Back in Easter 2006 a few friends and myself were going for a one time only trip to the Nurburgring. A few weeks later we were back again, a mate and myself were chatting about how we’d need something more suitable for the job.
We’d booked track tuition and one of the instructors didn’t show up. I over heard the other two instructors that had shown up saying “I wonder would this guy (who was standing 20ft away) stand in?”. I can’t remember his name but he raced Le Mans 24hr. They asked him, he agreed and he jumped into the van we were in. He asked everyone what they were driving, some guys said they were driving Scooby’s, some in Evo’s with twice the HP they left the factory with and he responded with ok so nobody has something quick like a CSL or GT3. I looked at my mate and words did not need to be said. The hunt for 2 CSL’s had commenced.
There’s a post on here somewhere about my buying experience but even before that, my friend had already sold his Evo so he was first on the look out for the right CSL. The first one he looked at was being sold privately here in N.Ireland. From memory it was clean but had zero options which he didn’t like. I think that car was bought by someone in England who later sold it to a Merc Specialist (who is on this forum). My mate later looked at one down on the south coast of England that had been badly sprayed so it was a no-go.
He eventually bought one in Yorkshire, I went with him to collect it. Even before we were out of the industrial estate, if I didn’t already need more encouragement I’d a real lust to get my own. The drive home, over the Pennines’ and up the A75 to the boat in Stranraer is one of the most memorable.
So now it was my turn. The first I inquired about was in a BMW dealership. It had 12k miles if I remember correctly but the front bumper and bonnet was pebble dashed. I missed a clean one being sold privately with 2200 miles. I also rang about one owned by an M Torque forum regular. His secretary answered who told me her boss had left it with her to sell the car, I asked her a few questions, which she couldn’t answer, so I asked could I speak to the owner. She put me through to this arrogant so-n-so and after a few minutes I told him to stick his car up his ***. Next, I enquired about a CSL that was owned by a race driver who spent the whole time telling me how he cut the life out of it and how BMW wouldn’t replace parts because of the treatment he’d given the car - and the car only had 3k miles on it.
Maybe 6 weeks had passed and I’d started to lose hope. But one Sunday morning I was flicking through the net and spotted this CSL on the BMW used car website that wasn’t there the night before. I rang about it and spoke to this guy who said we have no CSL’s in stock, I said you have one on your website, he responded with I’m the sales manger here and if we’d a CSL in stock I’d know about it - and we left it at that. A few hours later I got a call from him saying, “we do have a CSL, it was traded in yesterday when I was off” which is why he hadn’t known. He went on to say the problem was that there was a guy on his way from Aberdeen to have a look at it. I replied with here’s £2k deposit and tell yer man not to bother coming. I couldn’t get a flight for some reason so my mate and I booked a boat and drove over. 11 years later, 12 trips to the Ring and almost every UK track later, that car sits in my garage. Times flies when you’re enjoying yourself.
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