1972- My parents buy a Plymouth Fury Station Wagon. When the salesman brings the barge around, I notice a large bolt in the tire.
1980- My parents buy an Oldsmobile Delta 88. On the way home from the dealer, a snowplow/salt spreader kicks up a stone a breaks the windshield.
March 28, 2003- I am scheduled for delivery of my M5 at the Performance Center. Not my first new car, but certainly the most significant.
Renee and rent a POS and drive to the Greenville/Spartanburg Airport as directed. This car floats so badly my wife gets sea-sick. A long drive with 2 interesting events. A black Camaro with the plate "Z06IWISH". Cute. A SC State Trooper in a bronze Camaro unmarked car rolling in right lane, with me not far behind in the GM-whatever rental. A Black minivan flies up in the left lane doing about 15 over. Camaro-cop lights off his rear radar and the minivan slams on his brakes, toast despite his detector. Situational awareness and close observation of other vehicles is the only way to truly avoid traps like this. V1 helps.
We get to the airport and pick up the Marriot phone. We aren't staying the night but the PC people instructed us to call the Marriot and they would give us a ride to the PC. The woman on the other end of the phone is having a little trouble with English and my name. After a few minutes a voice in the background is heard "Oh, that's the M5 guy". So now I'm The Guy. I've never been The Guy before. I've been places when The Guy walks by, and people say "That's The Guy", but now I am He. Ten minutes later a beautiful E39 wagon picks us up and brings us to the PC.
We're early, so we get to watch the M5 Driver's School attendants spinning around the skidpad for a while. Fun. Then we have a wonderful lunch, but my still-nauseous wife recommends against the veal and cheese sandwich. There are five or six other couples taking delivery, the aforementioned School people, and a group doing the X5 off-road course. Truckers. By now I am not just The Guy, but we are The M5 Couple. Like "(Senior driving instructor) Ben, this is The M5 Couple". I just got used to being The Guy, now I have to live up to being The M5 Couple.
After lunch we have some time to kill since the deliveries (only one M5) aren't ready. "Why don't we have Ben take you around the skidpad". Since we aren't doing the Driver's School until June, this sounds like a good idea. Dear gentle Ben takes groups of 2 or 3 around the wet skidpad in varying sideways attitudes, concluding with a spin. The still-green Renee decides this is not for her and quietly slips off to admire the School Cars. Sweet demonic Ben lures her back, and with a tee-hee, tee-hee, Renee acquiesces and straps into the right front seat. I'm right behind her. At the end of the ride, she is so pale that Ben puts her window down. She almost lost that nice lunch. Ben bolts.
We enter the delivery bay. Oh My. It does take your breath away. Renee is afraid to exhale because it may be semi-solid. The attention to detail is so complete, the roundels on all four wheels are aligned vertically. While our delivery specialist is out of the room, I check under the hood. Everything looks good, and though the engine is almost cool, I hear a slight burble when I check the coolant cap. After the 2 hour training session, our delivery guy is ready to open the glass garage and send us on our way. Uh-oh. "Did one of you guys mess with the radiator?" Caught. The burble caused a small overflow of coolant onto the nice tile floor. A tech enters and leaves with our new car. Bye-Bye. The spill control engineer arrives and performs the most meticulous assessment and clean-up I have ever witnessed.
Twenty minutes later the car is back, and off we go to spend the night at the Biltmore Inn. Other adventures ahead, but let me conclude by highly recommending the Inn at Biltmore. Expensive, but if you can afford this car, well, you know.
All of these problems were resolved when I realized that I had not thrown in the lucky penny. Never had a problem with a car blessed by the lucky penny.
Renee won't be joining me on track at the M5 school.
The Guy
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