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Sunday, August 23, 2009

Tales of the Bronze Bitch.....the end of the road

Well the final decision has been made. My beloved 1987 BMW 325 is will no longer be calling my carport home.

After several mental lists and discussions with the Mrs. I've decided to sell the Bronze Bitch.

We've had a great run and had some fun in the past 4 years. I certainly have learned a thing or two about this amazing car for better or worse.

My main motivation is that it's getting up there in mileage. It has somewhere in the neighbourhood of 250,000. This is just a guess-timate. The odometer didn't work when I bought the car. The previous owner had told me that he had put close to 30k on it or more since the odometer had stopped at 198,000 miles.The M20 engine that this car comes with is good for about 300,000 miles with average care and feeding. The body is in great shape with the exception of the clearcote that has come off the the hood and roof. With all the work I've put into it there are no coolant/oil leaks.

Together we've seen some fun places in the sun in the Western half of the state and enjoyed some BMW club events. We've proven that a 22 year old BMW is still a match for some newer cars with cockier drivers out on the road and we've seen just what a well powered/handling German built automobile can do when shown some TLC.

So what will take the place of the Bronze Bitch you may be asking. It will be German. I love German engineered cars! Some people have fetishes, some people have drugs and I have German cars.

At least two people out there know the answer. The Mrs is one and Militant Ginger would be the other.

A short back story is in order before the reveal: my father in law came to Washington state in the 1960's with the intent of building race cars and working in the race industry. Never happened. He got married had kids and became a printer. He never lost that dream though. Over the last 38 years he's restored 2 Studebaker Hawks and one Studebaker Avanti. The two Hawks are long gone but he still has that Avanti.About the same time I bought the Bronze Bitch he purchased a 1986 Porsche 944. I was shocked. My father law, though an admirer of foreign sports cars had always bought American. He was looking to complete a part of that 38 year old dream.

Now 4 years later he is looking to reinvent that dream a bit. He was looking for something newer and sportier. He started looking for another Porsche. Six months later he has finally purchased a 2000 Porsche Boxster.

This is where our stories intersect. My FIL now having an extra car on his hands needs to do something with the 944. My brother in law has a Mini Cooper S and my sister in law and her husband have two kids under 5 so their rides are SUV's. That leaves me. My FIL and I have always had a passion for sports cars.

To further the back story, I have known my FIL since 1986. The Mrs and I met our freshman year of highschool and dated a few times during that period. In that time I met my future FIL and got to see what a car enthusiast he is.

Back to the story, my FIL has an extra car. What to do with it? I'm the one that gets the question: hey dummy, you wanna buy my Porsche?He calls a lot of people dummy, and it should stop, but that aside I of course want it. So several months and some reasoning in my head has decided that I will take over ownership of the FIL's 944.

So shortly the little red kraut kruiser will adorn my carport and the Bronze Bitch will call home to someone else's driveway. I just hope that the next owner will see it's potential as I still do and continue with providing some TLC or maybe turn it into a track car.

I have no doubt that the Bronze Bitch will continue to grace the pavement for a few more years and prove that it's still a menace to other motourists.

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