Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was seldom seen in a boring car. He owned a Porsche 928 in the 1980s, which supposedly helped inspire the design of the Macintosh 128k, and later in life used a California legal loophole to stay out of having license plates on his string of AMG Mercedes-Benzes. He liked speed and he liked flash, which explains why he had a BMW Z8 in the early 2000s. If you’re rich enough, you can own it too.

Up for grabs on Craigslist—I mean, RM Sotheby’s New York, sorry! Force of habit—is Jobs’ 2000 BMW Z8 sports car. According to the listing, Jobs bought the car new in 2000 and drove it regularly, but today it has just 15,200 miles on the clock. He was apparently convinced to buy it over one of his regular Mercedes SLs by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, “who enthused to Jobs that the car was a paragon of modern automotive engineering and ergonomics, reflective of Steve’s own products and psyche.” I have been sold cars the exact same way.

The Z8 is a pretty rare machine—less than 6,000 were built, which somewhat helped its eye-popping $128,000 price tag when new. All of them, except the Alpina versions, had a 4.9-liter naturally aspirated V8 putting about 400 horsepower. While it may not be the fastest or craziest BMW ever, its scarcity, ornate beauty and uniqueness make it a very special vehicle.

One thing Jobs did not like: the BMW-branded Motorola flip phone that came with the Z8. The listing says he hated that particular device, despite it being a pretty ubiquitous phone of that era. Perhaps it helped inspire him to make something better. 

The Z8 is expected to fetch at least $300,000 when it goes to auction on Dec. 6. Let’s hope it goes to a good new home.

Source: jalopnik