I almost bought Jeremy Clarkson’s BMW M5, one of the first E28 M5 models. “Almost” in the sense that I asked if I could see it and have a test drive, so he and a friend had to bump-start the poor thing, which had mouldered on the streets of Fulham until the battery went flat.
They found a tow rope and groped around behind the air dam to attach it to the tow hook. This all went well until the clutch was violently raised in second gear and, like The Alien from John Hurt’s stomach, the entire oil cooler and its plumbing broke out of the spoiler; they’d attached the rope to the wrong part.
Even if I’d bought is as seen and paid for the repairs it would have been quite a car. The original M5 of 1984 had the...