Congrats on wanting to ditch the Maxima
As far as the BMW on the drag strip... you won't be killing everyone. The car wasn't made to just go in a straight line... I'd rather take it to the track. There are quite a few mods out there for the BMW but I have yet to see ones that weren't expensive. Almost every mod I have seen for a BMW is 2-3 times as expensive as a similar part for a jap car. The re-sale value of BMW is great though, and they do last forever compared to their import counterparts. As far as the price on the 97 you found it sounds a bit high. Do some shopping around. I got my 96 328is with 53k (5-speed) loaded with every option possible, heated seats, HK radio, sports package, etc, etc. In May of 2000 for only $18,500 You can find 95 M3s for that much. Keep shopping.