I gained fame and notoriety once writing a 3pt essay on Roadfly about "the one that got away"...
Unlike the greatness of Japanese 1990's cars, Germans were arguably 10 years ahead of the curve and the 80's cars, specifically the E30 M3 were "The Ultimate Driving Machines".
And so I flew down to Florida to buy an '88 M3 owned by an instructor and the Nascar Driving/engine building Institute, but dude turned out to be a shady crook, sold me a chop shop car that was made from a car stolen in Jersey...
I had to change hotel rooms in the middle of the night because I thought he was going to have me killed. $10k in the year 2000 was a lot of dough.
It was heartbreaking. I was going to drive it back across country, the trip of a lifetime.
I started noticing weird things with the car while fussing around prepping for the trip, anxious to get out of West Palm Beach, too many creepy jacked up trucks with Dixie flags...
I realized the car was prob stolen, I made a call to an Auto Theft detective, and stayed put a couple days til I drove it to an inspection station, he showed me like ten different things on it, and the car wasn't safe to drive anyway, and I knew that.
The night I realized the car was FUBAR'ed, I contacted the seller, but he said he "put all the $$$ in an IRA and "the penalty" yada yada, no getting it back.
So I contacted the cops. Dude from NASCAR Institute robbed me of $10k.
A couple officers met me, and even though a "civil case" offered to help me get my money back, and possibly arrest him for selling a stolen car.
So here I am, following this cop down Okachobee Blvd at some insane rates of speed, and the lights go out in the car, then the whole car goes out, electrical problems, nightmare car. The cop came back around to see what happened and I jiggled enough wires to make it start again.
We got to his house and he barricaded himself inside, wouldn't open the door,
Next day he says "I would have given you your $$$ back if you hadn't called the cops", and it went on from there.
I flew home, and a lawyer from Broward Co got my $$$ back, through the Roadfly story. He'd bought a much later M3 that was a chop shop car, had it checked out by a shop but the shop was in on it.
Be safe out there people and Carfax ;[]
While a same year M5 and M6 would be on my list, there's something about these, truly the ultimate driving machine.