Time for the traditional thread about the story of those posts!
It starts with looking for a replacement for a humble Ford
I was struggling between another heavy lump with a big engine, or get two cars - a practical boring one and a lightweight rapid toy. A TVR Cerbera 4.0 V8 was top of the shopping list as I saved up the cash. Fate intervened though, and I ended up in hospital to sample the delights of NHS food for a while. While I was in a mate decided to lift my spirits by visiting some dealers and dropping off some car brochures. The lure of a rumbling V8 gave way to common sense and I decided I wanted a car I could drive at the weekends, not just hit with spanners and hammers. A day wandering around the garages and car supermarkets around Peterborough and the shortlist was rapidly diminished to two contenders - S2000 and Z4. The Z4 was always likely to win it - I liked the low end grunt of the V6 in the Mondeo so a peaky high-revving VTEC wasn't going to keep me happy. I wandered into Sycamore BMW to look at (a frank admission....) a roadster. :bag: But standing in the corner of the lot was a thing of beauty that I couldn't resist - no not the receptionist - it was a Z4 Coupe. It wasn't quite the right one for me but I was willing to wait (impatiently). I drove the 3.0si they had in the dealers, and power and smoothness it's delivery had me sold. The S2000 wasn't even 2nd on the 2 car shortlist anymore :bmwvhonda: I was always going to miss the rumble of that V6 at full chat, but the Z4 more than made up for it in other ways. And anyway, I was getting tired of being blocked mid overtake by new TDi VAGs who objected to being passed by Fords.
Mrs Eds got sick of me constantly scanning PH, Autotrader and BMW AUC for weeks as part of my daily routine, until this little number showed up in Sunderland:
Waiting for delivery felt like an eternity, so to keep me happy Mrs Eds bought me a new toy to push around the living room carpet making "vrroooom vrooooom" noises like a little child again.
Eventually the day came though, and seeing it sat outside the dealers with my plate on it was a fantastic feeling. Naturally, photos of the car had to be taken every where we went (again trying Mrs Eds' patience at times
).
And sometimes, photos had to be taken even when it hadn't gone anywhere.
Eager to get back to proper roads that are free of traffic, we moved back to Scotland where I found myself being invited to join some strangers off the internet in a random car park on a Sunday morning.
And so began another Z4-Forum tradition. Me turning up and having to leave half-way through a forum meet. The forum were a friendly bunch though, so I was happy to join in (bits of) some future runs :- Skye, Moffat, Tayside, Applecross. Some of them I even managed the full route before going home again.
Very pleased I signed up to the forum and looking forward to more meets, especially any potential return to Applecross...
:ilz4f:
I now spend far too much time on this forum!
nline2long: And it's not without it's curses... :ebay:
It's a slippery slope, and it's started...
the mods deleted the 'will the mods delete this thread' thread
I was surprised I got away with it as long as I did 