My name is Peter Cox and as a relatively new recruit to the Wessex IAM Group as an Associate Member I can say that the experience so far has been both interesting and rewarding. Having taken advantage of a free taster drive back in April, I then signed up for the full course. Both taster session and my training to date has been with Andrew Redfern, who as well as passing on his driving advice and knowledge has also regaled me with tales of his very interesting life flying helicopters all around the world and his tales of flying the Police helicopter here in the South West.
I am not entirely new to the concept of advance driving having been a blue light driver for 28 years with the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. Eight of those years driving the HGV Pumping Appliances and Aerial Appliances etc. and then 20 odd years as a Response Officer driving to take Operational Charge at incidents in a marked-up Response Car. During that time East Sussex FRS made the decision to put all of its emergency response drivers through the ROSPA driver training, which is very similar to IAM and also based on the Police Roadcraft Manual. I achieved two ROSPA Gold Awards during that time.
However, having passed 76 this year I decided it was time to get my driving re-evaluated by an independent source hence my joining IAM.
At the beginning of the year, I also decided to scratch an itch I had held for some time and in a vain attempt to regain lost youth, I wanted to own another drop head sports car. I last owned one 50 years ago in 1976, during that long endless summer, a delightful blue Austin Healey Sprite, which I parked in the street back then for nearly three months without putting the hood up once. I don’t think you could do that now! So it was that in January this year I bought my latest extravagance, or some might say folly, a 1998 BMW roadster.
Having been to my first IAM meeting at Hatch Beauchamp back in May, the next and most recent meeting was the annual “show and tell” meeting held this year at the Lion and Lamb in Hambridge on 17th June. Not knowing quite what to expect I took the BMW to the meeting on a very pleasant summer evening. Seven Members chose to introduce their vehicles and say a few words about them and I was No 6. When the votes were counted, I was truly surprised that my car and introduction to her had been voted the best and I was awarded the Timpson Cup to hold for the next year. Personally, I voted for the chap with the Volkswagen van for both his interesting back story and the amount of customising he had done on his vehicle. Below I detail the gist of what I told the assembled Members about my car.
Beauty, my BMW, as I have christened her is a 1998 BMW Z3 E36/7 model with the M44 1.9 litre, lightweight, twin cam, four-cylinder engine producing about 140 bhp. As a car she has led a remarkably easy, cosseted life, always garaged and lightly used. She has done only 43,000 miles since new. For the first 25 years of her life she was owned by one careful lady owner, a single lady called Louise who lived in London. For the first 25 years of her life she completed an average of only 1,650 miles each year. Despite this Louise had the car regularly serviced by a BMW main dealer and I have the complete paper trail of all work ever done on her. I also have every MOT certificate the car has ever had. Beauty is in exceptional condition totally rust free and original. She is very much a base model with few gadgets and extras and all the better for that. When she was 25, Beauty was sold to a sports car enthusiast and collector in Hampshire who added her to his collection of about 12 sports cars. This owner also owned an up-market performance car dealership and he displayed his collection in the showrooms of his business, only using them occasionally. Beauty only did a few hundred miles during his ownership. Late in 2025 the collector decided that his collection was taking up too much valuable showroom space and he decided to slim down his collection to about 6-8 of the most valuable cars, so Beauty had to go and that’s when I acquired her.
When buying Beauty I thought that I was buying a German car but I was wrong. Every BMW Z3 ever sold was assembled in America at the BMW Spartanburg plant in Greer, South Carolina the first BMW model to be totally assembled outside Bavaria, Germany. How many people know that? Beauty is in Atlanta Blue the same colour of the Z3 that James Bond drove in GoldenEye.
Going forward, I intend to keep Beauty in the manner to which she has become accustomed and will always garage her, look after her carefully and use her gently. When time and funds allow, I will tidy up some trim and upholstery and clean her up under the bonnet, getting her into even better condition. I will keep her on the road all year but only aim to use her with the hood down and when the roads are dry. I have started attending the odd evening car meet with her. We are spoilt for choice of such meets In Somerset.
So far I am thoroughly enjoying both my latest sports car drop head motoring and the IAM experience. Thank you to all those members who voted for Beauty and I thoroughly recommend the “Show and Tell” meeting to all members.
Peter Cox