The late Steve Jobs did love his cars, but like the man who tended to only wear a standard personal uniform day in and day out while CEO of Apple Inc, the company he originally founded in 1978 - a black turtleneck, frameless circular glasses, blue jeans, and a pair of New Balances - he was also notoriously selective of how he gets around.
After going through a run in his younger days of a VW Type 2 before graduating to some Porsches once Apple was on the up and up, Jobs whittled the roster of worthy automobiles to a list of one: the Mercedes-Benz SL, often ones tuned by AMG.
Later in his career, he would continually take ownership of a new silver SL55 every few months or so, replacing it either when he got bored, a new generation/update was introduced, or he’d be forced to tack on a license plate. The man used a loophole in the California motor vehicle laws that permitted newly registered cars to run without plates within 6 months delivery, famously.
That pattern of habitual reflex toward a Merc SL55 AMG took a back seat somewhere around the year 2000, apparently, after his close friend and founder/CEO of Oracle, Larry Ellison, convinced him to purchase a BMW Z8 instead. Which he did, and drove it regularly, according to RM Sotheby’s listing.
As the story attached to the car goes, Ellison immediately likened the Z8 to Jobs’ own design aesthetic before pitching his friend on why he should own one. He “enthused to Jobs that the car was a paragon of modern automotive engineering and ergonomics, reflective of Steve’s own products and psyche.” By the looks of things, Steve very much agreed.
The car in question, a silver 2000 model year Z8 in Titanium with a Black leather interior, is being auctioned off in New York and naturally expected to fetch a pretty penny. Jobs eventually sold the car off in 2003, after which it traded hands three more times, but luckily still retains the number plate ‘Jobs Z8’. Despite technically being a fourth-hand BMW, the gorgeous drop top looks to be in impeccable condition, with the odometer reading just 15,200 miles (just under or 24,460km).
All the accompanying original accessories are included, such as the hardtop and hardtop stand, car cover, owner’s and service manuals, service records, two keys, and navigation CDs. The Z8 also comes with a BMW-branded Motorola flip phone that Jobs was known to loathe. Perhaps that very phone was one of the nudges that drove Jobs to pursue the iPhone’s development in the early 2000s following the success of the iPod.
The Z8, released in 1999, was positioned as BMW’s flagship two-door. It was penned by prolific automotive designer Henrik Fisker who took heavy inspiration from the BMW 507 roadster, and continues to be an arrestingly beautiful object in 2017. Coinciding with its launch was its feature as the latest Bond car from the film of the time, The World Is Not Enough, gaining it immediate worldwide fame. Sadly, it ended up being sliced in half by one of the baddies.
Powering it was essentially the same 4.9-litre naturally aspirated S62 V8 engine found in the E39 M5 saloon and mated to a 6-speed manual transmission, delivering 300kW and 500Nm that permitted acceleration touted at 4.7 seconds to reach 100km/h. The halo roadster never really received the sales surge we feel it utterly deserved, unfortunately, making any Z8 quite a rare machine with just 5,703 units built between its 1999 introduction and 2003 discontinuation.
This special Z8 will head to auction on December 6th in Manhattan and is expected to fetch at least US$300,000.
For more on BMW cars, check out our Showroom.
