BMW

Date Acquired:

19 Nov 2005

Year:

1991

Cost:

£16,500

Fuel consumption:

30 mpg

Odometer:

110,600 km

Servicing:

£300 (p.a)

Annual Insurance:

£300 (p.a)

Other costs:

£3,700

Therefore it seemed a pretty good showing when the Z Register of the BMW Car Club arranged a weekend meet for Z1 owners in May and no less than 23 Z1s were mustered at Force India's Silverstone HQ, as featured in August's Total BMW magazine. Ok, so a number of the cars had gamely made the trip over from Germany and Holland, but still, 23 was a good turnout for such a rare machine. The organiser had set up a great cross-country driving route from Essex up to Silverstone and then across to Stratford-upon-Avon that took in some great roads and glorious countryside, all mercifully graced with suitably decent weather. The day was rounded off well by a very good dinner at a country house hotel outside Stratford.

I'm not normally one to be super-keen on these sorts of owner events, but was sufficiently intrigued by the idea of seeing lots of Z1s that I agreed to go along and in fact it was great fun to whizz along in a convoy of 20-odd Z1s and to chat to other owners of the plastic fantastic. Amusing too to see the effect on passers-by as the cars snaked their way across rural England. One Z1 with the roof and doors dropped gets plenty of stares at the best of times. 23 of them, a few painted in some of the more lurid shades BMW offered and many breathing through uprated exhaust systems, causes a commotion and jaws as dropped as the doors! Interesting as well to hear a Z1 from the outside. Under full throttle acceleration, a decently-exhausted but otherwise standard Z1 makes a scream much more akin to a fast motorbike than a car. Hear it from where you can't see it, and I reckon you'd be forgiven for thinking you were hearing a superbike.  

On the day, the most predominant colour was Top Red, perhaps reflecting the Z1's "Child of the Eighties" origins, followed by Dream Black. The other two colours represented were Primeval Green (as per mine) and Fun Yellow (as per Mrs Jeremy Clarkson's erstwhile Z1) with two cars sporting non-standard shades - a fetching dark metallic blue and a rather sudden shade of metallic peach/orange. On balance, of the six standard shades (which apart from the aforementioned four, include Pure Blue (a bright electric metallic shade) and Magic Violet (a nasty metallic pinky/purple that only Jonathan Ross could love)) I'm glad to have gone for green but black also looks great.

It's always interesting to examine other examples of your own car and see what other interiors look like and what modifications/improvements others have made - there was an enormous range and variety of exhaust systems (with my custom system exciting plenty of interest), full-on adjustable suspension set-ups, re-trims, engine modifications (the orange car featured a blown 3.0 engine with an adjustable exhaust valve that basically sounded gloriously like a V8). One of the yellow cars even sported the marker-pen signature of the car's Dutch designer, Harm Lagaay, on the soft-top cover. Very cool. But I'm most jealous of the clear/red rear lights sported by some of the cars. These were an extremely limited and very expensive edition that can no longer be obtained - they freshen the appearance of the rear end enormously without looking noticeably modified (a rare commodity).  

Amazing how the time flies by. It barely seemed a moment ago that the Z1 went in for its makeover, which included the annual service. But suddenly it was service time again, this time for a bigger Inspection II service, so it was back home to Munich Legends for the mean green machine. As ever with an older car, there were a number of niggles to be looked at - the wipers had gone nuts and were parking wherever they felt like, the steering wheel was squint (had been put back squint at the last service) and the mounting clips for one of the front grilles had snapped.

More irritatingly, where the car had been resprayed on the nose-cone, crows feet-type cracks had appeared in the clear-coat where the nose-cone curved around the lamp units. So it had to also go back to the bodyshop for some more paint on that, but it's now back to normal. Let's hope it lasts...

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