RECENT ARTICLES
Want a BMW-Powered Roadster? Morgan Has You Covered
It’s a formula as old as motor cars themselves: Insert the largest engine you can into the smallest vehicle possible, refine the suspension, and voila! You have lightning in a bottle. For those of a certain age, this evokes memories of storied vehicles like the Shelby Cobra and Sunbeam...
BMW 3 Series Touring Could Come Back to America In the Next Generation
BMW skipped the current G21 3 Series Touring for America. After the F31 3 Series Touring did only OK, sales-wise, BMW didn’t see enough value in bringing the G21 here. However, the American enthusiasm surrounding the M5 Touring might have convinced BMW that there’s enough of a market to...
Paddock Talk | Sheldon van der Linde on Le Mans and Racing in WEC vs. IMSA
Sheldon van der Linde has been a BMW M Motorsport works driver since 2019. This year, he is competing in both the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar championship in the M Hybrid V8 prototype. Two weeks before we spoke with van der Linde at Watkins...
BMW CCA Club Racing Makes Second Visit to Summit Point
The Tire Rack BMW CCA Club Racing series visited Summit Point Motorsports Park in West Virginia for the second time this year on the weekend of July 11th-12th. Back in May, the races were hosted by the National Capital Chapter, but this time they were hosted by the New...
Tech Talk | Spare Tire Conundrum and Brake Booster Questions
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. Not the tasty kind of donut! The car in question is my 2004 330i Performance Package,...
Join Us at Bimmer Invasion Los Angeles
Join BMW CCA and M Chapter at one of the largest BMW gatherings in the world! The Invasion of Los Angeles returns to Pomona Fairplex for a day filled with BMW culture, curated exhibits, premium show cars, and all your favorite vendors all in one place! The show has...
You Can Thank American Customers for the BMW M2 xDrive Existing
The United States is one of BMW’s most important markets. China might do more sales, and Germany is home turf, but America is right there with them in terms of importance. Hell, the majority of BMW SUVs sold worldwide are made here. And yet, America typically doesn’t drive BMW’s...
Check Out How the BMW M3 Touring 24H Race Car Went From an April Fool’s Joke to a Reality
BMW News, Community, Motorsport
BMW recently caught a bit of viral internet fire with its M3 Touring 24H race car. Ahead of the 24 Hours of Spa, BMW drove its race car through the streets, with a lucky raffle-winning passenger on board and a roof box mounted on top. It was funny to...
New Shoes for the E39
As the old joke goes, time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. (BOOM-tish. I’ll be here all night. Tip your bartenders and waitresses.) I’ve owned the 2003 E39 530i stick sport for a decade, but certain things seem like they happened just yesterday. When I bought...
2026 BMW i5 xDrive40 Review: Solid 5 Series, Just an Okay EV
It feels a bit odd driving in any current electric BMW. They feel old. They feel doomed. The Neue Klasse is basically here and it will eventually replace every single current electric Bimmer. It’s the next-generation and after seeing cars like the new i3 and iX3, the current crop...
Humanoid Robots in BMW’s South Carolina Factory Create More Questions than Answers
Like all manufacturers, BMW is always implementing ways of streamlining production and boosting productivity. One is with AI, which has a hand in the assembly process’ various stages of quality control. Another is the use of humanoid robots, which we saw in a demonstration during the 2027 X5 reveal...
New Shoes for the E39
As the old joke goes, time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. (BOOM-tish. I’ll be here all night. Tip your bartenders and waitresses.) I’ve owned the 2003 E39 530i stick sport for a decade, but certain things seem like they happened just yesterday. When I bought...
2026 BMW i5 xDrive40 Review: Solid 5 Series, Just an Okay EV
It feels a bit odd driving in any current electric BMW. They feel old. They feel doomed. The Neue Klasse is basically here and it will eventually replace every single current electric Bimmer. It’s the next-generation and after seeing cars like the new i3 and iX3, the current crop...
BMW CCA’s Grand Prize M2 CS Is A True Dream Car
The 2026 BMW CCA Dream Car Raffle continues, and the grand prize is one of the most exciting M cars in recent memory: the highly exclusive 2026 BMW M2 CS. Built with a singular focus on performance, the M2 CS takes everything enthusiasts love about BMW’s compact M car...
Tech Talk | Front End Clunk and VANOS Issues
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. Front End Noise My 2009 335i coupe with M Sport suspension has about 97,000 miles, and...
The McLaren F1 GTR Is On Display at the BMW CCA Foundation. Go See It
This year, the BMW CCA Foundation’s BMW M3: 40 Years of Evolution is celebrating what is, arguably, BMW’s most iconic model with 25 incredible examples of the model. And if that wasn’t enough reason to visit the Ultimate Driving Museum this year, now there’s another: BMW USA’s McLaren F1...
See How Far the New BMW X5 Has Come Since the Original E53 Generation
This new generation of BMW X5 is easily the biggest design departure from the family lineage, as it borrows styling from the new Neue Klasse line of EVs, despite not actually being a Neue Klasse model. In isolation, the new X5 might not seem all that radical looking, since...
BMW’s New M Performance Track Kit Makes a Standard BMW M2 Faster Than the M2 CS on Track
The fastest, most track-ready version of the BMW M2 that you could buy used to be the M2 CS. That car’s extra power, suspension upgrades, and added lightness make it far more capable than the standard M2 right out of the box. However, BMW just added a new package...
E39 Cabin Air Duct Replacement
Ever since I’ve owned it, the 2003 E39 530i sport that I’ve been daily-driving for a decade has had an issue where, when idling in traffic, there’s an acrid oily smell inside the cabin. During the first of several coil pack replacements to cure misfires, I discovered the cause—the...
Don’t Hate on the XM Until You Drive It
I live about five and half hours from Weathertech Raceway at Laguna Seca. When IMSA lands on the Laguna Seca calendar in May, I start thinking road trip. Over the years, I’ve put plenty of fun miles on my own cars, and yes, most of those are manuals. Have...
BMW CCA Club Racing Visits CTMP and Roebling Road
In mid and late June, the Tire Rack BMW CCA Club Racing series visited two tracks in different parts of North America, with Roebling Road the venue for mid-June and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) the circuit for the late June races. We’ll start with the latest round at...
Tech Talk | Seat Swaps and HVAC 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. 2026 M340i Passenger Seat Exchange This will probably be a strange request. I haven’t owned a...
This Extremely Rare 1967 BMW 1600 GT Was Built for Coachbuilder Pietro Frua
One of the prettiest Bimmers of all time wasn’t even originally a BMW. In the early 1960s, the German automaker Glas was building some very lovely looking sporty GT cars, like the 1300 GT and 1700 GT. In 1966 BMW bought Glas and rebadged its cars with blue and...
BMW Tests the M3 Touring Roofbox By Mounting It to a Race Car
You may have noticed a few days ago that BMW M slapped a roof box on an M3 Touring 24H race car and drove it through the streets of Belgium, before its race at the 24 Hours of Spa. While BMW didn’t actually race with the box on the...
BMW M Boss ‘Would Love to’ Build a New M1 Supercar. Will It Ever Actually Happen?
It wouldn’t be a proper BMW M media event until the idea of a new M1 supercar comes up in conversation with BMW execs. Journalists could make a drinking game out of it. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, BMWBlog sat down with M division boss Frank van Meel...
Check Your Car’s Ball Joints!
I’ve nearly made a career writing about what I call “The Big Seven”—the primary reasons other than a flat tire that a car winds up in the breakdown lane. It began as the three main issues that befall vintage cars on road trips (fuel delivery, ignition, and cooling system)....
New Shoes for the E39
As the old joke goes, time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. (BOOM-tish. I’ll be here all night. Tip your bartenders and waitresses.) I’ve owned the 2003 E39 530i stick sport for a decade, but certain things seem like they happened just yesterday. When I bought...
E39 Cabin Air Duct Replacement
Ever since I’ve owned it, the 2003 E39 530i sport that I’ve been daily-driving for a decade has had an issue where, when idling in traffic, there’s an acrid oily smell inside the cabin. During the first of several coil pack replacements to cure misfires, I discovered the cause—the...
Check Your Car’s Ball Joints!
I’ve nearly made a career writing about what I call “The Big Seven”—the primary reasons other than a flat tire that a car winds up in the breakdown lane. It began as the three main issues that befall vintage cars on road trips (fuel delivery, ignition, and cooling system)....
Exercising the Not-a-Collection
One of the issues with storing five cars 70 miles away in a warehouse in Monson, MA is that it’s pretty easy for the hypothetical three-month winter storage to creep up to six. The cars that need to over-winter there are typically down for their nap around Thanksgiving (if...
Z3 ABS Control Module Repair
I probably told this story a decade ago when it happened, but I can’t find any evidence of it online, and I’m still largely sidelined with back issues, so… When I bought my 1999 Z3 2.3 back in 2013, it had been sitting for long enough that the battery...
Finally, a Tool Kit in the E39
About six weeks ago, I took my sister to a doctor’s appointment at Boston’s Beth Israel hospital to check on how her fractured hip was healing. Because I didn’t want her to walk any further than necessary, I valet-parked the car. The attendant hopped into the E39, and immediately...
