I usually put it this way when a potential customer says they can't cope with a left hand drive car," says Martin Pearse who runs MCP Motorsport. "If I were to put a briefcase with £15,000 in the left-hand seat, where would you rather sit?" Few buyers hesitate, especially when the difference between some right and left-hand drive models is a whopping £30-£40,000.
It says 'LHD European Depreciation Proof Supercars' on his business card and that's exactly what they are — models which were originally imported in tiny numbers or not at all, or just contemporary iconic sports cars that cost a fortune when the steering is on the right-hand side.
So what exactly are these cars? "Fundamentally these are cars that I like to drive and own myself," admits Martin. "That restricts what I offer, although I will source particular cars if a customer requests it. But if I like the cars then every single customer and I have more than just a car sale in common." And Martin's favourite cars? "Alpina BMWs." Now that's just what we wanted to hear.
So how did it all start? Martin certainly qualifies for a profile in our sister publication Mini Magazine. MCP (Martin Charles Pearse, just in case you wondered) Motorsport dates back to the late '60s. At his own admission Martin spent many happy days tarting up Minis, making them go faster courtesy of 1493cc blocks and selling all manner of Cooper S incarnations. Eventually a proper job and family commitments ended all that fun and Martin's taste in cars started to change.
"One day I drove a friend's Alpina B10 Turbo and suddenly every other car on the planet seemed to pale into insignificance. I decided that I just had to have one. I got hold of a copy of the German magazine Motor Und Sport, looked through the classifieds and found what seemed to be the ideal example.
"The owner was a businessman in Munich. His secretary spoke perfect English, but when she said that the B10 had done 274,000 km (169,880 miles) I almost put the phone down. She convinced me that it was in show/room condition, had been valeted every day and generally pampered between autobahn runs, being serviced regularly at Alpina's workshops. Then the service history chattered through the fax for what seemed like an hour. I contacted the service manager at Alpina who confirmed that the car was as described.
"The next thing I knew I was getting off a plane and being met at the airport by the chap in his Ferrari Testarossa while his wife drove the B10. We motored to the Nurburgring while I read through the famous German road test which suggested that the B10 was quicker than a Testarossa. Hammering around the Nurburgring I was left in no doubt, as the B10 vs Testarossa duel proved that there was only one winner. So I had to buy it."
Clearly Martin is not your average car dealer. An enthusiast first, this 55-year-old only started importing as a business five years ago, for the simple reason that the cars he really loved could be bought for less and in better condition from Germany.
In the UK, many owners only seem to service their cars when there's no alternative and the inspection lights have burned red into their retinas. Car hygiene habits are suspect too and Martin showed me an M3 that had belonged to a Brit for just a few months, and in the meantime been turned into a skip. Not surprisingly, he's reluctant to take UK part exchanges, unless they really are of a standard that he can resell. The Germans, you see, aren't like that. They really know how to look after their cars and six-figure kilometre readings aren't an issue because the car has been serviced on the dot.
The only problem he's encountered is getting hold of the service history. That's because the Germans assume we are all like them, so what's the point of keeping all that paperwork? The other problem with German cars is their lack of anti-theft devices. Because car crime is not such a big issue, there is rarely a Thatcham anything fitted to them. Otherwise they are utterly brilliant.
So what are Martin's favourite left-hook BMW buys? "My personal favourites mostly have Alpina badges on them," he says. "This company in Buchloe in Southern Bavaria takes BMWs and rebuilds them into something even better and faster. They really are beautifully put together. I've been to the factory many times now and those of us who thought that the M cars were the ultimate BMWs really have to change our perceptions after just one drive." His favourite is the Alpina B10 Bi Turbo and there is a silver one parked outside the office. Apart from some distinctive spoked alloys and Alpina badging, there is nothing to suggest that this is anything more than a normal BMW 5-Series. The difference is that this turbocharged model will out-accelerate a Ferrari, power on to a top speed of 185 mph and is comfortably the world's fastest saloon. It must also be the world's best-value saloon at just £12,950 for this sprightly eight-year-old. Stable, comfortable, well built and with gut-wrenching mid-range torque, this is all part of the appeal. These models really are depreciation proof and can be bought from £13,000 to £16,000, and you can't ever imagine them being worth much less.
Then there are M3s. Shake an M-Tech gearlever at a bunch of classified adverts these days and the chances are there will be plenty of M3s in varying conditions to choose from. Outside the MCP office is a bright red Evolution for £7995. Evo Sports are hard to find and there is always a demand for convertibles.
However, there are plenty of people importing pristine M3s and you'll find most of them advertising in this magazine. Martin prefers to source the more exotic incarnations of the M3 like Alpina's own B6 3.5S which costs around £14,000 and is difficult to find, but reckons Martin, is better than an Evo Sport 3. Hartge's M3 was badged as the H6 24V and pumps out an impressive 330 bhp, but you probably won't ever have seen one because they only made six. Lotech's M3 is almost as rare and quick.
For sheer Q-car invisibility Martin highly recommends the Alpina B7 Turbo which is based on the E28 5-Series but will leave a '90s M5 in its wake. They're getting on now at up to 15 years old and cost around £8000. When it comes to classic BMWs Martin will go as far back as the CSLs, but no further. He has sold four Batmobiles and is currently negotiating to buy an Alpina version.
One of the best value BMW buys is the 850 Coupe which was expensive (at £50,000 plus when new), heavy and largely ignored by right-hand drive buyers. However, at £10,000 in left-hand drive form it makes a fabulous alternative to a Mercedes SL, or the still-pricey Jaguar XK8. More beautiful and powerful though would be a 635 B7 Turbo, which has 320bhp on tap and a real rarity value as just 60 were built.
Martin reckons that the '93-on 3.8-litre M5s, providing they are immaculate, always sell well, and there is lots of interest in the Zl at £15,000. But really the slide-doored 325i roadster is a summer fun vehicle rather than a track day special or business express, the two main categories into which most of MCP's sales fall.
Martin tips the Alpina 750 B12 5.7 as the one to watch. By next year these beautiful beasts will be £16-£17,000, down from £100,000 new.
You can't shop for left-hand drive cars in Germany without noticing what good value Porsches are. I know it's not Bavarian but a silver 1995 911 Bi Turbo 4S sits menacingly outside the MCP office and is arguably the ultimate 911. It will accelerate to 100 mph in just 9 seconds, it has had just one owner, has covered 45,000 miles and the asking price is £39,950. But if the steering wheel was on the other side you could add some £25,000 to that figure. Pearse also seeks out the companies who rework Porsches in the same way that Alpina transform BMWs, and a distinctive 'flat nose' Kremer Porsche Turbo from 1979 looks outrageous and costs £16,995.
Because there are so many Porsche specialists around, MCP always aim to offer something a little more special from Ruf, Almera and DP Motorsport. The old enemy Mercedes also went down the high-performance special route with the 190 in Evolution 2 tune but the more staid image of Mercedes has never properly translated into high-performance folklore like the sporting BMW. AMG may start with an A, but their products are no Alpinas. Post-'92 500 SLs at around £13-£14,000 are hard to ignore though.
What you won't find at MCP is any of that Far Eastern nonsense. "We don't stock Subarus, Skylines or Lancer Evolutions. They might be good value, but they still depreciate too much for my liking. Also a customer of mine went to a track day in a B10 and basically left those Impreza Turbos a long way behind. Case proven I think."
Martin can also bolster our 'German cars are built better than anything else' prejudice as he gets decidedly cool about Italian icons. Lancia Integrale Evolutions just don't feature on his stock list and Martin manages a wry smile when commenting that he has never seen a Ferrari with more than 40,000 miles on the clock, which makes you just a little concerned. As a driving machine though Martin really loves the wilfully ugly Alfa Romeo SZ and has sold a few of those at around £20,000.
We say wave depreciation worries goodbye and get yourself a left-hand drive icon that will be 30-50 per cent less than a UK car, that's assuming it was ever available as a right hooker. A blue-and-white roundel with companion Alpina coat of arms isn't compulsory, but you know that ultimately it makes sense.

GET IT RIGHT
It all sounds so very tempting to simply nip across the channel and come back with a left-hand drive icon of your own and leave out the middle man. Remember though, these are all second-hand cars and every single one of them is attractive to thieves, so its a lot more fraught with risk than importing a brand new car through a European dealer.
Martin points out that just as cars in the UK can be write-offs, clocked and stolen, it's the same in Europe.That's why he holds onto the Fahrzeugbrief (logbook) so that you can see who owned the car before and even ring them up.
There are also regions and countries that you just don't buy from, which includes Italy and most former Eastern Bloc countries. You'll also need to be familiar with the law surrounding vehicle export and registration details unless you want your new car confiscated.
Above all, just remember the recent sob story we heard which involved a British buyer who imported a Porsche Carerra 2 himself, but only found out it was stolen when the Police stopped him. He's now out of pocket by a whopping £23,000.
If that's put you off the idea of going it alone, find MCP on 01263 822481 or www.mcp-motorsport.com. Martin keeps overheads low and prides himself on never having been on the wrong end of a complaint. Which is more than can be said for the Ferrari dealer trying to pacify a customer returning his 550 Maranello after being wasted by an eight-year-old BMW saloon.