RECENT ARTICLES
The First-Ever BMW Alpina Product Shows Off Its Speed At Nardo
Ever since BMW bought Alpina, there’s been worry about what its future products will be. Will they have the same charm, luxury, or handling magic that Bovenseipen family-led Alpina models did? Or will BMW turn Alpina in to just a top-end trim level, like Mercedes did with Maybach? Whatever...
The First Bavarian Heritage Invitational Was BMW Heaven
Saturday, October 17th dawned cold and rainy in Millville, New Jersey. A middle finger from mother nature to the organizers and volunteers at the first Annual Bavarian Heritage Invitational. These were not ideal conditions for an outdoor car event, but the volunteers’s smiling faces and cheery attitude, the special...
BMW Finishes Second in FIA WEC Hypercar Manufacturer Championship
The FIA Word Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) season came to a close this weekend at the famed Monza circuit in Italy. There were no BMW entries on either the Hypercar or LMGT3 podiums, but the results at Monza were enough to put BMW into second in the final Hypercar...
Hanley Motorsports Announces BMW Racing Programs
The Hanley Motorsports Incorporated team (HMI) will bring together elements from three different racing teams in a multi-car BMW IMSA racing program starting in 2027. Personnel from the Paul Miller Racing team, DXDT Racing, and Hanley Motorsports will enter M4 GT3 EVOs in both the GTD Pro and GTD...
Tech Talk | X3 Steering Clicks and Repair Manuals
Welcome to Tech Talk, where our resident BMW tech Nick Owen answers all your pressing BMW technical questions, frustrations, and issues. Have a question for Nick? Email him at techtalk@roundel.org. Let’s get into it. E83 Steering Wheel Clicks On my 2004 BMW X3 E83 (I am the only owner, well...
Richard Hammond Built a BMW M3 Tribute Car Out of an E90 335i
Richard Hammond and Co. decided to create their ideal BMW M3 out of an ordinary 3 Series. The idea was to create a tribute, a homage of sorts, to all of the M3s they’ve loved over the years. So they started with an E90, since it’s one of the...
Special Edition One-of-One BMW M3 Honors the Legendary Alex Zanardi
The world tragically lost Alex Zanardi earlier this year. Zanardi was a racing legend, a Paralympian, and one of the world’s most inspiring humans. He was one of BMW’s longtime racing drivers, even after he lost both of his legs in a horrific racing accident. So to honor the...
BMW i3 Touring Might Actually Keep the Beloved Rear Window Hatch
BMW has slowly been killing off one of owners’ favorite features: the rear window hatch. For decades, BMW “Touring” wagons had rear window glass that would open independently of the tailgate, so you could quickly toss small items into the trunk without opening the entire hatch. But in recent...
2002tii Sway Bar Bushing Replacement
Last week, I brought Louie (the Ran When Parked car) home from storage to deal with two issues—a hard-starting problem and a too-stiff front suspension that was driving me nuts. The hard-starting was solved pretty quickly. As I said last week, the workaround had been to connect a jumper wire...
We Spent Time With BMW’s Head of Project for the X5. Here’s What We Learned
During the recent first drive of the 2027 X5, I spent a good chunk of time with Michael Ahlers, BMW’s head of project. Ahlers has been an engineer at BMW for about 30 years, and in that time he’s touched nearly every model line BMW makes. Ahlers led all...
BMW iX3 Crushes Its Competition In Recent 70 MPH Highway Range Test
What’s the EV battery equivalent of “No replacement for displacement?” Maybe something like “No power like a kilowatt hour?” I’m still workshopping it. Anyway, whatever that saying ends up being, it can be applied to the BMW iX3. Bavaria’s new midsize electric crossover beats all of its rivals when...
Philipp Eng and BMW M Motorsport Part Ways
Philipp Eng has been a BMW M Motorsport factory driver for the last eleven years but will no longer be with the team in the 2027 season. Eleven years is a good run for any race car driver to be with the same team or manufacturer, and Eng has...
BMW i3 Touring Might Actually Keep the Beloved Rear Window Hatch
BMW has slowly been killing off one of owners’ favorite features: the rear window hatch. For decades, BMW “Touring” wagons had rear window glass that would open independently of the tailgate, so you could quickly toss small items into the trunk without opening the entire hatch. But in recent...
2002tii Sway Bar Bushing Replacement
Last week, I brought Louie (the Ran When Parked car) home from storage to deal with two issues—a hard-starting problem and a too-stiff front suspension that was driving me nuts. The hard-starting was solved pretty quickly. As I said last week, the workaround had been to connect a jumper wire...
We Spent Time With BMW’s Head of Project for the X5. Here’s What We Learned
During the recent first drive of the 2027 X5, I spent a good chunk of time with Michael Ahlers, BMW’s head of project. Ahlers has been an engineer at BMW for about 30 years, and in that time he’s touched nearly every model line BMW makes. Ahlers led all...
BMW iX3 Crushes Its Competition In Recent 70 MPH Highway Range Test
What’s the EV battery equivalent of “No replacement for displacement?” Maybe something like “No power like a kilowatt hour?” I’m still workshopping it. Anyway, whatever that saying ends up being, it can be applied to the BMW iX3. Bavaria’s new midsize electric crossover beats all of its rivals when...
Tech Talk | The Technician Shortage
This may seem controversial, but my take on the industry wide “technician shortage” is that techs just don’t want to work for dealerships anymore. I’m trying not to come off harsh, but if you happen to have caught wind of the latest conversations about technicians in the auto industry,...
This Engineer Turned a BMW i3 Into a Hilarious Pickup Truck
It’s pretty tough to come up with unique car builds in the age of the internet. Search YouTube, Reddit, or Instagram, and you’ll almost certainly find dozens of people working on the same “unique” project you’re dreaming up. But this one might actually be pretty unique. I’m not sure...
BMW and Rimac Are Partnering On Two More EVs After the i7
Earlier this year, BMW announced that it partnered with Rimac to make the battery pack for the newly facelifted i7. Over the past few years, Rimac has been one of the most impressive makers of high-performance batteries and powertrains, in its record-shattering Nevera supercar. So it’s cool to see...
BMW Once Made a Five-Door Version of the E36 3 Series Compact and Never Told Anyone
BMW’s a sneaky little bugger of a company. It’s made so many cool and unusual cars, various prototypes formed in the beautiful minds of mad geniuses, but showed almost none of them to the public. There’s a vault somewhere in the underbelly of BMW Group’s Classic center that has...
Exercising the Smaller Hoard
Last July, instead of going alone to the warehouse in Monson where I store five cars like I usually do, my wife Maire Anne drove me and a friend there because I wanted to bring back the M Coupe and the FrankenThirty. The intent was three-fold—I wanted to bring...
BMW Signs Off On the Electric M3 In The Latest M Electrified Episode
BMW M has been hard at work getting the first-ever electric M3 ready. It’s a huge moment for the brand, and the industry as a whole, as it will be the first all-electric M3. Hell, it’s the first all-electric M car of any kind. And since the BMW M3...
A Mad Genius Created an E90 M3-Powered 1 Series M Convertible and It’s For Sale
Some mad genius in the UK created what might be the most hilariously fun Frankenstein BMW. It started out life as a pretty pedestrian little cruiser, a UK-market 2009 BMW 120i M Sport Convertible. So it looked cool and handled well, but had a tiny engine and uninspiring performance....
Tech Talk | Reliability and Accidental Wiper Operation
Welcome to Tech Talk, where our resident BMW tech Nick Owen answers all your pressing BMW technical questions, frustrations, and issues. Have a question for Nick? Email him at techtalk@roundel.org. Let’s get into it. BMW Reliability Despite the thousands of engineering feats and beautiful design, handling and braking, why aren’t...
2027 BMW X5 and iX5: First Drive
I’ve never thought so much about door handles. The 2027 BMW X5 and iX5 have a new door handle concept, dubbed winglets, that appear near the base of the windows. They are elegant and keep the lines of the doors extremely clean, which gives design new freedom. They’re clever,...
BMW iX5 Range Gets Bumped to 450 Miles Ahead of Its Official Release
The BMW iX5 isn’t even on sale yet and it’s already getting a bump in range. When BMW first announced the iX5, it was quoted as having 435 miles of range, which was an official EPA rating. However, BMW is now claiming that it will have 450 miles of...
The FrankenThirty Gets a Mini Road Trip
Two weekends ago was Indigenous Peoples Weekend here in Massachusetts and in Vermont, and that allowed Maire Anne and I to engage in one of our most treasured activities—an annual visit to Manchester, Vermont to see our dear friends Jon and Eileen. I worked with Jon for over 20...
2002tii Sway Bar Bushing Replacement
Last week, I brought Louie (the Ran When Parked car) home from storage to deal with two issues—a hard-starting problem and a too-stiff front suspension that was driving me nuts. The hard-starting was solved pretty quickly. As I said last week, the workaround had been to connect a jumper wire...
Exercising the Smaller Hoard
Last July, instead of going alone to the warehouse in Monson where I store five cars like I usually do, my wife Maire Anne drove me and a friend there because I wanted to bring back the M Coupe and the FrankenThirty. The intent was three-fold—I wanted to bring...
The FrankenThirty Gets a Mini Road Trip
Two weekends ago was Indigenous Peoples Weekend here in Massachusetts and in Vermont, and that allowed Maire Anne and I to engage in one of our most treasured activities—an annual visit to Manchester, Vermont to see our dear friends Jon and Eileen. I worked with Jon for over 20...
An Interesting E21 320i For Sale
I was going to write about driving the FrankenThirty up to Vermont with Maire Anne last weekend, but just before we left, I looked at a car that I thought I might be able to do a service to the community by alerting them to its presence. If you’re...
E30 Horn Repair (Part II)
Last week, prior to getting the FrankenThirty inspected, I found that the horn didn’t work. I stepped through the necessary electrical troubleshooting to rule out the relay and its wiring to find that the horn contact behind the steering wheel itself was broken. I kluged it into functionality by...
E30 Horn Repair (Part I)
September announced itself with a few things. Cool air. The trees beginning to change color. And Zelda the Z3 and the FrankenThirty needing inspection stickers. I checked the Z3’s lights, wipers, and horn, and all worked, so down to the inspection station it went. To my surprise, they failed...
