Hey guys/gals.
I'm new to the board. I'm from County Waterford, right down at the southern end of Ireland.
I've been checking out this board with the past 3 years or so, and have always wanted to one day become an M5 owning member. Well, the day has finally come! I'm now the owner of an M5 3.8, LE #33/50 (GE00358) to be precise. It will be familiar to some of you as Zippy's old motor.
I've been trying to track down this particular one with 2 years or so; from trying to persuade Zip to part with it at the time, to requesting Mark @ ML to keep me informed if it ever turned up for sale (By the way, I've paid 2 visits to their premises, once in my 525tds!).
As some of you know, it turned up for sale on pistonheads.com in May. I had the good fortune of finding her within an hour of the ad being placed! I immediately phoned the owner, and the good chap agreed to take a deposit until I had a chance to head over across the water two months later (if you can see this, THANK YOU STEVE!). Maybe it was a leap of faith, I'd never even seen an E34 M5 in the metal before, let alone this one, but I knew enough about the car from this forum so I took the chance.
Anyway, I was heading over two weeks ago to the Farnborough Air Show, so I picked her up then. Turns out the then owner lived only 15 miles from where I was staying at my aunt's house! After a short test drive, I was smitten and decided I wasn't going home without her. Deal done.
The car has proven to be spot-on. It was such a joy to drive on the journey home, so easy in it's controls at both normal and urban speeds. The ride is surprisingly good in normal mode and she's well able to pull 6th from 1500rpm. I took it easy on the way back, cruising at about 85mph on the motorway and holding a steady 60mph on the Irish side, punctuated by one or two blasts up to 130 whilst overtaking. She's 200 horses over any car I've ever driven and my christ, was I in for a shock when I nailed it! The fuel economy was really surprising: 26MPG on the UK side and 28MPG from the ferry terminal to my home 100 miles further on. That has since dropped to 22 as I just had to try it out on my local straigh. Need I say more, heehee!
Anyway guys, I must say I'm overjoyed to finally be part of your community. I know I could have joined at any time, but I really wanted to hold out until I had the car. This board has kept me fasinated all the while I've known of it's existence. My, how I have relished reading Raymond Woertman's wonderfully detailed travel reports, and hoping that one day, I will also be there on an epic journey through the Alps. Not to mention IvanDias' side-splittingly funny posts and those of other users such as Simonal, FinalEdition, RobPlummer, Wout and many more who's names have become familiar to me over the years.
I'm 23 years old now, and I've wanted an E34 M5 for quite some time, since I first picked up car magazines aged 12 I think! I've had two E34 525tds' since I could first insure them 3 years ago, and they have really made me believe that the E34 was and always will be the car for me. I know that I will have at least one for the rest of my days.
Looking forward to hearing from you guys, and hopefully meeting up with some of you when the occasion comes up and the finances allow. I'm dead keen on a continental trip some time, and a trip to the 'Ring once I get to know the car better!
Cheers
Der.
(PS. Clint is just my username, the name's Der but seeing as that means 'the' in Germanic languages, I decided against it!).
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