A new BMW I'd happily admit to owning

THERE was, lingering in the classifieds of last week's Champion, an old BMW I really rather liked.

It was the right colour (black), had the right number of doors (two) and was even the right model (the 320i from the late Eighties). Viewed from a quarter of mile away through a welding mask, this was the original M3 which ripped up the opposition on the world's racetracks, and then I remembered why I couldn't consider it. It was a BMW.

Don't get me wrong, everyone I've ever met who's confessed to owning a 3-Series has always turned out to be lovely, funny and intelligent, but still there's the perception among motorists that owners of Munich's finest are the sort of people who'll cut you up on the M57 and think nothing of it. BMWs, bizarrely, are coveted cars which simultaneously suffer from a bit of an image problem.

Was it the company making a complete hash of running Rover that did it? Or the X5 and X6 managing to wind up the world's environmentalists? Or the scooter with the roof they designed to be ridden without a helmet, but thanks to UK law you still had to anyway? BMW make some of the world's best cars, but I'm still not sure whether I'd be brave enough to admit to owning a 3 Series, no matter how cheap it is and how right the spec is. So I turned the page.

I then realised, given a bottomless wallet, there are just four BMWs I'd actually buy; the smooth 5 Series of the mid-nineties, the original M5 from the early Eighties, the very cool 635 CSi and the beautiful bit of art deco design that was the original 328 Roadster of the late Thirties. It's the last of those greatest hits BMW's just released a cover version of, which is the car you see above.

The 328 Hommage might be jam-packed with the German firm's latest gizmos and gadgets but stylistically it owes more to the 75-year-old sports car, which was in turn inspired by the same artistic movement which brought you the Empire State Building and the first streamlined railway locomotives. It's a BMW for art lovers, and art lovers don't tend to be tailgaters.

BMW say it's only a concept car they've created for the sake of showing off but don't be fooled; funnily enough, it has the same basic proportions, size and layout as the Z4 roadster, and that's going to need replacing in a couple of years' time.

I'd start saving up now, if I were you.