The M Coupe was produced in the Spartanburg, NC BMW plant from late October 1997 through late May 2002. This plant was the sole manufacturer of the Z3 line from 1995 to 2002. According the production data (below), 2858 M Coupes were manufactured for the North American market. Brat is one out of 24 Imola red M coupe built in 2000 and one out of 442 Imola red M Coupes built during the production run.
Since then, the M Coupe has become a collectors car. Asking prices for a coupe in good condition run art least twice the 'Blue Book' valuations. Cars with low miles are fetching close to $30K for a car that was originally a bit more than $40K. The M Coupe Buyers Guide site below has a running average asking price—around $27K when this was written.
I bought Brat from a small dealer in Eugene Oregon and had him shipped to Atlanta. I am the third owners – the second owner lived near Santa Cruz California and owned him from 2004 until he was sold in February 2013. The previous owner used Brat as a daily driver for the first four years and then less frequently until he was sold. My guess is that he commuted between the coast to Silicon Valley since most of the service records were from Mountain View. He had a iPod / cell phone interface installed connected to the CD player interface which I removed and installed the CD changer (and radio) from my M3. The only major service I noted on the service records was that the rear shock mounts were replaced – which I have read is a common problem.
The car was in excellent shape cosmetically and decent shape mechanically. The lower body had been painted at some point – the detailer thinks it was in a sand storm due to the pitted front windshield. I needed to replace the water pump and changed out all four brake rotors and pads (the previous owner had installed new pads on old rotors in the front). I had Brat detailed by White's Detailing—who did the fantastic job you see in the photos—and serviced by Auto Europe in Atlanta.
Late 2014 Update
I added a few features to Brat this year that I had been wanting to do for a while. One of the weaknesses of the car are the headlights. I also ended up ruining one of the tires running it low on air. So I added both some PIAA driving lights and an after-market tire pressure monitoring system. To add the lights I fabricated two aluminum plates which use the existing fasteners for the bumper assembly. It's like a night and day experience - no pun intended!
Brat is the fourth BMW I have owned since 1983. You can learn about my other BMWs at my 1998 M3 Convertible site
The M Coupe on the Internet
There are a number of websites dedicated to the coupe and other BMW M cars.
Jon Martin's site contains current listings of M Coupe for sale with detailed sales data. A lot of other good information about production, upgrades and modifications and other items of interest.
Great site thay features photos of different coupes and sponsors the annual Z3/M Coupe gathering 'Dorkfest.'
Very current Facebook page run by the guys that do Coupe A Day and the M Coupe Buyers Guide.
A site for both E36/8 (Z3) and E86 (Z4) coupes and roadsters. You can personalize this site. I haven't spent enough time on this site to know how current it is.
Simply a registry for any BMW M car. I had my old M3 listed here and now have the Coupe listed here.
The M Coupe in print
I have collected some printed brochures and magazine articles about the coupe.
The original M coupe brochure published by BMW in 1998 scanned from original copy.
Detailed review of the coupe including specifications and performance data. Includes the ad on the back cover of this issue.
“Short Take” review of the updarted (S54 Motor) coupe for the 2001 – 2002 model year.
Other downloads
I put thgether this spreadsheet with the production data from sources on the internet.
Spreadsheet with the production data for the M Coupe & Roadster from late 1997 through 2002.
tubridy.net