RECENT ARTICLES
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)...
BMW Teams Sweep Class Championships in SRO GT4 America
The SRO GT4 America championship wrapped up its season with the final two races of the year at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway this past weekend, where BMW teams swept the season long class championships. The Random Vandals Racing team has been in contention all season long in every...
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...
BMW CCA 2025 Classic Raffle: Win a 1998 BMW E36 M3!
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...
This Supra With a Z4 Nose Proves We Need a New M Coupe
The current Supra may have a Toyota badge on the nose and tail, but there’s BMW written all over it. And I mean that literally. Under the hood, without removing any fasteners, I’ve counted 28 times where the letters BMW or the roundel appear. I’m sure there are more...
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...
BMW CCA 2025 Classic Raffle: Win a 1998 BMW E36 M3!
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...
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...
This Manual E61 M5 Wagon Conversion Looks Incredible
The G99 M5 Touring might be the first long-roof M5 to come to the US, but it is far from the first one ever built. While we were stuck with sedans, the rest of the world got E34s and E61s with a back hatch. The E61 is the one...
Racing Lines: AutoSport Fabrication Supports 13 Cars at Watkins Glen
Peter Agapoglou’s Plainville, Connecticut, shop, AutoSport Fabrication, supported 13 racers—over 20 percent of the field—during the recent Watkins Glen Tire Rack BMW CCA Club Racing weekend. Roundel asked Agapoglou to describe what went into supporting that many cars at the event. Roundel: Tell me a little about your shop,...
Racing Lines: BMW CCA Club Racing Returns to Watkins Glen
The autumn Tire Rack BMW CCA Club Racing events at Watkins Glen always draw some of the largest fields in the series, and the races always deliver intense competition. The 2025 event, run in mid-September and hosted by BMW CCA Club Racing, remained true to form, drawing more than...
BMW CCA Events: Drifting Event, Foundation Zentrum ALPINA Event, BMW Performance Center Event
BMW Car Club of America, the official BMW enthusiast club, offers membership that includes access to hundreds of BMW-focused chapter, regional, and national events. Here are a few upcoming events that should interest BMW enthusiasts of all types! Find even more events on the official BMW Car Club of...
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...
A BMW Driver Won the BTCC’s Prestigious Jack Sears Trophy
The West Surrey Racing team (WSR) led by Team Principal Dick Bennetts has been the most successful team in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) over the last several years. The team had some success in the 2025 season but it was a challenging year. WSR had four BMW...
Tickets for CCA Hospitality at the 2026 Daytona 24 Available Soon
Community, Events, Lifestyle, Motorsport
It might only be October, but the 2026 pro racing season will be here before you know it. That means it’s time to get your plans set for the 24 Hours of Daytona to kick off the season of sports car racing. The 2026 race promises to be a...
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...
Electric Air Conditioning?
I’ve embarked on a project on my 1969 Lotus Elan +2 that some of you might find interesting. Not only am I retrofitting air conditioning into it, but I’m using an electrically-driven compressor. For the last few weeks, the project has consumed me, driving out all BMW-related wrenching. So,...
