🏎️ Max Finds a Bond car where he wasn't expecting

Gm FOLKS

& May the Fifth be with you.

Monday we bought a reasonably priced, zippy, sprite of a car in the Mini.

Today we buy a car better suited for the Met Gala…

or James Bond, perhaps?

NO, its not an Aston. But its designed by the same dude and good lord is it one of the most beautiful cars I have ever laid my eyes upon.

HERE

IT

IS

A 2003 BMW Z8

• 🌏️ Driven around the world: 0.5x

• 🏇 Can beat 395 horses in a fight

• 🎥 Video to get the vibes right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOjNR0QjdqI

  • Fun (not fun) fact the scene where the car gets chopped in half literally made the car’s designer leave a movie theatre in tears!

• 💰️ Predicted Price: $286,008

• 📆 Auction Ends: Tuesday, May 9th, 2023

Frankly, dearest cash cows, I can’t get over how pretty this car is. When it came out in 2003, it was designed as a ‘modern throwback’, and I truly think it STILL looks that way.

It is as if a luxury super yacht, a Corvette Stingray, and a retro BMW roadster were all reproducing mammals that somehow (😉 (yes that is an inanimate object threesome innuendo, yes this is the only newsletter to ever write something like that)) combined to create this exquisite love child

Like, if BMW came out with this car today with the same idea in mind, I’d be like

“Damn BMW that is a TASTEFUL ass throwback car”

Actually the only thing that would make me skeptical of BMW releasing this today is that other vehicles in their lineup are hideous monstrosities like this:

The Z8 is timeless, which probably explains why you have to be a time traveler who makes a fortune betting on past Super Bowls to afford one.

But outside of the looks…

What Makes The BMW Z8 So Cool?

• It was designed by one of the auto design GOATs

• James Bond drove it! And Elvis (kind of) did too

• It has a bunch of fun features more modern cars should use!

It was Designed by one of the Auto Design GOATs

And that GOAT goes by the name of Henrik (goddamn) Fisker.

Who tf is Henrik Fisker?

Well, outside of designing this masterpiece of a car, Henrik Fisker is most well known for two things:

1. The design of the modern Aston Martin V8 Vantage (another of the most beautiful modern cars out there)

2. His company Fisker Automotive

We will dive more into each when we inevitably cover these cars in future issues, but I’ll leave you with this…

Fisker Automotive was, by all accounts, a resounding failure. It is, as of 2016, defunct.

HOWEVER, at one point in its history, Justin Bieber drove a COMPLETELY CHROME Fisker Karma. Check this out:

This car was so shiny it literally caused paparazzi chasing him to crash (presumably due to being completely blinded by its reflection).

I imagine it also incinerated any ants that dared get within a 5 mile radius of it.

We’re getting off topic though…

STOP LETTING ME GET DISTRACTED

Fisker worked at BMW back when the Board decided it wanted to build a modern version of the BMW 507…

The 507 was a total flop financially, which is why BMW discontinued the model after a few years.

It did, however, have one main highlight…

ELVIS HAD ONE

This car’s heritage is pretty damn star-studded.

So all Fisker had to do was make a modern version of a car cool enough that Elvis would want one.

No pressure, right?

Well, as we can see, Fisker nailed it. And when the car was unveiled in 1997 it was an INSTANT BANGER.

Literally the day these cars were available to buy at dealerships was the cheapest they’ve ever been. You’d have been better off investing in one of these than buying US Bonds. They were around $129k new, never lost value on the pre-owned markets, and go for AT LEAST $250k these days. CRAZY.

But outside its looks and heritage…

The Z8 Actually has a lot of Cool Features!

Let’s first start out under the hood…

The Z8 stole its engine from the BMW E39 M5; a car I have personally owned and one that is frequently touted as the GREATEST BMW OF ALL TIME.

From personal experience, that engine is STOUT. It has 400 horsepower, is pretty damn reliable, and sounds AMAZING (especially in my old straight piped M5… check the second photo for the glorious sounds).

All that to say, any car with that engine is a great car.

Secondly! The lighting on this car is VERY confusing.

The exterior lights on it are as if Henrik knew the ‘never let them know your next move’ meme was going to be a thing all the way back in the 90’s.

What do I mean? Okay, let’s look at the front of the car. Make a guess where you think the car’s high beams are.

IF, and this is a strong IF (not because I don’t believe in you, but yes its because I don’t believe in you), you get this right, let me know by responding to the poll at the end of this email and maybe I’ll give you a pat on the back.

Anyways here’s the answer…

…

Apparently having them in the primary headlight like a normal car was too straightforward for ol’ Henry. FWIW I dig it, but even crazier is the BACK of the car.

Alright I won’t make you guess this one, mostly because I don’t want to draw those arrows on an image again.

But if you want to guess, remember, the normal shit on the back of a car lighting wise: brake lights, reverse lights, turn signals.

SO. The brake lights and turn signals are in those rectangular bits. Totally normal, right?

Fair.

Now let’s look at those two round lights sandwiching the license plate.

The rightmost one… THAT IS THE ONE (ONLY) REVERSE LIGHT. Yes it is red. No I don’t know how that is legal. Yes it’s weird AF.

The left one is apparently a fog light. Why tf you need a singular fog light on the back of the car is beyond me. I’m sure Hen had his reasons.

Alright moving on from lighting, there’s a feature on this car that I think EVERY modern car should steal, and most don’t.

See on the door, that set of toggles and switches that looks like a deconstructed fidget cube?

Per my sick photo editing skillz, you can see the front and back controls do normal shit: control the front window and mirrors electronically.

The cool bit is the toggle in the middle. Usually, with even modern cars, the driver’s side door will have a number of window switches = to the number of doors on the car. Each on controls a single window. Simple. BORING.

THIS Z8, with its fancy center toggle, lets you switch between adjusting the left window and mirror positions, the right window and mirror positions, or BOTH simultaneously if you put the toggle in the center position.

I for one think that is pretty damn nifty.

Okay, this one is getting long, but I have one last fun feature.

Check out this clip: https://youtu.be/Fyj1fcJbaWc?t=764 (you can stop it at 13:00).

That sound is such a strange choice to me, but I absolutely love it.

It sounds like a hermetic door on a nuclear blast shelter is being opened for the first time in a hundred years.

It’s so jarring. You’re never going to accidentally leave your weirdly positioned high beams on by accident in a Z8.

So, do you want a literal Bond car?

Would you like it to have Elvis-enjoying heritage?

Do you want it to have some of the most beautiful styling ever AND one of BMW’s greatest engines?

And would you like it for the low, low, price of $286,008 (total guess don’t quote me on that)?

BUY THIS CAR!

And before you do… REMEMBER!

MaxFindsCars.com is not, technically, free! By subscribing, dear reader, you implicitly agreed to tell your friends about it.

In fact, I believe the contract specifically stated you had to each subscribe 100 of your closest exes, interns, and neighbors. I’ll have to check the fine print to be sure, but you all may as well get started spreading the word in the meantime.

That's a wrap for today. New Editions come out every Monday and Friday! While you wait, go out and drive! And if you want more, be sure to follow Max’s Twitter (@maxjzin)

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