I aspire to be a car collector like Tony Hughes, the man featured in the latest episode of The Late Brake Show with Jonny Smith. Hughes has an impressive car collection, filled with fast cars, slow cars, luxury cars, and eve tractors. It’s the sort of varied collection I would love to own one day, as it provides a variety of different automotive experiences. But for you BMW enthusiasts, Hughes owns two of the coolest BMWs ever made: a 3.0 CSL and a BMW Z8.
The BMW 3.0 CSL sits next to a Porsche 911 that Hughe’s bought new in the ’80s, however he hasn’t had the Bimmer for that long. Instead, he bought the 3.0 CSL at auction and it had 90,000 miles on it, from two different owners. So it was driven quite a bit. Now, it has over 117,000 miles on it from Hughes’ ownership. However, because of its impeccable service history, it looks brand spanking new and, according to Hughes, starts on the first try every time. It’s a gorgeous car, with a rich motorsport history, that every BWM enthusiast would love to own.
Hughes’ other Bimmer is something quite a bit different. Rather than an ultra lightweight homologation race car, like the 3.0 CSL, the BMW Z8 was a big, comfortable cruiser with gorgeous looks and a fabulous V8 engine. The BMW Z8 was designed by Henrik Fisker and is still one of the prettiest Bimmers ever made. It also had the same 4.9-liter V8 as the E39 M5, was only available with a six-speed manual, and was rear-wheel drive. It’s probably the coolest convertible BMW ever made.
There are some other spectacular cars in Hughes’ collection, including a 1965 Austin Mini that I covet greatly. He even has a few genuine race cars that he’s actually raced, so his collection is fascinating.
If you want to see one of the most interesting car collections we’ve seen in awhile, check this video out. The two BMWs in this collection show that Hughes has taste for genuinely interesting cars because most BMW collectors just pick the most obvious ones, like the E30 M3. But the 3.0 CSL is one that too few people truly appreciate for what it is and even fewer drive it as much as Hughes does. As for the BMW Z8, it was always considered too soft and lacking in feel, so it isn’t as loved as it should be but it’s a wonderful car that deserves to be in more collections like this one.
