I've gotta share this with all the car people I know. My Dad is a Bible School Professor, and perhaps one of the most mundane, dry-sense-of-humor guys you could ever hope to meet. He's smarter than Einstein and has more degrees than a thermometer, but because of his choice of profession, has never had much personal wealth.
Now, that's a small tragedy to me, because I know he loves cars. When he was younger, he had a Corvair (my mother destroyed it, not realizing what the oil light meant), and always talked about it with reverence. Family, finance, and location (back woods of north idaho, snowy 8 months out of the year) have always dictated more practical cars with features like AWD and high ground clearance. When I lived close enough to do some good, I had been keeping my eyes open for something German that would be fun to drive without being a White Elephant that was still inside my budget, to no avail.
But he called me at 10 o'clock last night to tell me he had bought
this 1977 320i off Craigslist. I've never heard him so excited! He couldn't stop talking about the handling, and about how different it feels to drive a RWD car again, and how he loves feeling the weight transfer, and how tight it is in the turns! He lives at the far end of a beautifully long winding road, so he'll have more than ample opportunity to enjoy that car. The exhaust is apparently an aftermarket fart-can, which he hates, and the gold wheels are kind of "80's drug dealer," but he's getting some cheap-o steel wheels to mount snow tires on, so it'll be ok.
I just had to share this awesome story.
More pictures of my aging father with his car when I can get them.
Dan