RECENT ARTICLES
The Short Strokes To The Vintage
BMW News, Community, Resto & Mod
First, let me follow up on something from my “Springtime Odds and Ends” piece a few weeks ago. The brake and ABS lights in my E39 were on, the speedometer had become intermittent, and the cruise control had stopped working. The odds seemed strong that these were all due...
Disappointing Weekend For BMW M Team WRT At Spa
The FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) held their third round of the year this past weekend of May 10, 2025, with a six-hour race at the Spa-Franchorchamps circuit in Belgium. It was a home race for BMW M Team WRT, who hoped to keep their momentum up after being...
Forget Minecraft. The Real Fun Is Found With Vintage BMW OEM Accessory Configurators.
BMW News, Community, Lifestyle
Ever want to look back a couple of decades and pretend you’re configuring a brand new late 90s or early 2000s BMW? Now you can thanks to a couple of vintage BMW OEM accessory configurators you can download for free (I hate to describe them as “vintage,” but it’s...
BMW 50 Years: Sponsoring the Olympic Torch Relay in Atlanta 1996
It’s always nice to be first, but being second can be just fine, too—especially when it yields a high-visibility sponsorship of the Olympics. That’s exactly what happened for BMW in early 1995, shortly after the start of production at BMW’s all-new manufacturing plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The plant...
Samantha Tan Extends BMW M Motorsport Global Ambassador role for 2025 and 2026.
BMW News, Community, Motorsport
BMW of North America, LLC announced on May 1, 2025, that Samantha Tan, the 27-year-old Asian-Canadian driver and co-owner of Samantha Tan (ST) Racing, will continue to support BMW M in 2025 and 2026 as BMW M Motorsport Global Ambassador with appearances at events in North America, Europe, and...
Pole & Podium For BMW M Team RLL At Laguna Seca
After the two longest races of the year at Daytona and Sebring, followed by the shortest race of the year on the Long Beach street circuit in California, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship (IWSC) traveled to beautiful Monterey, California for round four of the season at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna...
Unobtainium: Rebuilding An E36 M3 Power Steering Pump
As part of preparing my 255,000-mile 1998 M3 for a 500-mile road trip to The Vintage in Asheville, North Carolina, I decided to replace the E36’s leaking power steering rack, reservoir, and hoses. I was originally planning on doing this work myself, but when I called to schedule an...
BMW Meets Profit Expectations for First Quarter of 2025
While profits were down compared to 2024, BMW managed to meet expectations for revenue in the first quarter of 2025 while delivering over 580,000 premium automobiles to customers. Over a quarter of the vehicles sold were electiified, showing over 32% growth in the electric market. In addition to growth...
Hear From 2024 Winners of the BMW CCA Dream Car Contests
BMW News, Community, Events, Lifestyle
Every year, BMW CCA members turn their dreams into reality through the Dream Car Raffle – and 2024 was no exception. 2024 Grand Prize Winner: Stephen R., an M Chapter member since 2011, drove away in a 1-of-1 BMW CCA Edition X5 M Competition, valued at $168,545. Assembled at the BMW Plant Spartanburg and customized by...
Experience Bourbon, BMWs, and Bluegrass Like Never Before
Register today for BimmerLife Rendezvous: Bourbon Trail 2025 June 12-15, 2025 | Louisville, KY Get ready for a BMW CCA experience that blends horsepower, heritage, and hospitality in true Kentucky fashion. Rendezvous – The Bourbon Trail 2025, taking place June 12–15 in Louisville, KY, invites you to immerse yourself in the world of...
BMW Meets Profit Expectations for First Quarter of 2025
While profits were down compared to 2024, BMW managed to meet expectations for revenue in the first quarter of 2025 while delivering over 580,000 premium automobiles to customers. Over a quarter of the vehicles sold were electiified, showing over 32% growth in the electric market. In addition to growth...
Hear From 2024 Winners of the BMW CCA Dream Car Contests
BMW News, Community, Events, Lifestyle
Every year, BMW CCA members turn their dreams into reality through the Dream Car Raffle – and 2024 was no exception. 2024 Grand Prize Winner: Stephen R., an M Chapter member since 2011, drove away in a 1-of-1 BMW CCA Edition X5 M Competition, valued at $168,545. Assembled at the BMW Plant Spartanburg and customized by...
Experience Bourbon, BMWs, and Bluegrass Like Never Before
Register today for BimmerLife Rendezvous: Bourbon Trail 2025 June 12-15, 2025 | Louisville, KY Get ready for a BMW CCA experience that blends horsepower, heritage, and hospitality in true Kentucky fashion. Rendezvous – The Bourbon Trail 2025, taking place June 12–15 in Louisville, KY, invites you to immerse yourself in the world of...
Like BMW M in the U.S.? Credit the BMW Car Club of America
In the latest of BMW NA’s 50th Anniversary articles, the BMW Car Club of America’s member enthusiasts are largely credited with convincing BMW AG to keep the M performance vehicles coming to the U.S. In 1992, BMW saw low sales numbers for M vehicles in the U.S. and was...
Ultimate Driving . . . Scent?
BMW News, Community, Lifestyle
Admittedly, I checked the calendar and then the press release posting date to see if April 1st was involved when I first got a whiff of this story. BMW, creators of the Ultimate Driving Machine, masters of automotive engineering, supporters of the arts, and caretakers of a beloved brand,...
A Spiritual Journey in a BMW E30
Community, Featured, Lifestyle
If I were to measure the progress of closing my service business by the number of industrial spaces I rent, last month would be a good milestone. I made the final payment for a storage space where I had the last of my equipment, and with it, breathed a...
BMW Celebrates Seven Million BMWs Assembled in the U.S.
BMW Manufacturing is celebrating a historic milestone this month as the seven millionth BMW rolled off the assembly line in Spartanburg, SC. To commemorate this special event, associates assembled a truly exceptional vehicle – a BMW ALPINA XB7 painted ALPINA Green Metallic and powered by a 4.4-liter BMW ALPINA...
Bavaria Blower Fan Fix
I’m flirting with the idea of selling the Bavaria, so I brought the old girl back from the Monson warehouse and began addressing a number of issues. One of them was that the blower fan wasn’t working and never has for the eleven years I’ve owned the car. Of...
BMW CCA 2025 Dream Car Revealed
This M3 Didn’t Roll Off the Line. It Landed The wait is almost over. The BMW CCA 2025 Dream Car Raffle is about to launch! One lucky BMW CCA member will win a stunning 2025 BMW M3 Competition xDrive, finished in BMW Individual Ruby Star Neo with an Ivory...
Mixing It Up at the BimmerLife MiX Enthusiast Weekend!
BMW News, Community, Events, Featured
(We’d like to thank XPEL for sponsoring this column covering the BimmerLife MiX Enthusiast Weekend presented by Continental Tire.) When you ask yourself what draws you to BMWs, the answers were most likely found at the 2025 BimmerLife MiX Enthusiast Weekend presented by Continental Tire. Do you like the...
E30 A/C Rejuvenation – Part IX (Charge!)
Last week, I explained how I was ready to charge up the resurrected a/c in the FrankenThirty, but found that the system wasn’t holding pressure due to a leak at the big #12 suction fitting on the compressor. As I’d explained way back in February, this fitting had been...
2025 South Carolina Teacher of the Year Will Drive BMW X5
Corey Bedenbaugh Named 2026 South Carolina Teacher of the Year. Spartanburg, S.C.- State Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver announced on Thursday afternoon that Corey Bedenbaugh, a social studies teacher at Batesburg-Leesville Middle School, has been named 2026 South Carolina Teacher of the Year. Bedenbaugh received this honor during the South...
Racing Lines | New BMW CCA Club Racing Chairman Announced
The Tire Rack BMW CCA Club Racing series announced in April that Mirril McMullen will become chairman of the series in August 2025, succeeding Scott Reiman, who has led club racing since 2021. In an announcement on the Club Racing Facebook page, Reiman stated, “I will be stepping down...
Racing Lines | BMW CCA Club Racing History: The Series Goes National
As the Tire Rack BMW CCA Club Racing series turns 30, we will run stories of historical interest over the course of the year. In this post we will focus on the series’ first national races and the establishment of the new national championship series, both taking place in...
BMW BEV Sales Grow Worldwide
Despite everything going on in the world, BMW continues to prove it’s a stable brand and popular with buyers. Delivering over 586k vehicles to customers, BMW saw growth in virtually every market, with the exception of China, where demand dropped less than 1.5%. BMW’s push to bring more fully...
The Short Strokes To The Vintage
BMW News, Community, Resto & Mod
First, let me follow up on something from my “Springtime Odds and Ends” piece a few weeks ago. The brake and ABS lights in my E39 were on, the speedometer had become intermittent, and the cruise control had stopped working. The odds seemed strong that these were all due...
Bavaria Blower Fan Fix
I’m flirting with the idea of selling the Bavaria, so I brought the old girl back from the Monson warehouse and began addressing a number of issues. One of them was that the blower fan wasn’t working and never has for the eleven years I’ve owned the car. Of...
E30 A/C Rejuvenation – Part IX (Charge!)
Last week, I explained how I was ready to charge up the resurrected a/c in the FrankenThirty, but found that the system wasn’t holding pressure due to a leak at the big #12 suction fitting on the compressor. As I’d explained way back in February, this fitting had been...
Springtime Odds and Ends
With the road trip to The Vintage now just a month away, I really really wanted to finish the a/c rejuvenation of the FrankenThirty by charging the damned thing already on this 80-degree day, but one final round of pressure-testing with nitrogen revealed dropping pressure from a leak at the...
E30 A/C Rejuvenation – Part VIII (Electrical System)
In my book Just Needs a Recharge: The Hack Mechanic Guide to Vintage Air Conditioning, I define “vintage air conditioning” as a system that doesn’t have climate control (meaning the evaporator assembly is separate from the heater box and there’s no blend door combining the hot and cold streams), has...
The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Gold Basketweaves (Part II)
Five years ago, I wrote a fluffy little piece called “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Gold Basketweaves.” In it, I detailed how, in 2009, I bought a set of gold 14-inch basketweaves that were an option on late E30 convertibles, put them on a slightly patina’d ‘Agave 2002 I’d...
