Retrospective review of a car with more character than sense

Came across an old photo of the 1996 BMW M3 that I owned from 2013-2015, and got thinking about the 'good times.'

 – Every time I put my foot down, something broke. Something just gave up. Interior trim, exterior trim, a fog light, the entire bumper. Anything made of recycled plastic (which was seemingly most of the car) would simply fall off with enough vibration. 

– Sometimes, at highway speeds, I'd go over a pothole and most of the car would shut off for a second. No radio, no lights, no power steering. The engine kept spinning, but I'm honestly not sure how well the brakes would have worked. (To its credit, it did always turn itself back on.)

– It could easily hit [redacted MPH] at the top of 4th gear. I never once went above [redacted], because the idea of taking one hand off the wheel for a moment to shift into 5th was /horrifying/. 

– It had a lot of grip in the corners. A lot. One time, I turned the traction control off and tried to drift around a corner on a slight incline. It bent a tie rod on a rear wheel assembly. The car was tilted, at least 2 inches lower on its left side, for the rest of our time together. 

– The entire exhaust manifold fell off. Completely separated itself from the engine block. I had to drive with my windows down for two weeks, because engine exhaust would rise from the engine straight into the cabin. Picture smoke coming out of the gear shifter, right in the middle of the car. 

– When opening the door, the interior of the door would often separate from the exterior metal part. The armrest, interior door handle, window controls, and the plastic panel holding all of that together would still be under the roof, while I'd be standing dumbfounded in the rain, holding the metal half of the door.

Epilogue: My old man has the car now, and has pushed it well past 280k miles on the original motor & transmission, and he still absolutely loves it.