A highly sought after 1989 BMW E30 M3 Johnny Cecotto number 230 of 505....

The pedigree of the original E30 M3 is obvious all the way from its race bred four cylinder motor ( designed to rev past 9000 RPM in race form) and dog leg five speed gearbox to those wheel arch blisters, specified not to look cool on the Kings Road but to accept slick tyres of up to 10in in width.

It has a design purity and simplicity of specification that hardly any modern car, and certainly not a new M3 could hope to match.

Sure todays M3 has double the power but it isn't all about BHP.

To really get the M3 you need to get behind the wheel and drive one, and really drive it.

Get hold of it by the scruff of the neck and give it the full monty and you'll be approaching automotive nirvana.

Today the E30 M3 in any of its iterations is a wonderful device, but it's the way the car handles combining brilliantly crisp turn in with unlikely stability and poise, that truly puts you in the seat of a car that, in i...