RECENT ARTICLES
Re-Resurrecting Bertha (Part VII: Inspection)
If you own a vintage car and live in one of the 10 states with annual motor vehicle inspections, or one of the four with bi-annual ones, you know the drill. While I have nothing against keeping unsafe cars off the road, safe versus unsafe is never a binary...
BMW Sold More than 71,000 M Cars in 2025
Last year wasn’t just a record sales year for BMW across all models, but it was also the best year full M cars have ever had. That’s right, in 2025, BMW sold about 71,500 M cars across all models, about a third of the total number of cars BMW...
What Do You Want to Know About the 2026 BMW i7 M70?
This week, I’m driving the i7, BMW’s most luxurious and expensive electric car. I’ll be writing a feature story about it for the next issue of Roundel, and I want to know what questions you want answered about it. For some background, the i7 is based on the latest G70...
BMW’s “Roar Before the 24” Was a Mixed Bag
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and Michelin Pilot Challenge series teams all come to Daytona the week before the season opener to participate in the “Roar Before the 24.” The Roar comprises three days of testing to prepare for the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the four-hour Michelin Pilot...
BMW M4s Finished First and Second in the Dubai 24 Hour
The first 24-hour race of the year took place this past weekend with the 24H Dubai race, round two of the 24H Series. The Dubai race had more than 60 cars on the entry, including four BMWs in the GT3 classes and one in GT4. BMW teams took the...
Tech Talk | Warning Lights, Sensor Issues, and AC Mildew
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. Solving the Three Amigos My 2001 530i’s (E39 manual transmission, M package, 184,000 miles) yellow DSC...
The Upcoming Electric M3 Will Be Wild
When the neue klasse 3 Series arrives later this year, it’ll mark the introduction of the first all-electric M car. While BMW will still make a combustion-engined M3, there will also be a fully-electric M3. It sounds like this car will be nuts. BMW recently released a number of...
BMW Has No Plans To Kill V-8s, or Rolls-Royce’s V-12
Engine downsizing has been a theme for years now, as tightening emissions standards and taxes on large-displacement engines have made more cylinders harder and harder to justify. V-12s are nearly extinct, and many V-8s have gone away, replaced by four- and six-cylinder engines with turbochargers and hybrid assist. BMW...
Across the Board | Take an Inside Look at O’FAST 2025
It’s been a while since we’ve held Oktoberfest, our largest celebration of BMW enthusiasts, in the Midwest. In fact, it’s been 13 years since our visit to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and Columbus in 2012. Recent O’Fests have been coastal affairs, with just a few brave souls venturing across...
Re-Resurrecting Bertha (Part VI: Air Conditioning)
Your reaction to this might be “Air conditioning work? In the middle of winter? Siegel, have you finally breathed too much brake cleaner?” It actually makes sense. I do a lot of a/c work over the winter. I mean, if you need to tear into it, what better time...
The Pressure of Maintaining and Running a McLaren F1 GTR Is Real
The McLaren F1 is still one of the greatest automotive achievements of all time. A bespoke road car from the mind of F1 genius Gordon Murray designed to be the greatest driver’s car in the world. It just happened that it also became the fastest, quickest, most expensive, and...
Re-Resurrecting Bertha (Part VI: Air Conditioning)
Your reaction to this might be “Air conditioning work? In the middle of winter? Siegel, have you finally breathed too much brake cleaner?” It actually makes sense. I do a lot of a/c work over the winter. I mean, if you need to tear into it, what better time...
The Pressure of Maintaining and Running a McLaren F1 GTR Is Real
The McLaren F1 is still one of the greatest automotive achievements of all time. A bespoke road car from the mind of F1 genius Gordon Murray designed to be the greatest driver’s car in the world. It just happened that it also became the fastest, quickest, most expensive, and...
Tech Talk | Gasket Woes, Transfer Case Questions, and Transmission Fluid Best Practices
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. Confidence Drainer My Z4 was purchased one year ago with only 15k miles. The car is...
Book Review: Reading Between the Lines of Car Design by Chris Bangle
American designer Chris Bangle joined Opel in 1981 after graduating from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. In 1985, he was poached by Fiat, where he designed the radical Fiat Coupe, the last car on which he drew every line. Review by David Lightfoot In 1992, Bangle...
BMW’s M1-Powered 7 Series Race Car Is a South African Legend
BMW has a long history in South Africa. Since it was the first place BMW built a plant outside of Germany, there are a number of special models that were made just for the region, and that extends to motorsport. Those motorsport stories include two E23 745is that went...
The E39 Alternator Surprise (Part II: The trick to installing a Valeo voltage regulator)
Last week, the Bosch alternator in my daily driver 2003 E39 530i died due to a broken brush on the voltage regulator I’d installed in 2022 when it died the last time (and this time looked like it trashed the slip ring). I was all set to buy a new...
The Year in Project Cars Was Frustrating, Expensive, Fun, and Totally Worth It
Is project car ownership still fun, even when unexpected, difficult, and costly issues continue to manifest themselves? Yes! Especially when the projects are running and driving well, but also sometimes when they’re not, too. It may have seemed like jack stands made weekly appearances under my 1991 318is and...
Racing Lines | These Are BMW CCA Club Racing’s 2025 Champions and Special Award Winners
Tire Rack BMW CCA Club Racing has announced its 2025 national champions and award winners. National champions are racers who score the most points in their respective classes while running in at least four separate events over the course of the season; in addition to these championships, the series...
Anyone? Anyone? | Hello, Virginia; Spicoli, I’m Gonna Miss You
When you read this, I will be gone. No, not from this venue1, nor from this mortal coil2, but rather from Southern California3. I’ve packed my trash and moved to Northern Virginia—the DC beltway, to be specific. Apparently, the denizens refer to this area as NoVa or the DMV...
The E39 Alternator Surprise
Loyal readers may recall when, about three years ago, the alternator in my 2003 E39 530i stopped charging when I was up in southern New Hampshire. I was alerted by the battery warning light on the left corner of the cluster coming on. I usually drive with a cigarette...
Self Propelled | Some Skills Transfer in Both Directions
In my fourscore years on Earth, I’ve learned some wide-ranging skills, with an array of abilities from rudimentary to reasonably proficient. Most have been related to the plethora of jobs I’ve held, some hands-on, others involving more head work. An unexpected benefit was transference: job to hobby and vice-versa....
The 2025 BMW X3 M50 Is the Pick of the Litter
When the first X5 was introduced in 1999, I think there are few that would have guessed that BMWs lineup of SUVs would grow to encompass eight models—from the X1 to the XM—and 19 total trim options. It’s more models and trims than some entire car companies, and it...
Enter Now To Showcase Your Car In the BMW Classic Cars and Caffeine at the 2026 Amelia Island Concours
In conjunction with BMWNA, the BMW CCA has the exclusive opportunity to celebrate several BMW anniversaries at one of the most prestigious automotive weekends of the year at The Amelia Concours, this March 6-8th. Register here. The M Chapter secured 50 spots for the Cars & Caffeine showcase as...
Tech Talk | Preventing Destruction, To Lower or Not, and Sunroof Problems
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. N55 DISASTER PREVENTION I own a 2018 M2 (F87) and love it. I keep my...
The Mini Column | When the Dragon Calls, I Answer
The Tail of the Dragon in the Great Smoky Mountains is one of the greatest roads in America. If you’ve never heard of of the Dragon, it packs 318 corners into 11 miles, making it a challenge and a bucket list destination for any driver. I make an annual...
Re-Resurrecting Bertha (Part VII: Inspection)
If you own a vintage car and live in one of the 10 states with annual motor vehicle inspections, or one of the four with bi-annual ones, you know the drill. While I have nothing against keeping unsafe cars off the road, safe versus unsafe is never a binary...
Re-Resurrecting Bertha (Part VI: Air Conditioning)
Your reaction to this might be “Air conditioning work? In the middle of winter? Siegel, have you finally breathed too much brake cleaner?” It actually makes sense. I do a lot of a/c work over the winter. I mean, if you need to tear into it, what better time...
The E39 Alternator Surprise (Part II: The trick to installing a Valeo voltage regulator)
Last week, the Bosch alternator in my daily driver 2003 E39 530i died due to a broken brush on the voltage regulator I’d installed in 2022 when it died the last time (and this time looked like it trashed the slip ring). I was all set to buy a new...
The E39 Alternator Surprise
Loyal readers may recall when, about three years ago, the alternator in my 2003 E39 530i stopped charging when I was up in southern New Hampshire. I was alerted by the battery warning light on the left corner of the cluster coming on. I usually drive with a cigarette...
Re-Resurrecting Bertha (Part V: Heat)
The next step in making Bertha the knock-around-drive-during-winter-if-there’s-no-salt-on-the-roads 2002 (which is, not coincidentally, what it already looks like anyway) is to get the heat working. This had two components—getting the heater valve to turn on from inside the car, and dealing with the dead blower fan in the heater...
Re-Resurrecting Bertha (Part IV: Brake Master Cylinder Replacement)
Last week, I was less than thrilled to find that Bertha’s low brake fluid was caused by it leaking out the master cylinder’s rear seal and into the brake booster, but that disappointment was nicely mitigated by remembering that one of the parts hoards I’d inherited a few years...
