Enthusiast with a capital E - Show of Excellence 'Car of Show' winner - Roland Porst

The slogan for Lexus cars used to be: “The relentless pursuit of perfection”. However, those who know me, will attest that this is very representative of my attitude toward my cars. With a long history of car club involvement with the Volkswagen Golf movement, I finally returned to the BMW marque in 2005 with an E36 318is. In fact, my first car was a BMW 2002 back in 1993, followed by an E3 3.0L before a very long spell with the Volkswagen brand.
My involvement with the BMW brand is similarly a long one and is tied in with my father's appreciation for the marque. In our family through the 1980's and 1990's we have had numerous BMWs that were class leaders in their day, but part of motoring history now, covering a couple E3s, four E12 5ers, an E23 7er and our family's former pride and joy for twelve years: an Alpina kitted E24 635csi.
The cars I owned before actually have much to do with my current model of choice, which is an E36 M3 Evo. My 2002 and 3.0L certainly left me with a good impression of how well balanced BMWs were to drive and of course my passion for fast cars has a fair bit to do with the choice also. However the defining moment came back in 1994 via a “driving adventure” with a brand new E36 M3 versus my super rapid VW Golf GTI MKI with 16v transplant. Let us just say, that after the said “event”, I decided that one day, funds permitting, I would like to have one of these “ultimate driving machines”....

It is really quite an interesting story!!!

Given that it was Christmas 2000 and I had been a member of the BMW Club since October 99 and there we were travelling up to the Sunshine Coast for a holiday at Buddina near Caloundra. There was Leanne and myself plus 4 little kids ranging in age from 2 years through to 7.

And here‘s how it happened ……….

Travelling along the Sunshine Motorway towards Caloundra/Mooloolaba we propped at the red light there where the Motorway meets the Nicklin way. And whilst we were waiting for the light to turn green, right in front of us in the Motor Dealers yard was the 6 series BMW up on ramps. Glistening in the sun and just looking a million dollars. Naturally, it caught my attention!!!! And I thought to myself, I wouldn‘t mind hav-ing a look at that whilst we‘re up here on hols seeing we were staying just down the road.

Naturally, I dismissed it from my mind thinking, ―You‘re dreaming Greg!!‖ But one thing led to another and before you knew it, Leanne & I were taking this car for a test drive! I remember it well; here I was in this immaculate looking 6 series BMW driving up and down the mountain roads of Buderim with the windows down and listening to the glorious exhaust note and INSTANTLY falling in love with this vehicle.