Back and Forth

It’s 11PM. In my fridge I had orange juice, some fruit punch, water, milk and a frosty cold bottle of one of the greatest beverages known to man: Coca Cola imported from Mexico. What’s so amazing you ask?

Is it the fact that it’s in a glass bottle? Nah. Is it that the drinks were hand crafted in some cola factory across the border? Nope. Is it laced with cocaine? No (well, maybe). The magic in fact comes from the use of real cane sugar as the sweetener, as opposed to the corn syrup nastiness that we have here in the states.

The result is all the stuff you love about coke, the flavor, the caffeine, the carbonation, with just a little added sweetness and the lack of the awful coating in your mouth. It may in fact be the perfect beverage. The downside is that it is pretty expensive and it’s hard to find. Our local (San Antonio, TX) Costco carries it by the case, each of which costs around $20.

I know YouTube has kind of become the internet meme and odd people’s video diary extravaganza site, but I find myself using it almost exclusively for the purpose of finding music. There is an amazing wealth of old jazz performances, not to mention live bits from Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Elvis, The Beatles, etc.

Well I stumbled across this video from Amy Winehouse and figured I would post it and give a brief take on her music and thought, maybe I should try to do this weekly. This will guarantee I find new music every week and maybe infuse a little more life into this blog. Without further adieu…

So, I’m sure most of you know who she is and I don’t need to get into her unfortunate destructive personality. But between the bouts of crazy, she found time to develop into a great singer and record some decent music. There’s a maturity and sensuality to her voice that you just don’t find from singers anymore. An easy comparison comes to mind, Billie Holiday. When you listened to her sing, you could hear the pain and torment as well as the love and lust in her voice. Now Winehouse is bringing that emotion back to pop music. Some of her recordings aren’t very notable, but when you find the gems they are amazing.

Love is a Losing Game:

Disclaimer: This should in no way be taken as a professional review of any sort. To take it as such would be doing yourself a great disservice. This review should be viewed for what it is, a hobbyists (at best) take on a much beloved car after nearly a decade.

When I was around twelve years old (ten years ago) I remember falling in love the Z3 after seeing an ad for it in a magazine. A couple years later my dad picked up a new 2000 model Z3 2.3. And a few more after that I got my driver’s license and had the privilege of taking out for a spin. Man that car was (is) cool.

This past year I got to spend a month or so with it as my daily driver as I was between cars. When I was looking for a new car I set aside the notion of buying a Z3, why would we need two in the family? So of course I went to the usual suspects for someone looking for a fast and affordable little beast to bum around in, the 350z, the G35/7, thought about the S2000, even test drove a Z4 3.0. I learned something that month, trying to buy a new car from a dealership (especially in San Antonio) is a hellish experience at best.

Then it occurred to me, why not buy a used Z3. I could probably get one with decent mileage on the cheap at this point. So I looked at quite literally a hundred cars and even made a poor purchase decision on one in Houston but was able to back out of due to failure on the dealer’s part to fulfill their end of the contract (a story for another time). Distraught and fed up, it was like a holy light descended upon this 2001 M Roadster. The right year, the right color, the right mileage…the right engine.

So I bought it.

All of the Z cars have undeniably awesome handling and overall driving experience. These may be some of the best cars BMW has ever manufactured. You get the BMW handling and amazing engines, without all the stuff. These are relatively stripped down, awesomely visceral little cars. There are no GPS computers, there aren’t ten buttons on the steering wheel of varying useless function, no barrage of computers telling you your exact tire pressure, or gas mileage.

The more stuff you cram in one space the more likely it’s all going to get fouled up in one way or another. Short of an e46 M3, and that’s even a weak interest at best, I would probably never buy another BMW. Because, you see, even on our cars, these pinnacles of simplicity and automotive excellence, you get these little nagging issues.

For the most part the interiors in these cars are junk. Cheap materials, cheap build quality, heaven forbid you got the leatherette seats and are now left with a weathered mess of a driver’s seat. The seat belt guides in the roadsters have a habit of snapping in the middle. To replace this $15 piece of plastic, the repair is so arduous, involving essentially tearing the seat completely apart, BMW charges in the realm of $1500 to replace.

You have cheap plastic radiators and water pumps failing to a degree of regularity. Crap aux fans with failing bearings. Both of our cars have this annoying hum when the car gets hot enough for the aux fan to kick in. The dreaded sub frame issues, the even more dreaded S54 rod bearing issue (as far as I can tell I’m out of the production range for the inferior bearings). Many sub-par third party bits, like my failing auto-dimming rear view and a slight suspicion I may have the Bosch ignition coils that are prone to failure.

With all that, I still love this car because for the most part, the Z line is pretty reliable. The one thing I have always said about our cars is, even with the little cheap interior bits, and the occasional mechanical issue, when you get in the car and drive it, all is forgiven. And now that I have the pinnacle, the titan of the Z3 line the 2001 M Roadster I find that that holds true even more now. You have that tied to the road feel, the point and shoot steering, the rear wheel drive and near 50/50 balance that make these cars such a pleasure to drive, but with a massively powerful 3.2 liter inline six. The one thing that had always been missing from the equation for me driving around my dad’s Z was that raw unbridled power to couple with the amazing handling.

The power of the S54 seems just perfect for the car, awe inspiring without being overly ostentatious. Sure there are faster cars on the road, and they can really tear in a straight line, but when it comes to real driving they don’t compare. Few cars have the elegance and grace of this car much less crave going fast and sliding around the twisties. It’s like a football player putting on a tux and ballroom dancing.

At the end of the day, I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect car for me at this point in my life. While I love the Aston Martin Vanquish, that sort of sophistication is not right for me yet (nor is the price tag) and a ‘68 Mustang would have been far too much work for a daily driver. I test drove a few 350Zs, a G37, even an Audi A4 cabriolet, but the minute I sat in the M it was all over. This car may not be for everyone, but I doubt a day will go by that I won’t want to burn a little fuel and rubber in this car.

-Justin