodrive Subaru I’d hoped I might be able to go through with the transaction this time! When good cars at a good price come along, circumstances usually dictate that I cannot buy them. Having kicked myself that I did not have the good fortune to purchase said Scooby at the time, I had, what some people call, a moment of clarity. I’d be damned if I didn’t take up the opportunity to buy the Yu-ster’s M3!

Within minutes of receiving the email from David a reply was sent and a day arranged to view the car. At the time I owned two cars, a mega low mileage 306 S16 which was being used as my daily hack and a modified Peugeot 205 GTi with an Mi16 Longman engine and race suspension which was my beloved track, fun, & Nurburgring car. Before you could say “blueberry pie” the 306 was up for sale and the 205 (rest her soul) was up on axle stands being stripped for parts. This was the only way I was going to get anywhere near reclaiming the thousands spent on modified suspension, engine, roll cage etc.

The next week I drove down to David’s to view the car. The first point I noticed was that the red leather interior wasn’t as bright as the photos suggested, which was no bad thing! Second impressions were of a very clean and tidy car. I should hope so too seeing as David had treated it to a full respray in its original Techno Violet colour. [see my end of ownership report here,- ed]

After a test drive with David constantly shouting commands of ‘floor it Dino!’, the sound, the handling, those gorgeous 18” AC Schnitzer TypeII alloys, I was sold, hook line and sinker! A generous deposit was paid to David and a collection date of 27th October set to collect the car. Shit. That gave me exactly one month to raise the rest of the cash from selling the 306 and stripping the 205… Thankfully the 306 sold for more than what I paid for it to the first person who looked at it. Result! Most of the major items of the 205 were sold soon after and the bank balance was looking good. Even the shell sold for a reasonable price.

Being an ex-colleague of David’s meant there were certain things I learned as his young Padawan, one of which was motivation by commitment. Well it’s fair to say my commitment to buying the M3 was relentless and I got the job done. Stripping a car is not ideal under any circumstances but I had to do it around moving into a new home; thankfully I have a very understanding and patient wife (well most of the time anyway…)

So the day came to collect the M3. As usual when buying a new car, I was excited at the prospect and after finishing work a little early I was on the train to Sunningdale to meet David. A short journey back to his house in the M3 and a cup of coffee later, I was now the proud owner of Godzilla 2!

The journey home was fairly uneventful but a full throttle blast on the bypass onto the M3 motorway gave me a good feel of what the car could do. The spread of torque is relentless and the power just feels like it wants to keep on going, surging you forward. It’s certainly no slouch then. A look down at the speedo confirmed I was in licence losing territory so decided to back off and take it easy for the rest of the journey home.

David has made a fair few modifications to the car since he took possession of it which is why I think it made such a good buy. The exhaust and air filter combination sound lovely. Not too intrusive when you are in the car and certainly far from noisy on the outside either. Just right.

What’s more impressive is the way the car rides considering its lowered suspension. The roads in the Big Smoke aren’t known for being the smoothest but the M3 seems to be coping admirably. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite handle the masses of speed humps that Enfield council seems to have such a fetish for.

David did mention that the car was due for its oil service so one week after taking delivery of the car it was at a local main dealers for its service and a general check over to make sure everything was hunky dory.

Luckily one of the BMW technicians is a client of mine and hence was working on the car in an unofficial capacity which meant it got the full BMW treatment without the full cost. When the car was delivered back to me there were no major findings to report but a couple of advisories, namely a worrying bulge on the inner wall of the front off side tyre, a sick idle control valve and annoying electric window motors. The only fix for the electric windows was to replace the motors, something that I was advised is really not necessary until they get so annoying I will be forced to replace them! Some bulbs in the rear clusters needed changing and the guard behind the valance wasn’t quite fitted properly so was removed and refitted. He even fitted my Alpine mp3 head unit & iPod adapter for me whilst he had the car and kindly gave it a wash and clean inside and out. Now that’s what I call service!

Immediate plans for the future involve a couple of minor cosmetic modifications (I’ll leave you to fear the worst), a rolling road session to see if David’s claims of big bhp are true, and a trackday session at Donington. Oh and let’s not forget that dodgy front tyre…