When I look for a Pick of the Day I often look for cars I feel are great values or are somewhat overlooked and deserve attention. I also look for cars that I would personally buy. The one I picked today is a perfect example of being one that looks like a good deal and I would love to have in my garage.
The BMW Z3 M Coupe was a sort of “skunk works” project at BMW in that it was a car that a bunch of crazy engineers decided to try building versus one that came from lots of product and marketing meetings. Instead the Z3 M Coupe was developed by the M performance group to address many people’s view that the Z3 was not a performance car. What they did was get a Z3 and improve the car’s structural rigidity by incorporating a fixed roof. After doing this they replaced the standard Z3 inline 6 engine with a 3.2-liter M engine. Finally, they went to work on the suspension to make the car handle even better.
The result was a car that quickly gained the nickname “clown shoe” due to its unusual styling. Despite this they somehow got the car green lit for production. You can thank BMW board member Burkhard Goeschel for helping make this happen. In fact Goeschel, who was in charge of M at the time, still calls it his favorite BMW M car.
The Z3 M Coupe was introduced in 1998 as the serious sports car version of the Z3. It was equipped with the 240-hp S52 engine from the U.S. spec E36 M3 under the hood. These are rare cars with BMW building only 5,179 between 1998 and 2000. BMW revised the Z3 M Coupe in 2001 by swapping the S52 engine with the new 315 HP E46 M3 S54 engine. Only 1,112 of these were built between 2001 and 2002.
The Pick of the Day is one of these cars, a 2000 BMW Z3 M Coupe located in Richmond, British Columbia.
The seller offers a great description of this Z3 M Coupe. They state that it is a car that was ordered new without a sunroof and is finished in Estoril Blue over a black and blue Nappa leather interior. Power is from the aforementioned 3.2-liter S52 inline-six paired with a five-speed manual transmission. The car rides on staggered-width 17″ Style 40 wheels with 225/45 and 245/40 Continental Extreme Contact M&S tires.
The car is painted in one of BMW’s best colors ever, Estoril Blue (335), with partially power-adjustable and heated sports seats upholstered in factory original (and super cool looking) blue leather with black inserts. Amenities include a BMW Business cassette stereo, a six-disc CD changer, M-branded floor mats, an illuminated shift lever, and a cupholder in the center console.
This Z3 M Coupe has covered only 45,800 miles or 73,200 kilometers from new and looks to be in amazing condition with a CARFAX report that indicates no accidents or other damage and displays history in New York, Ontario, and Texas before being purchased and imported into British Columbia, Canada, in November 2021.
The Z3 M Coupe is a collector car now but I honestly feel that they have not yet reached their potential in the market, and this one is being offered for a very fair $47,900. At that price is not likely to last long.
Check out the listing for this Pick of the Day on ClassicCars.com.
