The story starts with my first car, the 1984 325e. I'm sure as with most first cars, you love it because it gets
you around. Yes, they all have problems, but you're willing to look past that to what lies underneath. Mine had
problems...it was an NYC car, owned by my uncle. In it's 12 years before I owned it, it had been broken into
so many times that he just stopped fixing the locks. It would drain the battery in two days (i later found out it
was a faulty trunk light switch...). Oh and it leaked :-) But it never failed me. I had so much fun in that car,
that i thought naively to myself "wow...this can't get any better". I then found out that the E36 M3 was not
the first M3 to come out of Munich. I wanted an E30 M3 ever since. While I was a student at Georgia Tech, I
was looking for a car. The E30 M3 came up again. At that time they had hit rock bottom in price and there
were quite a few out there, but I couldn't get myself to find a nice M3 then leave it parked outside on a college
campus. I put my search off until I had a place to park it. In 2004 I made arrangements with a fellow in Ohio
who had an E30 M3 but wanted a Mini Cooper S just like mine. We met halfway, did the deal...and suddenly I
was the owner of a beautiful '89 M3. Since i've owned it, I have done many things to get it back to its original
state. Here's a photo progression of the work that's been done.
My dad has always had an appreciation, an attraction if you will, to the classic European cars. This is a fine
fineexample of his taste. My dad has other things that are at the forefront of his life now, like enjoying
retirement...but he couldn't bear to sell this 280SL or his 1972 BMW 2002. So he asked me "hey
Steve...which one do you want...i'll keep the other". So now it's in my garage, and i'm about to start the
loooong road to freshening it up. Like the M3, this will never be a full ground up restoration, just good clean
maintenance and work. Plus, Linh and I take it for a spin once in a while...what good is a car that's so perfect
you're scared to drive it? The 280SL is a beautiful car, attention to detail that we don't find these days. And
very...very reliable.
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