RECENT ARTICLES
Like, Totally, RADwood Is Tubular!
When the event DJ can play Ozzy, Debbie Deb, and The Psychedelic Furs back to back to back and everyone loves every bit of it, and when a Chevy S10 and a Lamborghini Countach both win prizes in front of the real Batmobile, yep, that’s rad. So rad, in...
Join the X Chapter for an Inside Look at the Rebelle Rally
BMW News, Community, Events, Motorsport
By Valerie Caprigno The BMW Car Club of America X Chapter enjoyed exclusive access to the dramatic conclusion of the 10th-edition of the Rebelle Rally, including the finish-line spectacle and the celebratory “Rebellation” gala. The privilege offered a front-row seat to one of the most distinctive and empowering motorsport...
Act Fast! Win a 1998 BMW E36 M3 Refreshed by Bimmerworld!
Enter to Win a 1998 BMW E36 M3 Sedan. The Ultimate Mid-’90s Dream Drive. Boot up your memories. This isn’t a throwback… it’s a time warp. We’re taking you straight back to the garage menu of Gran Turismo 2, the car-select screen of Need for Speed II, and the...
BMW M2 Challenge Class Coming To IMSA In 2026
The new M2 Racing is coming to IMSA. In a recent IMSA Endurance Hour Podcast, series president John Doonan confirmed that a BMW M2 Challenge class would be featured in the 2026 VP Racing SportsCar Challenge endurance races. The new M2 Racing spent most of the past year in...
Paddock Talk | Dan Harper and Max Hesse on Their IMSA Endurance Championship
Dan Harper and Max Hesse are two of the young guns competing on the world racing stage for BMW M Motorsport. Harper and Hesse, along with Neil Verhagen, were the three drivers picked for the revived BMW Junior program back in 2020. Legendary team boss Jochen Neerspach guided them...
Tech Talk | Disappearing Coolant, Diff Issues, and Soft-Top Troubles
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. THAT WAYWARD COOLANT I have a 2004 325Ci with 139,250 miles. I have owned the...
Self Propelled | Diagnosing Problems with Brains and Electronics
I began working on cars 32 years before we were gifted with—or stuck with, depending on how you look at it—OBD-2. That’s the on-board diagnosis system, mandated by the feds, that allows your car’s engine-management system (formerly the carburetor and distributor) to communicate with a diagnostic system to determine...
The Mini Column | Twenty Years of a Special Relationship
Milestone anniversaries should never be taken for granted; the number of years in the relationship show commitment and represent countless memories. Whether it’s the first or fiftieth, any proper anniversary celebration should include a gift that rises in extravagance as the years roll by. I recently celebrated 20 years...
The Annual Used Wheel and Snow Tire Search
Well, okay, maybe it’s not annual, but it feels that way. Actually, what it feels like is somewhere between having a colonoscopy and wearing a hair shirt. My 2003 E39 530i has been my daily for nearly ten years. I love it. But like most rear-wheel drive BMWs, there’s...
2026 BMW iX M70: An Outrageously Quick EV Crossover
BMW News, Community, Featured, Reviews
The iX is about as far from a traditional BMW as you can get. This is an electric crossover that’s outwardly more of a lifestyle vehicle for a techy family than one that emphasizes the driving experience. Like many BMWs over the last two decades, it seems like a...
Paddock Talk | Kelvin van der Linde on His Amazing First Season with BMW
BMW factory driver Kelvin van der Linde’s 2025 season–his first with BMW after a successful career with Audi–was a dream. Kelvin won won the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup and overall drivers’ championship along with Charles Weerts, as well as the drivers’ championship in the Intercontinental GT Challenge...
The Mini Column | Twenty Years of a Special Relationship
Milestone anniversaries should never be taken for granted; the number of years in the relationship show commitment and represent countless memories. Whether it’s the first or fiftieth, any proper anniversary celebration should include a gift that rises in extravagance as the years roll by. I recently celebrated 20 years...
The Annual Used Wheel and Snow Tire Search
Well, okay, maybe it’s not annual, but it feels that way. Actually, what it feels like is somewhere between having a colonoscopy and wearing a hair shirt. My 2003 E39 530i has been my daily for nearly ten years. I love it. But like most rear-wheel drive BMWs, there’s...
2026 BMW iX M70: An Outrageously Quick EV Crossover
BMW News, Community, Featured, Reviews
The iX is about as far from a traditional BMW as you can get. This is an electric crossover that’s outwardly more of a lifestyle vehicle for a techy family than one that emphasizes the driving experience. Like many BMWs over the last two decades, it seems like a...
Enjoy this M2 Drifting Through BMW’s Factory
When I was a kid, I had no idea what Red Bull was. Before I knew it was an energy drink, I just thought it was a company that was out there to put it’s name on some of the coolest and riskiest stunts committed to film. And even...
O’Fast 2025 | The Car Control Clinic Is Street Survival for Adults
Eager drivers, not quite ready to test themselves and their cars in an autocross, and definitely not in a driving school on the Road America circuit, nevertheless had a learning opportunity at O’Fast 2025: the car-control clinic. Held as part of previous BMW CCA Oktoberfest celebrations, car-control clinics were...
O’Fast 2025 | The Autocross Was a Blast
A long-time tradition at Oktoberfest continued at Wisconsin’s O’Fast 2025: the autocross. This is basically a car-handling challenge in which a complex course of tricky curves, slaloms, heavy braking and more test both driver and car. The threshold of entry is also satisfyingly low. You don’t need a race-prepared...
Want To Make Your Rolls-Royce Phantom Better? Do a Cummins Swap
The first Rolls-Royce that was fully developed and produced under BMW’s ownership of the brand was the 2003 Phantom. It’s an imposing thing with divisive styling, an opulent interior with a version of iDrive, and a fantastically smooth 6.75-liter version of the N73 V-12 that was also found in...
Racing Lines | U.S. Racers Once Again Capture Can-Am Challenge Trophy
The fifth edition of the Tire Rack series’ Can-Am Challenge once again went to American club racers. The 2025 results were announced by club racing chairman Mirril McMullen at the Road America O’Fast race. Racers competing for the championship could score points during five 2025 race weekends, including Watkin...
Sharkie Passes, But Does Not Go Gently
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the in-process sale of my 1979 Euro 635CSi. On the first day of fall, I’d pulled the car out of storage in the Monson warehouse, brought it home, floated it for sale on my Facebook page for the third time, and this...
Racing Lines | O’Fast Indeed: Quick Classes Dominate at Road America
Running at—or even near—the front of the pack in the October O’Fast races at Wisconsin’s famed Road America circuit required a high-horsepower race car running in one of the Tire Rack BMW CCA Club Racing series’ quickest classes. Overall winners Robert Chang (E46 M3) and Todd Brown (E46 B46)...
Facebook Marketplace Saves a Civic
This is the story of one of the rarest cars I’ve ever sold. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t a BMW—but the lessons I learned apply across the board. As I write this in the last week of July, it’s been about a year since I started closing the shop, and...
This 7.2-Liter LS-Swapped E39 Wagon Is the Ultimate Sleeper
Last week, we shared an E61 535i xDrive wagon that was painstakingly swapped to become an S85-powered M5 Touring clone with a six-speed manual. It looked awesome. But what if you wanted something that was a bit more sledgehammer than V-10 scalpel? Here’s another solution. This E39 528i wagon...
The Current Clamp
Community, Lifestyle, Resto & Mod
Last month, I wrote about installing electric air conditioning (a/c driven by an electric compressor) in my 1969 Lotus Elan +2. As part of that, I needed to take some careful measurements of the current drawn by the compressor, the evaporator assembly, and the condenser fans. I own three...
Driving a McLaren F1 On the Road Is an Amazing, Nerve-Wracking, Experience
The McLaren F1 has been out of production for more than 25 years, yet it’s still the definitive supercar.It’s shockingly small, smaller in every dimension and about 800 pounds lighter than a current Z4. And its engine, the S70/2 6.1 liter V12 is an unbelievable piece of engineering, making...
Jake Walker Wins Final Two VP Challenge Races At Road Atlanta
Jake Walker had a fantastic end to a fantastic season at Road Atlanta this past weekend, winning both VP SportsCar Challenge races in his #6 Turner Motorsport M4 GT3 at Road Atlanta. Walker delivered nine wins in twelve races in the GTDX class for GT3-spec cars and finished on...
The Annual Used Wheel and Snow Tire Search
Well, okay, maybe it’s not annual, but it feels that way. Actually, what it feels like is somewhere between having a colonoscopy and wearing a hair shirt. My 2003 E39 530i has been my daily for nearly ten years. I love it. But like most rear-wheel drive BMWs, there’s...
Sharkie Passes, But Does Not Go Gently
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the in-process sale of my 1979 Euro 635CSi. On the first day of fall, I’d pulled the car out of storage in the Monson warehouse, brought it home, floated it for sale on my Facebook page for the third time, and this...
The Current Clamp
Community, Lifestyle, Resto & Mod
Last month, I wrote about installing electric air conditioning (a/c driven by an electric compressor) in my 1969 Lotus Elan +2. As part of that, I needed to take some careful measurements of the current drawn by the compressor, the evaporator assembly, and the condenser fans. I own three...
Fiddling and Diddling Too Long on a Wagon
A few weeks ago I wrote about how, this summer, I foolishly passed on a unicorn E91 six-speed rear-wheel drive sport package no-nav wagon largely because it was in Salt Lake City. Now, as my penance, my Facebook Marketplace feed seems to be flooded by ads for cheap automatic...
Selling Sharkie
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how installing electric air conditioning my 1969 Lotus Elan +2 pushed out nearly all BMW-related work for much of the summer. Last week, I got the system running. It’s not completely finished—there’s one big task I’ll do over the winter, and a...
Nobody Expects to Need a Diode
As I wrote about last week, I’m installing air conditioning in my 1969 Lotus Elan +2 using an electric compressor. A fair amount of work has gone into carefully designing and installing the new circuit that supports the compressor (which draws from 40 to 80 amps) in such a...
