Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / BimmerWorld! (James Clay)
Transcript
- 0:00Break Fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all
- 0:05over the autos sphere, from wrench, turners, and racers to artists, authors,
- 0:09designers, and everything in between.
- 0:11Our goal is to inspire a new generation of Petrolhead that wonder how did they
- 0:17get that job or become that person.
- 0:19The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
- 0:27Ovarian motorworks, were in its native tongue Irish motor and VECA
- 0:31ag, commonly referred to as BMW, as a German multinational corporation, which
- 0:35produces luxury vehicles and motorcycles.
- 0:38Founded in 1916 as a manufacturer of aircraft engines, BMW is now
- 0:42one of the most common track cars you'll see on any given weekend.
- 0:45And that's right Donovan.
- 0:46So we've hinted many a time on Break Fix that we were going to have a BMW episode,
- 0:52but it took us a while to find the right people to have this episode with.
- 0:57And so joining me tonight is reoccurring guest on the Break Fix podcast, Donovan
- 1:02Lara, CEO of Garage Riot, and BMW Aficionado, as well as returning guest,
- 1:08James Clay, president of Bimmer World, to unpack the mystery in the world of
- 1:13BMWs for all of our listeners out there.
- 1:16So gentlemen, both of you, welcome to Break Fix yet again.
- 1:20Thanks for having me back.
- 1:21Yeah, thanks for having me.
- 1:22And I'll tell you, it's no mystery.
- 1:23BMW is just the most awesome manufacturer out there, so I don't
- 1:26wanna shortcut the process, but you know, I'll go, I'll go right there.
- 1:30They do tout themselves as the ultimate driving machine.
- 1:33That was the ad campaign for a long time, and I think that's
- 1:35a great way to lead into this.
- 1:37So why BMW?
- 1:39What is all the fuss about?
- 1:41There always seems to be this allure and this mystique around BMW.
- 1:45Isn't it just another.
- 1:47German taxi cab, like a Mercedes or anything else that's underrated
- 1:50overseas, so let's talk about it.
- 1:52Well, I'll tell you, I've been in Audis for commercial shoots, some
- 1:56of the stunt driving in those cars.
- 1:57I've done that.
- 1:58I've owned Porsches and I still own a Mercedes currently, and
- 2:03my first experience with a German car was my girlfriend.
- 2:08Of, of a long time ago is Volkswagen.
- 2:10Um, see, I just wanna point out, it all starts with
- 2:13Volkswagens at some point, right?
- 2:15Which is pretty much a Porsche, right?
- 2:17Same thing.
- 2:18So, you know, immediately with that car it was a Volkswagen Jetta and like, uh,
- 2:23second or third gen of those things, there was definitely something different.
- 2:26And, and that was, that was my first experience with a German car.
- 2:29There was definitely something different about, about the German
- 2:32cars and, you know, there's, there's.
- 2:34There's target markets and you know, clearly the, the Volkswagen was more
- 2:38economical than, than A BMW at that point.
- 2:41I was a, I was a college kid and had some student loans that I spent frivolously
- 2:46and including on cars or a car.
- 2:48So I had a little bit of money to spend and at that point I was
- 2:51looking for something that was, was a performance car for me.
- 2:54That meant, you know, I wanted a German car.
- 2:56I clearly knew I wanted a German car because I'd worked on a number
- 2:59of cars at that point, and they were just the easiest to deal with.
- 3:01They were well laid out, they just made sense, easy to work on.
- 3:04Okay.
- 3:04I wanted a German car and I wanted a performance car, so that
- 3:07kind of meant Porsche or BMW.
- 3:09And as luck would have it, I almost got swept into the dark hole of
- 3:14Porsche ownerships, which would've been a terrible experience based on
- 3:17the Porsche I was buying at the time, because I was still a college kid
- 3:20and I did not have money for that.
- 3:22Yes.
- 3:22So let me, let me guess.
- 3:23I'm 9 44.
- 3:25No, no.
- 3:26Really?
- 3:26Yeah.
- 3:27No way dumber than that.
- 3:28It was a 1998 roof, nine 11.
- 3:33Ooh.
- 3:33But it was affordable because it was a basket case, so I was
- 3:37gonna buy it and put it together.
- 3:38That was where the black hole comes from.
- 3:41Ah, you know, now in my, in my later years, I, I recognize that would've
- 3:44been a black hole no matter how that car had arrived, just because
- 3:47Porsche ownership is more expensive.
- 3:49You know, I did end up with A BMW and kind of the rest is history.
- 3:52But after owning other cars, and, you know, I, I'm primarily a BMW
- 3:56guy, but that's, that's all I really drive, all I really own.
- 3:59After having experience with and owning a couple of of other
- 4:02things, I will say that BMW.
- 4:04Really does hit the perfect balance of German car, German
- 4:08engineering performance, car cost effective, but not so luxury.
- 4:13And you can infer whatever you want from those comments and as to what
- 4:16other brands they might apply to.
- 4:17But for me, BMW, it just is that perfect mix of all the things.
- 4:22Donovan.
- 4:22Yeah.
- 4:22You know, I think for me, you know, I, I did kind of grow up as
- 4:25a Porsche guy, you know, as a kid.
- 4:26I, I seemed to always have Porsche cars and toys and models and things,
- 4:30and I remember I was probably, gosh, I don't know, 10 years old, and,
- 4:33and a neighbor had a, uh, gosh, it was like a root beer colored 9 24.
- 4:38And I used to go out there and take pictures of it.
- 4:40I thought it was the coolest thing.
- 4:40So I always thought, uh, and I am a Porsche guy still, but I always
- 4:44thought that was gonna be my journey.
- 4:45Went to college in, you know, Edson on, uh, on Garage Riot.
- 4:50Had a, a three 18 is, I thought it was really cool.
- 4:53And for me, you know, kind of growing up in the, in the era of, you know,
- 4:57when BMWs were special, far as they were, they weren't very common.
- 5:00You know, if, if you knew somebody that had a BMW oh my God.
- 5:03Right.
- 5:03That was amazing.
- 5:04And, uh, another member of ours, uh, brains staying, his uncle in-law, I
- 5:09suppose, had I think a three 20 or three series to the point that every
- 5:13time he'd wash it, he'd take the wheels off and bring them inside and clean
- 5:16them individually and take 'em outside.
- 5:17You know, it was just, it was more special than to have a BMW than,
- 5:20than it is a little bit maybe today.
- 5:22So, you know, kind of grew up with that too.
- 5:24And, you know, when, when I went to college and Edson had
- 5:26his car, which was pretty.
- 5:28Outstanding for a college kid.
- 5:29I mean, it was a fairly new car at the time, you know, we became great friends
- 5:32and I was kind of taken by, you know, BM bmw, so I worked one summer, worked two
- 5:37jobs and, and saved up for my first car.
- 5:39Uh, after my freshman year of college, I ended up buying a, an older BMWA three 20.
- 5:43And for me, you know, that was kind of the, the entry point.
- 5:45Although I had deviated, you know, I've come back and BM W's
- 5:48always been a part of my life.
- 5:50I was discouraged, I think in, in previous years of buying certain
- 5:53models that, of course I own now that, you know, I paid a premium for it.
- 5:57And I, I told my friends, you know.
- 5:59Shut up and, and let me buy 'em.
- 6:00I would've gotten into more.
- 6:01But you know, there is a lifestyle aspect of it.
- 6:04You know, there's the big events like the vintage and things that happen every
- 6:07year and, you know, the clubs are pretty big and it's a cool, you know, kind
- 6:12of enthusiast group to be a part of.
- 6:13And James, I agree with you too, on, on some of those points around Mercedes is.
- 6:18I, I think they're coming back from it now, but, you know, in the nineties they
- 6:21were kind of the big luxury, you know, big seats kind of thing where BMW was
- 6:24still a little more performance oriented for the most part, it seemed, and
- 6:28Porsche is kind of its own thing, right?
- 6:29I mean, it's, it's more sports car where BMW is more, it is
- 6:33sports car, but it's also utility.
- 6:35You can get the kids in the back, you know, you can go do those things and
- 6:37you can still terrorize the track.
- 6:39So for me, you know, it kind of caught me early and, you know, along with
- 6:42Porsches, those, those both have always kinda been my passion with all three of
- 6:45us being petrolheads of a certain age.
- 6:47I too grew up in a similar era of vehicles, as you guys did.
- 6:50And the vision I always had of BMWs to Donovan's point was.
- 6:56There was almost a stereotype, like you were either a stockbroker and
- 6:59you or middle manager and you owned A BMW or you were the guy wearing the
- 7:03yellow polo shirt with the pink sweater wrapped around your shoulders and tied
- 7:07in a knot off to the tennis court.
- 7:08Right.
- 7:09It had a certain ness, se quois about it.
- 7:11Right.
- 7:11It was like BMW again, there was this mystique.
- 7:13It's like, who is this BMW owner?
- 7:15Like you knew who all the GTI guys were, you know who all the Porsche guys were.
- 7:19'cause they, they had Beatles at a previous life, you know, and there
- 7:22was a certain, I guess, culture that grew up around all of those cars.
- 7:25I grew up in a VW Audi family.
- 7:27We've had VWs and Audis since the early sixties.
- 7:29So it was a whole different kind of mindset.
- 7:31You know, my definition of sporty versus yours is very different for me.
- 7:36It didn't happen with BMW until the E 30 M three, everything else.
- 7:39Before that, it was like, uh, reverse aerodynamic noses.
- 7:42They're, they're boring, they're sedans.
- 7:44If you want something sporty, get a GTI, I don't know why
- 7:47anybody would buy A BMW right?
- 7:49It, I would very hard to convince that BMW was the answer granted.
- 7:53If you're looking for real world drive, it's the way to go.
- 7:56And compared to a Mercedes, you guys are right.
- 7:58It's, it's a lot more sporty, not nearly as luxurious or as powerful as
- 8:02the AMGs or the Brasses or some of the other things that were out at the time.
- 8:06Let's talk about each of your kind of collection of BMWs and maybe
- 8:10some that stand out specifically.
- 8:11Let's start with James.
- 8:12Collection of B bmw.
- 8:14So current ownership.
- 8:15Sure.
- 8:17You could talk about the past.
- 8:18We can go back to the future.
- 8:20Well, I will tell you that my life started with my BMW Life
- 8:23started with an E 30 M three.
- 8:24And you know, again, I was a college kid, but at that point
- 8:27that stuff was attainable.
- 8:28I had one with an engine swap because, uh, I bought it from a girl that
- 8:31had blown up the motor, didn't check the oil, blew up the motor, 70,000
- 8:35miles on the car, 10,000 on the motor because it had an engine swap.
- 8:38It was a, it was a smoking deal.
- 8:39I got it for, well, less than 10 grand.
- 8:41And it, you know, interior and exterior was just perfect.
- 8:43So that was my first love in the BMW world.
- 8:46So that, that one's always special.
- 8:48Almost currently, I just went through E 30 M three ownership again, and
- 8:52it was very different this time.
- 8:53So my first ownership of E 30 M three was.
- 8:56Let's take this thing to the racetrack and just, you know, immediately I
- 8:59started ripping weight out of the car and modifying this thing and
- 9:01doing all the, and you know, it was just a rat, well, I say ratted out.
- 9:05It was a track car that I drove on the street and because in college you don't
- 9:09care and you do dumb stuff like that.
- 9:10And it was awesome.
- 9:11It was loud and the brakes squealed and everywhere I drove it, it,
- 9:14those things make power in the high RPMs, but it didn't matter.
- 9:17That's, that's where I lived.
- 9:18I was gonna rev that thing out wherever.
- 9:20My most recent E 30 M three ownership was this beautiful henna car, and
- 9:24now I felt like a custodian of a car.
- 9:27I wouldn't dare modify it.
- 9:28It was tastefully modified.
- 9:29It has, you know, Evo three rear spoiler, Evo two front, some little
- 9:33Evo parts here and there, but it was.
- 9:34Very stock.
- 9:35You know, I had to be careful when I drove it and you know, it was,
- 9:39it's not the BMW that I enjoy today.
- 9:41You know, it, it may have been, but I would never do the things to it
- 9:44that make me enjoy A-B-M-W-A lot of the time that I did back in the day.
- 9:48So I sold the E 30 M three, but I do have that ridiculous E 36 Pikes Peak car.
- 9:53The business has it.
- 9:54So that's my influence and I get to drive it.
- 9:56So I guess I can be the custodian of that one.
- 9:58I have an E 36 wagon, which I love.
- 10:00It's an E 36 touring with a E 39 M five motor, E 46 M three.
- 10:05E nine, two and three.
- 10:06So I, I'm an m Mcar guy and I'm a three series guy, so a three slash four series.
- 10:11I've got, well, GT Moore is what we call it.
- 10:13It's our project car on a, on an F eight X platform.
- 10:15And, and I'm currently waiting for my loaner, G 80 M three.
- 10:19So I love all the mcar, I love all generations of mcar.
- 10:23I like other stuff too.
- 10:25But really what makes A BMW for me is something that I can really
- 10:28get in experience, drive, modify, make it mine, and just truly enjoy.
- 10:35While, while I certainly love and appreciate them, I realize
- 10:38that I love and appreciate the classics in other people's hands.
- 10:41Where I, I don't have to do the upkeep with less joy of ownership
- 10:45the way I enjoy it to own one.
- 10:47Before we go on to Donovan, that's actually a really good point
- 10:49because the one BMW of I've owned was a previous track car that had
- 10:54changed hands several times, right?
- 10:56So countless people have had their hands in the car, and you know,
- 11:00the body had 300,000 miles and the motor had like 3000 miles on it.
- 11:04You know, one of those type of stories.
- 11:06It was an E 36, and I wanted to know what all the fuss was about, because
- 11:09all my friends have E 36 track cars, so I figured I'll buy one too.
- 11:12You know, I, I've said it more than once on this show.
- 11:15It was like owning a boat for me, not coming from the BM BMW world.
- 11:19The happiest day for me was the day I bought it, and the second happiest
- 11:22day was the day I got rid of it.
- 11:24And everything in between was an absolute nightmare.
- 11:26And so you get underneath that car and I pull my hair out and go, what in the hell
- 11:30were they thinking O on a Volkswagen?
- 11:32It's like, this is super easy, it's three bolts.
- 11:34Why is this nine links and 27 pieces?
- 11:37And I. Why is this over-engineered?
- 11:39I don't understand.
- 11:40You know, and so it drove me kind of nuts.
- 11:41It had, you know, the typical issues had, you know, valve covers and, uh, vanos
- 11:46and everything else that's wrong with an E 36 that you're constantly maintaining.
- 11:49So for me, the maintenance, it made it just this daunting task and it, it worried
- 11:55me every time I took it to the track, I'm like, what's gonna blow up next?
- 11:57How much more money do I have to sink into this thing?
- 12:00You know?
- 12:00So I kind of, I backed away from BMWs and I said, ah, you're gonna have to
- 12:04really sell me hard on my next one.
- 12:07Right.
- 12:07And we'll talk about that in a little bit, but I want to talk about Donovan's
- 12:10collection of BMWs before we move on.
- 12:12Yeah, I feel like I kind of need to lead you up to where I am.
- 12:15So, you know, I mentioned the three 20 and then I had a gap.
- 12:17You know, I kind of got into the fast and furious world before Fast and Furious.
- 12:21Uh, I did that for a little while, did some other things, but finally
- 12:24got back into BMWs after Porsches.
- 12:27But, you know, I got back in with a, with the next five, 4.4, which
- 12:30I loved and I put 230,000 miles on it and it still drove like a champ.
- 12:34I think the only problem I had with it was the alternator went out once,
- 12:37which apparently was a liquid cooled $1,600 alternator, apparently see
- 12:42over-engineered and super expensive.
- 12:44See what I'm talking about?
- 12:46Why do you need a liquid cooled alternator?
- 12:49Easy.
- 12:49We're just, just be aware that Donovan and I are gonna start
- 12:52double teaming the Volkswagen guy.
- 12:53So.
- 12:57Right.
- 12:57So yeah, that, and, you know, the, the AC stopped cooling as much, but
- 13:00I ended up getting rid of that thing.
- 13:01It, it was fantastic.
- 13:02And then I had another little bit of a gap.
- 13:03I'd kind of been looking at the E 30 M threes and, you know, like I
- 13:06mentioned a minute ago, I kept having people that had never owned one
- 13:09telling me why I shouldn't buy 'em.
- 13:10Right?
- 13:10Oh, they rust in the back and this, that, and the other.
- 13:12So it kinda kept me away for a little while.
- 13:13So I finally did buy one.
- 13:16It was fantastic, right?
- 13:17That car had been sent back to Germany and had the dog leg and all the EVO
- 13:20bits and everything else on it, which I didn't quite appreciate at the time.
- 13:23And, and to give you an idea, I paid 17 for it.
- 13:26I kept it for about two years and sold it for 26.
- 13:29That was the year before they went to 40 and 45 and all those.
- 13:32And I, I didn't realize, you know, the, the gold that was in the
- 13:34parts, but, so what did I do is I bought another one once they were.
- 13:3845 50. So I have that one now.
- 13:41I have E 30 M three.
- 13:42I have two E 28 M fives.
- 13:45I just sold Eric.
- 13:46You know the story about my E 36 M three.
- 13:48Sold it to a 17-year-old kid.
- 13:50It was his dream car, but to me it just felt like this car belonged with him.
- 13:53Two weeks later, he totaled it.
- 13:55I just bought an F 80 M three at the beginning of the year.
- 13:58I haven't told you this, Eric, but I found, uh, a 2002 turbo.
- 14:02Oh, it's on its way to the states right now, so it's not a done deal,
- 14:05but hopefully in a month we'll be talking about, uh, talking about that.
- 14:09But, uh, so fingers crossed.
- 14:10But yeah, you know, the, the, the modifying portion of, you know,
- 14:13the, I I wouldn't dare modify like the E 30 or the M fives, right?
- 14:17I mean, finding parts alone for the e the, the M five is, is near impossible.
- 14:21I, I found a dash in the Ukraine or something, you know, to fix.
- 14:24One of them had a crack dash, that kinda thing.
- 14:26It was 1500 bucks, you know, those kinda things.
- 14:28I did put suspension on the, the E 30 M three, but the F 80 is a different story.
- 14:33I mean, that car is fast already.
- 14:34It's con it's competition car, but, you know, flashing it
- 14:36and doing some other things.
- 14:37So I'm on the climb with that car where the other ones, you know, like you said,
- 14:41James, I want to keep a stock as possible.
- 14:43I mean, you know, some cosmetics, maybe some suspension work.
- 14:45But I, I enjoy that car a lot and we go ripping through the
- 14:48mountains with Tesla owners, which.
- 14:50Don't get me wrong, they're still faster, but it's nice to be able to keep up
- 14:54with 'em and not being in a 30-year-old BMW that on the radio saying, Hey
- 14:57guys, hang on while I catch up to you.
- 15:01And we've talked a little bit about, you know, your guys' history, the collections
- 15:05and things like that, and experiences.
- 15:06And I guess that leads me to kind of some opinion questions, right?
- 15:10So I'm gonna, I'm gonna throw these out there.
- 15:11Maybe I'll, I'll start with Donovan on this one.
- 15:13What do you guys think?
- 15:14Just looking back over the history is the best.
- 15:17BMW?
- 15:17You know, I'm probably a little biased.
- 15:19I mean, I, I, I would immediately go to the E 30 M three.
- 15:21You know, you go, I mean, I think that still isn't that the most winning
- 15:24touring car of all time or something.
- 15:26I mean, it's, it's, let's unpack the E 30 M three.
- 15:28You guys have both mentioned it several times here, so I'm not, I don't take
- 15:32issue with it because I think that car is awesome and I am a huge fan of
- 15:36DTM as you know, Donovan, but it felt like it was BMW's attempt to Xerox
- 15:42copy the UR Quattro 10 years too late.
- 15:45I mean, if you look at it, it's, it's just like the Ur Quatro.
- 15:48We got the jackknife flares, which were kind of going outta
- 15:51style in the late eighties anyway, the 9 44 had already done it.
- 15:54The RX seven had already done it.
- 15:55They all copied the Audi from the early eighties, and it's kind of
- 15:58like similar shape, similar style, similar idea, kind of homologated
- 16:02rally car type of look and feel to it.
- 16:04But at the end of the day, just like the Audi, it's based on a, you know,
- 16:07boring sedan or boring two door.
- 16:09And in the thirties case.
- 16:10It's an E 30.
- 16:12So what really makes it so special outside of the body work?
- 16:15Well, I mean, you could say by today's standards, right?
- 16:18It's the, and I'm gonna say, you know, I hate this word, but you know, to
- 16:21most people it's the unicorn, right?
- 16:23Oh my God, I can't believe, you know, it's just got this mystique around it that,
- 16:27I mean, they made a lot of 'em, right?
- 16:28So it's not like they need 300, and I think a lot of 'em were abused
- 16:31and thrown away over the year.
- 16:32So now to see one is, is something special.
- 16:34But, you know, the handling on 'em, and I can't, you know, James
- 16:37can probably speak better to this.
- 16:38I didn't, I've never tracked mine and I don't intend to.
- 16:41But you know, my understanding is, is they track really well.
- 16:43I know people that have tracked cars and, and they're supposed
- 16:45to do really well at that.
- 16:46But, you know, I don't know.
- 16:48I mean, and in all honesty, and I, I shouldn't really
- 16:50say this of that era, right?
- 16:51I think the, the one 90 E 2.5, uh, Mercedes had a lot
- 16:55to offer in that era too.
- 16:57But again, right, the big.
- 16:58Flared body work and, and all those kinda things, obviously, you know, for a reason.
- 17:02But, you know, I don't know.
- 17:03I, I just think it's special.
- 17:04Right.
- 17:04You know, it's, to me, I don't see a lot of manufacturers even current day stepping
- 17:08out and really making a significant leap from the passenger car version of
- 17:13one car to this kind of flared out pi.
- 17:15I mean, yeah, you could say the challenge and things like
- 17:17that, but you know what I mean.
- 17:18Right.
- 17:18These really kind of special almost, you know, the, the homologated
- 17:21version, I mean, is really what it was.
- 17:22Yeah.
- 17:22To that point, the E 36 stock is better than any E 30 M three.
- 17:27Out the gate.
- 17:27Right.
- 17:28I mean, we know that as it's evolution right there.
- 17:30I, I wonder if the E 36 is in held in higher regard.
- 17:34I mean, it definitely is in the track world.
- 17:35You see more of them.
- 17:36They're like Miatas, they're freaking everywhere.
- 17:38Right.
- 17:39But it's also a massively produced mcar as well.
- 17:43Right?
- 17:43It was the first one to be like, totally doesn't have independent
- 17:46throttle bodies, all this fun stuff.
- 17:47'cause it was built, you know, basically on an assembly line and cranked out as
- 17:50fast as they could get 'em out there.
- 17:51So going to James, why is the E 30 M three so special versus some of
- 17:56the other cars that are out there?
- 17:57Well, you know, I think it's, I think it's the, the opposite of
- 18:00that E 36 that you're talking about.
- 18:01To me.
- 18:02Maybe at the time in the, in the late eighties, early nineties, the E 30 M three
- 18:06was special and that were BMW people.
- 18:08They thought that thing was pretty special.
- 18:09They were higher production, right?
- 18:11That way they made 10,000 something like a little over that, over the, over
- 18:14all the production running of years.
- 18:15They weren't necessarily flying off the shelf either because they
- 18:18were, you know, they were expensive.
- 18:19They were expensive cars.
- 18:20I think that.
- 18:21Our appreciation for the E 30 M three has gone up over the years and I
- 18:25think the mystique has gone up and it's special because it's so special.
- 18:29It's special because it's not an E 30.
- 18:32So that was the first car that I tracked and it, you're right,
- 18:34it Donovan, it just is amazing.
- 18:36The, it's so light and it's light and nimble like a, like an
- 18:39E 33 18 is, but it's powerful.
- 18:43Like a, like a E 33 25.
- 18:45And so I can remember arguing, and this sounds like a ridiculous
- 18:48argument if I say it today.
- 18:50I remember arguing with, with one of my friends early on in my track
- 18:53career who had an E 33 25 and we were arguing about which one was better.
- 18:57You know, the E 30 M three or the 3 25.
- 18:59They were similar lap times.
- 19:00They do it in a little bit different ways, or at least in the trend levels
- 19:03that we were looking at racing them.
- 19:04In retrospect in, you know, in this day and age where the E
- 19:0730 M three is highly valued.
- 19:09I think what makes them, you know, so special is just how unique they are.
- 19:13It was the first true mcar I think there, you know, there were in variance of cars
- 19:17up until that point, but there was never one that they just said, this is an m.
- 19:21But what about the, what about the M1?
- 19:23Isn't that the original M car from 1978?
- 19:27He swat me away.
- 19:29He swatted me away.
- 19:31But you know of attainable means, right?
- 19:33We so we talk about production numbers.
- 19:34Yes, it was, it's things still looks like a spaceship kind of.
- 19:38And you know, back in the back in the late seventies, that's not attainable.
- 19:41That's not something anybody ever show saw on a dealer.
- 19:44Showroom floor E 30 M three is like, what starts to be cool about
- 19:48BMWs to me is they're attainable.
- 19:50And that car was in production numbers that became attainable,
- 19:53but it had so much different DNA than the non M cars of the time.
- 19:59You know, so your original question, or you question a bit a bit ago to
- 20:02Donovan is what's the best BMW ever?
- 20:04And, and again, you've gotta decide how you're asking that question or what
- 20:08type of response, because to me the best BMW car ever is an E 36 something.
- 20:13And it's, it's an E 36 something, not because the original car was
- 20:18awesome or 'cause the M three is super special or whatever.
- 20:21It's just like they're the universal.
- 20:24They can do anything.
- 20:25They were iconic in the nineties.
- 20:26To me.
- 20:27You can throw any motor in 'em and make 'em ridiculously fast
- 20:31and fun and, but, and they're, and they're just so out there.
- 20:34They're, they were made in such high numbers.
- 20:36That's why they're like mi at the track.
- 20:37There's just, there's so many made and sure they're, you can run an M
- 20:41three, which isn't all that special.
- 20:42It's not, it's not special compared to a 3 28.
- 20:45It's, you know, super similar, use the same transmission, use the same diff
- 20:49all, you know, all these things use the same body work except for, for bumpers.
- 20:52So all these things that make those things so available and so great to
- 20:57modify and such a great foundation for anything you would do on the track.
- 21:01That's the absolute opposite of what the E 30 M three is with so many
- 21:05specialized parts that just make that thing a special level of cool that we
- 21:10just, we haven't, honestly, I don't think we've gotten since in the BM BMW world.
- 21:14Well, and then you kinda have the crossover, right?
- 21:15You've got the E 30 M three with E 36 driveline in it, which, you know.
- 21:20To me, that's, that's heresy, right?
- 21:22You should, you should do that to one of yours.
- 21:23No, no.
- 21:25You know, some people think that's the perfect combination between the two too.
- 21:28So I, I don't know.
- 21:29I, I, we talked about it.
- 21:30I don't think I would bastardize the car to do that, but, uh, it
- 21:33wouldn't suffer from a little more horsepower power for sure.
- 21:36That's, that's true.
- 21:36And, and for the money you would spend on that.
- 21:38And for the, the mods that James is talking about, the E 36, I
- 21:42mean, I've driven a lot of BMWs.
- 21:43Like I said, I've only owned one, but I've driven a lot and I've coached a lot.
- 21:47And I do have my likes and my dislikes, but my vote goes to the E
- 21:5046 M three because I feel like that's.
- 21:53When they finally figured it out.
- 21:55It was too late though, because they were already moving on.
- 21:58And we'll talk about the Bengal BMWs and things like that in a in a minute.
- 22:01I feel like that's the last of the true BMWs, to your point, like true
- 22:05drivers cars where you jump in, they're still very raw, very primitive.
- 22:09No, no real nannies to speak of.
- 22:11You get in and you have fun.
- 22:13Even in stock trim, they're absolutely amazing to be behind the wheel of.
- 22:17So I think my vote kind of goes to the end of the line of that, that small,
- 22:21you know, let's say 20 year span there of mcar has gotta be to the E 46
- 22:26where they, they finally got it right.
- 22:28But let's flip this on its head and go back to James and what's
- 22:31the worst BMW in your opinion?
- 22:35Oh man, there are certainly some models I don't like.
- 22:38There's a singular E 21 that holds a special place in my heart for
- 22:42being the absolute single worst car I've ever laid my hands on.
- 22:46But I think in general, in broad terms, the worst BMW is that like five, eight
- 22:51years ago, uh, we never got 'em in the us thank goodness, that five door
- 22:56version of the two series active tour or whatever, that, whatever that thing
- 23:00was in Germany that looks like it's like A BMW, uh, minivan, but in the absolute
- 23:05worst form you've ever seen in your life.
- 23:06Yeah, they tried to copy the Audi A two, which didn't make
- 23:09it here either, thankfully.
- 23:11Ugh, terrible.
- 23:14But, you know, that's, that may be obscure.
- 23:15Uh, you know, I really don't like the E 21.
- 23:18One of our guys, uh, at work is a die hard E 21 guy, and I know that there's some
- 23:23variants that are cool, but suspension design, power output started to get heavy.
- 23:28Started to do that late eighties, or, or I'm sorry, early eighties, late seventies.
- 23:33Kinda weirdness was the way lights are integrated and bumpers have to
- 23:36have these, you know, rubbery, ribbed things on 'em for the federal stuff.
- 23:41It started to get funky for me then.
- 23:43They also had that reverse aerodynamic nose, I call it, where the grill slants
- 23:47into the wind rather than away from it.
- 23:49But hey, you know, whatever styling is what it is.
- 23:53So I gotta stand up for the E 20 ones a little bit.
- 23:55I just sold one, I sold a sport package car.
- 23:57It was what, 90,000 miles.
- 23:59You know, I expected that car to be worth more and I kept holding out and finally I
- 24:02was like, I gotta get rid of this thing.
- 24:03But, and all of the things that you guys just railed on with the exception
- 24:06of you, is what I like about it, right?
- 24:07The, the front end.
- 24:09To me, BMWs were BMWs when the, when the front end was a little
- 24:11square, maybe it kick back.
- 24:13You think about like the six series, right?
- 24:14That, to me was, was great, but didn't care for the rear end of that car much.
- 24:18But, you know, to me the, the E 21, I always thought of the race car,
- 24:20which I thought was really fantastic.
- 24:22You know, I don't know.
- 24:23I mean, I'm not gonna talk performance wise, but I think
- 24:25just visually, I think the Bengal Error five series were not great.
- 24:30The new M cars.
- 24:32I'm still waiting for him to grow on me, but I, I, I just can't, I
- 24:35think it's easily fixable, right?
- 24:37You paint the middle support bar and divide the kidneys and maybe
- 24:40that helps out a little bit.
- 24:41But, you know, I don't know.
- 24:41I mean, it, you know, you look back at, at some of the Bavaria and things
- 24:44and think, well, but then you see one that's been, you know, lowered
- 24:47slightly and has nice wheels on it.
- 24:49Like, okay, well maybe I can, I can deal with that one a little bit, but
- 24:51I just have to stick to the designs.
- 24:53Or some of these grand touring ones that we did get, like the, some of the five
- 24:57series are a little weird, but for me it's really about the styling on, on the
- 25:00ones I mentioned before, I think are, I could, I could do without for sure.
- 25:04I think it's funny you guys bring that up and I've heard nothing but
- 25:07horror stories about the eight.
- 25:09Especially the eight fifties.
- 25:11We asked this question of other people before and they're like, oh, the eight
- 25:1450, the V 12, that's, that's horrendous.
- 25:15That's like the worst BMW ever Granted, you know, often you, you keep all the
- 25:19Haircuttery jokes to yourself, much like the Miata guys do being a hairdresser's
- 25:23car and all this kind of thing.
- 25:24But it was a step out of the normal with the eight 50 and the eight 40 for sure.
- 25:29To your point, maybe not the worst, but it's probably up there in the top three
- 25:33of probably in terms of maintenance and parts obscurity and things like that.
- 25:37'cause it shares nothing really with anything else.
- 25:39So I think that's probably pretty high up there as well.
- 25:42Well, the eight 50 can't be the worst car because that thing
- 25:45actually looks pretty cool.
- 25:46The worst version of that is a seven 50.
- 25:49When you get more electrical goodies that can fail, but you've still gotta
- 25:53maintain that same lump of a motor, which you're right, is an absolute nightmare.
- 25:56What's the worst car?
- 25:57Any seven series with a hundred thousand miles on it.
- 26:00Blanket statement except for the one on the transporter,
- 26:03which is awesome no matter what.
- 26:05Because it had a stick shift, but you know, we'll leave it there.
- 26:08You know, you kind of hit on something in terms of styling, right?
- 26:11And there's a lot to be said about BM BMW styling and it goes way back, right?
- 26:15We're talking all the way back pre-World War II to the early twenties,
- 26:19you know, with the long, the kidney grill is a signature thing of BMW.
- 26:24Love it or hate it.
- 26:25It's been around forever.
- 26:26You kind of look at back at all the styling, and I often wonder if
- 26:29BMW was like, Hey, you know what?
- 26:33It's in modern terms, let's just send it.
- 26:34Let's just see if this style sticks and if somebody likes it.
- 26:37But I kind of feel like that's been the motto for a long time, because
- 26:41even in recent times, I, as one of our members puts it, there seems to be a
- 26:46seat for every ass when it comes to BMW.
- 26:48They will tool a design for like three people, and they're
- 26:51like, oh, we'll call it the five series GT plus Touchback thing.
- 26:55And you're like.
- 26:56How many of those did you guys make?
- 26:58Like why, who cares?
- 26:59You know what I mean?
- 27:00And so I wonder if they're pushing the envelope.
- 27:02They're just crazy.
- 27:03I, I mean, I don't know.
- 27:05It kind of brings up the question of best looking versus worst looking
- 27:08BMWs, kind of in your guys' opinion.
- 27:10Let's go with Donovan.
- 27:11Oh man, I go for best.
- 27:12I, I gotta go straight to the race cars.
- 27:13I know that that was kind of outta the bounds of the question, but you know,
- 27:15you think of the, the 3.0 cars, the three point fives, the CSLs back in the
- 27:20seventies I think are just gorgeous.
- 27:22Um, those are some of my favorites.
- 27:23And, and those, to me, really even, you know, when I was a kid
- 27:26kinda looking around, you'd see those and like, wow, what is that?
- 27:28You know, those are really cool.
- 27:29And I always wanted a, a 3.0 when I got older.
- 27:32I, I'm over that now.
- 27:32I don't want one now, but, uh, I think they're pretty cool.
- 27:35Those are definitely great looking cars.
- 27:36But you know, like I said, to me, that era of that kind of.
- 27:39Square nose or the slanted m nose a little bit.
- 27:41To me, that's when, for me anyway, that's when BMWs were BMWs when
- 27:45we started getting into some of the plastic, you know, covered
- 27:47surround headlights and things.
- 27:48It still kind of kept some of that styling.
- 27:50But then, you know, we get into Bengal again.
- 27:51But, you know, the older cars, the original cars and stuff, I
- 27:54think are cool in their own right.
- 27:56I actually know a 3 28 in the storage container somewhere.
- 27:58He's, I'm trying to get it from, he won't, I think he's gonna die with
- 28:01it, but you know what, what year?
- 28:023 28 is that?
- 28:03I don't know.
- 28:04But he, he, the story goes, he lived in The Bahamas or something
- 28:09and there was a guy on the corner that was always working on cars
- 28:11and he traded him something for it.
- 28:13I forget what it was, and then shipped it here.
- 28:15It's up, it's up North Georgia somewhere and disassembled it and
- 28:18then put it in one of those, not the full length storage containers, but
- 28:21the half ones and packed it in there.
- 28:23And it's been sitting there forever.
- 28:24And the guy and his son restore cars, but they haven't gotten to this one, offering
- 28:28him, you know, are you gonna sell it?
- 28:29Are you gonna sell it?
- 28:30And they never would.
- 28:30But they had that 5 0 7 that I did, that we did the video of,
- 28:33so they come across 'em, but.
- 28:35Um, in my understanding, and I, I don't know the older BMWs that
- 28:37well, but my understanding is the 3 27 is way more desirable.
- 28:41The three 20 is not as much.
- 28:42But, but you know, those were cool.
- 28:44Right.
- 28:44And I think it's that identifying factor, right?
- 28:46The kidneys, you can't really mistake, you know that that's
- 28:48A BMW I've heard several times.
- 28:50I think Chris Harris even talked about it, you know, that the big grills, the
- 28:52big kidneys thing is for the, the Chinese market that that's an appeal there.
- 28:56So maybe they're just trying to expand a little bit.
- 28:59But I was heading to Florida recently and, and stopped and this lady came in and she
- 29:03had a brand new four series convertible.
- 29:06I asked her, you know, what do you think about it?
- 29:08She's like, oh, it's great.
- 29:08I said, what do you think about the Katie?
- 29:09And I didn't say, I think they're got awful, right?
- 29:12What do you think?
- 29:12But I said, Hey, you know, what do you think about the styling?
- 29:14And she said, oh, I think it's great.
- 29:16And all my friends love it.
- 29:17And like, okay, well, you know, it, it's, it's resonating with some people.
- 29:20So I, I think, like you said, you know, some people just, they
- 29:23flock to it and they love it.
- 29:24And then I think others are still.
- 29:26On the fence about it, but, so the ugliest BMWI still have to go back
- 29:30to, well, I'll just pick, I'll just pick the current, current name.
- 29:33The one it looks like something I'll babble on five.
- 29:35Yeah.
- 29:35So we'll, we'll leave it there.
- 29:37Science fiction BMW's up next.
- 29:39James, what do you think best and worst in terms of styling?
- 29:42You know, I don't know what our Bengal count is up.
- 29:45You know, I, we've said his name 8, 9, 10 times now.
- 29:48It's a, it's a, it's a drinking game now, you know, I'll tell you right,
- 29:51I'm an early adopter on this stuff.
- 29:53I'm open-minded.
- 29:54I'm not so absolute on how I feel because I do think there is a
- 29:58period of time that anything new.
- 30:01Is not the right thing, especially when you emotionally connect to a
- 30:04car or a car mark that has defined points that make it that kind of car.
- 30:09And so I think that BMW has generally had these traditional styling elements.
- 30:14I mean, it's not a Kia that picks up whoever's styling elements that they saw
- 30:18that week and incorporated into their car.
- 30:20It, it has very consistent styling through the years.
- 30:24So I, I pick up on the stuff.
- 30:25I like it earlier than most.
- 30:27Would.
- 30:27I love the new mcar, I say the new M cars, the new M three and four.
- 30:31I think that looks so mean and aggressive.
- 30:33Of course, I think they could have done themselves a favor.
- 30:35And I think when it was introduced with a Chrome surround, that's
- 30:38terrible because it highlights the thing I don't like about that, but I
- 30:41love seeing it on the road cars and probably because I see how it translates
- 30:46into the, the race cars, you know?
- 30:48And now that the GT four is out invisible, we see that big opening and how
- 30:52they're using that to pull air through.
- 30:53And those, you know, those scoops on the hood that come down and you can
- 30:57see they just dropped those further and now they get this extraction from that.
- 31:00I, I just, I think that's super cool.
- 31:01So, you know, and I like some of the Bengal stuff earlier than I should have,
- 31:05or earlier than a lot of people did.
- 31:06I guess the, you know, the first Bengal I remember was the, was the
- 31:09seven series, maybe that was the one that the trunk came on, but, and maybe
- 31:13that one wasn't awesome, but at the time I was, I was pretty ambivalent
- 31:16or slightly positive on the five.
- 31:18But the Z four I loved.
- 31:19Anyway, that's a long roundabout to, to say that I do like the new styling, but I
- 31:23queued in on that 3 28 because the 3 28.
- 31:27The pre-World War II car, I think is, is my absolute favorite, BMW.
- 31:32And that's, I've never driven one.
- 31:33I've gotten to be around a couple.
- 31:35I think that that's just elegant and beautiful and amazing and really
- 31:38doesn't resonate with anything that I do with BMWs or any BMWs that I have.
- 31:43But I think it's beautiful.
- 31:44I'm with you there.
- 31:45You know, especially talking about like the Bengal cars, like the M six, right?
- 31:50It looks like a angry badger and I've gotten used to it and to Donovan's
- 31:54point with the right color and the right wheel package, and you look
- 31:57at it, you know, calf three sheets through the wind with one eye open.
- 32:00It looks pretty good sometimes, but then you have.
- 32:03Other cars not so much.
- 32:05Right, and And I'm with you on the Z four, right?
- 32:07I like the Z four, especially the M coop when they first came out.
- 32:10I think that's a really cool car.
- 32:11Way better looking than the Z three, the clown shoe.
- 32:14I know people are gonna hate me for it.
- 32:16The clown shoe is a great car handling wise.
- 32:19I've driven a bunch.
- 32:19They're, they're cool, they're fun, they're twitchy, they do everything right.
- 32:23It's just not what you bring home to mama at the end of the day.
- 32:27But in terms of like best looking BMWs, I think some of those big sedans,
- 32:33like the late nineties, like the The Transporter seven series, even the
- 32:37eight series that are more elegant, that are a little bit more subdued,
- 32:41that are almost more Mercedes like to me kind of stand out because I
- 32:45like that sleeper look and style.
- 32:47I'm also a big fan of BMW station wagons.
- 32:50I think the five series precursor to the E 39 station wagon, I can't remember
- 32:56all the e numbers, but you guys know what I'm talking about, that seaboard.
- 33:00Yes, the 34 station wagon or the state, or whatever you wanna call it, I think
- 33:04that's a cool looking ride, especially when they're done up some basket weed,
- 33:07BS wheels and lowered and all that.
- 33:10But on the ugly side, I mean, that ugly tree is long when it comes
- 33:14to BMWs, but the one, there's one that sticks out, right?
- 33:18And you can have fun with some of the old cars like the Zeta and say it's super
- 33:22cute and it's quirky because it's of the era of the Fiat 500 and the Beetle.
- 33:26But I think there's one car that takes the cake and it's pretty
- 33:29modern, and there's a close second, right along with it is the I three.
- 33:33There is no angle that you can look at an I three and say that it's good looking
- 33:38because it looks like a three series that went through a trash compactor, right?
- 33:41I just don't understand it.
- 33:43But the other one is the I eight, and I have a hard time with that
- 33:47one too, because it's so futuristic.
- 33:52It almost looks cartoonish.
- 33:54But if you take a page.
- 33:56From the BM BMW kind of prototype playbook, especially stuff coming
- 33:59out of etal design by Juro.
- 34:01If you look at the Nasca and the Nasca C two and some of the other
- 34:05things that he built, you're like, I understand where the I eight came from.
- 34:08It's an evolution of those designs, so I appreciate it on both ends.
- 34:12But the I three just blah, that takes the cake in terms of
- 34:15terrible at the end of the day.
- 34:18I think there's two though that we didn't mention that are on the good
- 34:20side, obviously the, uh, the Z eights.
- 34:23Yeah.
- 34:24Oh, that's a gorgeous car.
- 34:25And I'm gonna go way back to the Dixie, right?
- 34:28Remember their first kind of entry into, I was Emelia Island a couple
- 34:32years ago and there was one there.
- 34:33It was invited to be, it was a hundred year of an, uh, anniversary
- 34:35of, of BMW and I, I'd been looking for one semi seriously, right?
- 34:40Not to pay a lot of money for one.
- 34:41And there was one there and I asked the guy about it, and uh,
- 34:43I said, Hey, I'm looking for one.
- 34:45And his response was, why?
- 34:47I expected, you know, having it there, he'd have been like,
- 34:50oh yeah, they're great cars.
- 34:51He was like, why?
- 34:51I said, I, I don't know.
- 34:52I just thought they were kind of cool, you know, it'd be kind of cool.
- 34:54He's like, nah, you, you don't want these or not worth it.
- 34:57I thought those were cool.
- 34:57You're right.
- 34:58So that's actually a great segue into another question.
- 35:01So Donovan, since you're always in the market and buying and selling
- 35:04cars and looking at the market like we talked about on the last episode and
- 35:07whatnot, what's the best BMW when you think about it from value for money?
- 35:13Like somebody wants to jump in and say, Hey, maybe it's not the super
- 35:16rare 3 27, it's not a Z eight.
- 35:19You know it, but it's also not an E 30.
- 35:21Right?
- 35:22What's that value for money car?
- 35:24Where it's like you're really getting the most out of it, not spending a ton and
- 35:27might be worth something in the future.
- 35:29Yeah.
- 35:29That might be better to, uh, question Ask James.
- 35:32I mean, to me, you know, I try to buy BMWs that I think are,
- 35:35you know, I'm prospecting, right?
- 35:37That I think are gonna increase or be worth more in five years, 10 years,
- 35:40you know, 20 years kind of thing.
- 35:42So, you know, when it comes to, and I'm, I'm making up something
- 35:45here, but say, you know, a an E 33 25, that might be a great value.
- 35:49I don't know.
- 35:50I'm not really in, in the market of those, but you know, to me I try
- 35:52to find, I think there's enough.
- 35:54BMWs on the, the more attainable side that, you know, I think are generally, you
- 35:59can say are, are gonna be a good value.
- 36:01Right?
- 36:01An E 36 M three, we talked about those.
- 36:03They're steadily growing a little bit.
- 36:06I doubled the mine when I, when I sold it, um, over a few years.
- 36:09But, um, and of course, you know, the E 30 itself, right?
- 36:12Those, uh, the, the fast and furious crowd graduated from those cars to BMWs
- 36:16and everybody now is after the e thirties and especially the E 30 wagons and stuff.
- 36:20I mean, they're, you know, in the twenties, which is kind of crazy to me.
- 36:22But, you know, I think those are, those are kind of good to, to get
- 36:25into the market with if you can find one that hasn't been abused.
- 36:27But I don't know.
- 36:28I'd defer to James on that.
- 36:29He probably knows a more than that.
- 36:30You, I don't even think about that.
- 36:31So that's, so this is where I'm terrible.
- 36:34The only BMW I've ever sold and made money on was that E 30 M three
- 36:37that I bought recently, and that's just because I dumb lucked into it.
- 36:41I actually lost money if I consider opportunity cost because if I'd sold it a
- 36:45year later, I would've doubled my money.
- 36:46I'm an idiot when it comes to buying cars thinking that I know
- 36:50something about resale value.
- 36:51I know nothing about prospecting for that.
- 36:54I do think in general, cars are seeing more of a bubble in the, in
- 36:57the BM BMW world, the the E 30 M three was the first one to see that
- 37:01thing really start to blow up super fast, and then some others followed.
- 37:04I don't know that E 36 M three will ever enjoy that 'cause I just don't
- 37:07think that they were as special.
- 37:08If I could have stacked some 50,000 mile E 46 M three five years ago,
- 37:12I certainly would've done that.
- 37:14That would've been a good buy.
- 37:15I'll tell you, I love the V eight cars, the S 62, S 65 cars.
- 37:19I feel like those.
- 37:21Probably have good value, but we're kind of in that place where people
- 37:24are starting to try to predict the bubble and get ahead of it.
- 37:27And so I don't know that the costs are as reasonable.
- 37:30And then, you know, I, I think ultimately those cars are gonna
- 37:32be maybe underappreciated.
- 37:34You know, you say Eric, that you love that E 46, M three, and I,
- 37:37you know, I like that as well.
- 37:39But I, I love the new stuff.
- 37:40You know, once they got turbos funny, I have a buddy that just bought an F
- 37:4582 M four, the soulless big, heavy, the worst M 3M four BMWs ever made.
- 37:51Says everybody until they make the next new one.
- 37:54And then everybody's like, oh, we loved that last one.
- 37:56That was awesome.
- 37:56Now this is the worst one ever made.
- 37:58So, you know, there's people that are just, don't like that change.
- 38:01And he was on that side for a while.
- 38:03And what grabbed him on this car is that it came from a BMW dealership that
- 38:07ordered a bunch of individual cars.
- 38:08And so this thing is in Daytona Violet, one of our favorite E 36 and three colors.
- 38:13He's like, I, I don't know that I love this car, but I, I gotta
- 38:16have a Daytona violet car.
- 38:17This thing's amazing.
- 38:18And he's coming out of an E 36 and three.
- 38:19He is like, but you know, they suck.
- 38:21They're big, they're heavy, they're soulless, they're all,
- 38:22you know, all these things.
- 38:24After three weeks, he's like, alright, man, I get you.
- 38:26It's violently fast.
- 38:28It has plenty of power.
- 38:29It is bigger, but it feels nimble.
- 38:31It just, it does things well in a different way.
- 38:35It's a modern way.
- 38:36And when I get back in my E 36, you know, his has an engine in
- 38:39it, big cams, et cetera, so nicely modified, so it has some power.
- 38:42He's like, it's still, it just feels like this car does everything
- 38:45and it is connected to me.
- 38:47I do think people underappreciate some of that newer stuff and, but I,
- 38:50I don't know if that's enough to save the future value of NA cars or not.
- 38:55I'm still waiting on the E 28 M fives to go and any chance I can say that,
- 39:00you know, they one just sold for 70, I think, on bringing trailer to me.
- 39:03That's amazing.
- 39:04Right.
- 39:04They only made what, 2200 of them.
- 39:06Oh.
- 39:07And they're still, people are just still overlooking them.
- 39:09And it's crazy.
- 39:09I'm still waiting for it to stay in the sun to, to pop.
- 39:12I love those cars.
- 39:13I think they're, you know, and same thing, the E 30 started to go wild and
- 39:16I'm like, man, well what about the ones that they made so few of, and you know,
- 39:19and I like that car more personally.
- 39:21You know, I love a four-door car.
- 39:23Yeah.
- 39:23I'm shocked that they're not outta sight.
- 39:25So looking at it from a entry level, let's say motor sport enthusiast's
- 39:30opinion, I think there's three.
- 39:32And they're pretty modern actually, if you're looking to value for money.
- 39:35'cause I, I look at cars all the time too.
- 39:37'cause you know, what's my next project?
- 39:38What's my next track toy?
- 39:40This kind of thing.
- 39:40Now I, I did make an oath.
- 39:42Pretty pronounced one that I would never own A BMW again.
- 39:45But there are a few that do make my list though.
- 39:48And the first one is, I've already mentioned it, it's the Z four.
- 39:51Now I'm of the old school mentality that I can em it up just like you can make a
- 39:58golf into a GTI, you know, kind of deal.
- 40:00That's the old school mentality is I'll buy all the M parts and make
- 40:02my own m. So you could make a Z four M in some ways or make it better
- 40:06than a Z four M with a Z four.
- 40:08They're still going for not a ton of money.
- 40:10It's a good looking car.
- 40:11If you're into a two-door coop, which I'm a big fan of, two-door coups, can
- 40:15still get it with a manual because.
- 40:16I, you know, I'm, I'm part of the whole save the manual campaign as well, but I
- 40:22think the car that comes after that, which is also underappreciated, is the E 88,
- 40:27the one 30 fives, and the one 20 eights.
- 40:29Those are well balanced.
- 40:30They're kind of small, like the E 36 s work compared to some of
- 40:33the bigger stuff that's out now.
- 40:35They handle really well.
- 40:36I've ridden in those cars and make plenty of power.
- 40:38Also turbocharged in a lot of cases.
- 40:40So you don't necessarily need the M, you can M it up or pay the M tax.
- 40:45The third one I, and I've had the opportunity to coach in is the two
- 40:49series, either the M 2 35, which I don't understand the badging thing, and I won't
- 40:53get on that soapbox or the M two itself.
- 40:57I think both of those cars right now, they are still a little bit more
- 41:00pricey than the other two I mentioned.
- 41:02But as an all around turnkey package, that two series, and I
- 41:07hear it's coming back as a matter of fact, 'cause it was discontinued.
- 41:10It's kind of like the.
- 41:11Best of everything.
- 41:12You want it to be an autocrosser.
- 41:13It can be.
- 41:14You want be a grocery getter.
- 41:15It can be, you wanna go to the track with it.
- 41:17It can do all of those things and it will surprise the heck out of you.
- 41:20And like I said, I've, I've coached in several of them and every time I got
- 41:23out of 'em, I turn around and look at the car and like, that's a BMW huh?
- 41:27Kind of like that's the way it should be.
- 41:29So they another one where I feel like the E 46 where they kind of got it right.
- 41:32But it leads me into another question that James, you kind of brought up about
- 41:35the different motors that are out there.
- 41:37There's brands out there that are known for their motors, right?
- 41:41And so obviously the classic motor for BMW is the inline six, right?
- 41:45And having inline motors anymore, I mean, that's reminiscent of the packer
- 41:48days of like an inline eight, right?
- 41:50As long as the hood could be kind of deal.
- 41:53Or even an old Cadillac or something like that.
- 41:55So it's rare to see those inline motors anymore, but some companies are known
- 41:59for their motors, like I said, Toyota with the four EGE where the two JZ
- 42:02outta the super and Porsche obviously for the flat six Volkswagen, the 16
- 42:06valves, the 20 valves, Audi with the five cylinder turbos and things like
- 42:09that where these bulletproof engines.
- 42:12But then they also have some real lemons too.
- 42:14Like why the hell did they make that?
- 42:15You know?
- 42:15And and Fiat's got tons of those.
- 42:17Oh wait, did I say that out loud?
- 42:18Uh, so what is on both ends of that spectrum for BMW?
- 42:22What are the motors that are like.
- 42:24God's given motors.
- 42:25And what are the ones to really stay away from you?
- 42:28Like you said?
- 42:28Uh, BMW is an inline six and they are very good at those things.
- 42:33Uh, you know, I think the M 30 is a pretty solid motor, M 20, M 30,
- 42:36I think the M 50 variants are.
- 42:39Amazing.
- 42:40I love those things and I, especially when I think about the potential of those
- 42:44things, not necessarily just how they are as delivered from the factory, but
- 42:48what the potential of those motors is.
- 42:49I love the architecture in them, especially when you slap a turbo on,
- 42:53those things get really impressive.
- 42:55And so you don't have to go to the newer generation stuff necessarily.
- 42:59So I'm gonna say M 52 is a really solid motor in that lineup.
- 43:03It's the 3 28 motor.
- 43:05Those things are, are super reasonable, easy to get plenty of 'em out there,
- 43:08square motor and throw a turbo on it.
- 43:10And they're amazing.
- 43:11If you want the factory turbo motor, the M 54, without doing much work
- 43:15to it, just external stuff, those things take a ton of power as is.
- 43:19And then do a closed deck deal and throw some forged parts at
- 43:22it and they get way up there.
- 43:24So I, I love those things.
- 43:26On the other side of that, early four cylinders were awesome.
- 43:29M tens s fourteens, the, you know, the, the kind of that era stuff.
- 43:33But having to look at and deal with and spend money on for so many years,
- 43:39one of those in twenties, which is the Turbocharge four cylinder from a A two
- 43:43XF three X three series two series.
- 43:46Those things are not my favorite.
- 43:48They just don't hold up particularly well.
- 43:51Even in street form, they don't hold up particularly well.
- 43:54They make okay power.
- 43:56You know, I, I think the defining point from that is, um, you know, we,
- 43:59we were one of very few teams to race those, those engines and about three
- 44:05years into the program, and we finally figured out how to get those things to
- 44:09live more than two races, two races on a motor, you know, which involved lots
- 44:13of exotic parts and tuning and cooling.
- 44:15We, we spent two or 300 grand on cooling solution just to make that thing live.
- 44:19We had some BMW engineers over from Germany and, you know, they had their,
- 44:24their new M six that they're super proud of and yeah, we built this and,
- 44:27and come over and look at what other people are doing and, and they knew
- 44:30of our team and what we were doing.
- 44:31They wanted to come over because they couldn't believe that that engine.
- 44:35Lived in a racing environment and they're like, oh yeah, that
- 44:37was, that was a terrible motor.
- 44:39So it's like, yes, we know this.
- 44:40This is a terrible motor that's gonna go on my list of one of the, might not be
- 44:45the worst, but certainly one of the worst that BMW did followed by a 12 cylinder
- 44:50that from that 8 50, 7 50 or you know, some of the eight cylinders, that they
- 44:54just have little niggly things that just don't go quite right that make that a
- 44:58bad ownership experience for people.
- 45:00I don't really have any, any negative experiences.
- 45:02I, I can tell you po positive, obviously I'm, I'm partial to the
- 45:05S 14 in, in the, the S 38, right.
- 45:07The, the derivative of the M 88 that's in the E 24 M six s and the M fives.
- 45:12Like I was talking a minute ago, I, I love the sound of that, you know, one of
- 45:15my cars has really nice exhaust on it and just the way that, just the natural rumble
- 45:19sound of it, I think it's fantastic.
- 45:21And, you know, I gotta say, thank God it was an inline six.
- 45:25I had a, a fuel line that cracked and was spewing gas
- 45:28down the cold side of the motor.
- 45:30Had that been a V eight or something, it would've been a fire for sure.
- 45:32So, you know, kind of a side side bonus of, of having a. You know, an
- 45:37inline motor, you know I mentioned it earlier, seat for every ask.
- 45:40So these new BMW designs are all over the planet.
- 45:44And you know, it kind of makes me wonder what do we think about
- 45:48the, the whole evolution of BMW?
- 45:51Because if you look at it, I mean, they started with planes and motorcycles
- 45:55and then finally into cars, and it's been this constant just churn.
- 45:58We had the Bengal period, and most people don't realize that there's, even Bob Lutz
- 46:02is involved in this famous from gm, right?
- 46:04He's the one that coined the advertising phrase, the ultimate driving machine.
- 46:08And there's tons of jokes around that.
- 46:10You know, the ultimate driving machine, so long as it's sunny
- 46:12outside, you know, there's no rain, no snow or anything in the forecast.
- 46:15But what do we think about the future?
- 46:18I know, James, you said you're an early adopter, but.
- 46:21BMW's done some really interesting press releases recently, right?
- 46:24Saying they're gonna be the last of the Germans with an
- 46:27internal combustion engine.
- 46:28They were saying for the longest time, they were gonna
- 46:30be the last ones with a manual.
- 46:31They were gonna be the last ones to do all these kinds of things.
- 46:34And what do we think about that?
- 46:35What do we think about the direction they're headed?
- 46:37I do love so many things about BMW and, and, you know, I, I don't have
- 46:41a lot of bad things to say or a lot of negative things to say, and I, and
- 46:45I'll tell you, my ownership experience has been largely positive too.
- 46:48You mentioned your E 36 track car and probably too many fingers in that pie.
- 46:51And so, you know, that's a, that's certainly a factor.
- 46:54But I've, I've certainly been lucky to some good degree because I, I know there's
- 46:58stories out there, bad BMW ownership, but I've almost exclusively enjoyed every BMW.
- 47:02I've been in different things for different people.
- 47:04I enjoy different aspects of different cars.
- 47:08I don't have to love the whole thing.
- 47:09There's some things I scratch my head up.
- 47:11Certainly I'm, I'm driving and I ate right now.
- 47:13That's my daily and I, no offense, my, my bad.
- 47:16No, it's, and, and I don't love those, you know, this one's a Roadster and I, I
- 47:20think it looks much better than the other version, but, you know, it doesn't make
- 47:23the most power, but it does some things really well and it's, it's pretty cool.
- 47:26I do think the model proliferation.
- 47:29Is a little rough.
- 47:31I think sometimes a car is made and maybe nobody knows why that car is made.
- 47:36I drove, uh, oh eight fifties when they, the, the recent, the recent
- 47:39version, not the original version, but the recent version, which is
- 47:42a, a, a twin turbo hot BV eight.
- 47:45You know that thing, not the Grand Coupe, not the four door.
- 47:48And so this thing has like the longest nose on A BMW, it's like Packard
- 47:53nose and it's got not enough room to put anything notable in the trunk.
- 47:58I sat in the backseat one time and had to sit across the two seats.
- 48:02It's like this massive car with a backseat, like a nine 11 turbo.
- 48:06And yeah, I, I just don't get that.
- 48:08And I think unfortunately the market didn't get that one either.
- 48:11The grand Coops had some success and you know, the, the inmate is a pretty
- 48:15awesome car, but, you know, some of these experience school bus, right?
- 48:18But it's, you know, I, I talked to, you know, bill Arlin is one of our drivers
- 48:22and he has an inmate competition and he's like, yeah, that's what I want.
- 48:25I want a car that I can go 140 in cruise.
- 48:29And it's just plush and luxurious.
- 48:31He is like that, you know, some of the M 3M four stuff, it's hard for us to
- 48:35think of an M three and M four is raw, but compared to one of those inmates,
- 48:40they're a lot more raw than that.
- 48:42Certainly nothing compared to.
- 48:44You know, what an E 30 M three would be back in the day
- 48:46or, or something like that.
- 48:47Or even that E 46 M three, which is a high revving motor and, and still
- 48:51makes lots of noise, et cetera.
- 48:52But anything that, you know, the X Series stuff where there's not enough
- 48:56head room for the back passenger for the benefit of some styling queue, like
- 49:00the, you know, X four X six, you know, that deal with the slope rear roof line.
- 49:04I don't totally get that.
- 49:06Um, I mean, I was floored when I saw the X two the first time.
- 49:09I was like, what in the heck is this?
- 49:11Right.
- 49:12I didn't understand it.
- 49:13I don't, I don't get the, the, the round ls on the, on the C pillars either.
- 49:17It makes no sense.
- 49:18But uh, that's another design choice we won't get into.
- 49:22But to your point, even about the M eight, the joke I make there is
- 49:25because of all the IMSA jokes, right?
- 49:26It's the biggest car on track.
- 49:27I mean, it literally looks like a school bus out there compared to everything else.
- 49:30To your point about the model proliferation, before we go onto
- 49:33Donovan's feedback on this, what I don't understand right now, and you
- 49:37said it multiple times, the M 3M four, and you say it together now, M three,
- 49:41M four, what happened to the four door M three and the two door M three?
- 49:44Why did we have to add.
- 49:4619 other numbers to the scale, like it's so confusing now.
- 49:50I don't get it.
- 49:51You know, our web guys go absolutely nuts because every couple of weeks it feels
- 49:56like we're adding another chassis code and it's, I mean, it's intense, you know?
- 50:00It's their new way of cataloging and so be it.
- 50:02And you know, we're car guys, like we know that's an E 36 for the rest of the world.
- 50:06That's a, that's a 3 28 or that's an M three and they don't, you know, the
- 50:10car, the, the chassis code is, you know, and maybe it seems like everybody
- 50:14I talk to every day, but it's because I'm, I'm around car people every day.
- 50:17I don't know that the rest of the world cares as much as my catalog
- 50:20guys or you know, the group of people we're talking to now because we're
- 50:24just, we are chassis code guys.
- 50:26We're E 30.
- 50:26You know, we, you know, we're, we're rarely talking about models.
- 50:29We're talking about chassis, man.
- 50:30We, we went a while.
- 50:31You gotta remind me the question.
- 50:32What was the question again?
- 50:34We were talking about basically where we're at with all these different new
- 50:39BMW models and where the future is.
- 50:41And I have a follow on to this anyway, but.
- 50:43I think there's an aspect of BMW that maybe isn't connected as well
- 50:47to its past and the enthusiast part.
- 50:49And then I think there's another part that's very well connected and
- 50:51I think, you know, I will always own A BMW or multiples always.
- 50:55I, I'm sold for, for life.
- 50:56Right?
- 50:57And to me, I think there are other companies that I believe
- 51:00have kind of lost their way.
- 51:02Porsche, for example, right?
- 51:03They're still making fantastic cars, but to me they're a big corporate machine now.
- 51:08The boutique days are long gone and good for them, right?
- 51:10I mean it's, it's fantastic.
- 51:11They're making lots of money, but $85 for a t-shirt and things like that.
- 51:15And you know, the last Porsche meeting I went to, everybody around me was
- 51:19talking about, oh, I've bought my boxer now and you know, you probably didn't
- 51:23know anything about the history of, of Porsche before that, you know, and kind
- 51:26of the back to the hairdresser car.
- 51:27And again, good for them.
- 51:28Right?
- 51:29That's great Success in the corporate world.
- 51:31I think with BMW, I think there is that aspect of somebody in the corporate office
- 51:36going, I don't know, let's call it a one, two, three, four, five, six, seven
- 51:39M or let's, you know what I mean, where they're just throwing numbers and we got
- 51:42the doors with this, that, and the other.
- 51:43But I think there's a large group.
- 51:45I mean, look how many performance cars they make, right?
- 51:47They, they really understand that enthusiast market and really
- 51:51are still in touch with that.
- 51:52And not to say that other companies aren't, it feels like BMW nurtures that.
- 51:56Right?
- 51:56And, and I think, you know, I made the comment earlier about, you know,
- 51:59a lot of the fast and furious crowd graduated BMWs E 30 specifically, you
- 52:04know, now some other things I think that's been great for the brand.
- 52:06Right now it's, hey, BMW is important and as these new cars come out and, you
- 52:11know, I know we'll all get used to the, you know, the G cars and everything
- 52:14else and, and whatever's after that.
- 52:15But to me, you know, my F 80, when I get in it, it's to the point
- 52:19where I'm having to learn to trust.
- 52:22The limits of the car that I haven't found yet going in the mountains
- 52:24and things, I'm like, I don't know.
- 52:26You know, I'm I'm little.
- 52:27Oh, it, it hooked up.
- 52:28You know what I mean?
- 52:29It's, it's one of those kind of things where it's just, it's built
- 52:31to perform and it's not just another, uh, you know, sedan that they threw.
- 52:36You know, I, I haven't driven a, a Cadillac CTSV lately, but, you know,
- 52:39I imagine it's not something like that where they just shoved a big engine in
- 52:42it and hope, you know, for the best.
- 52:43Right.
- 52:43Go on.
- 52:43It's designed to be a performance car, which I think is amazing.
- 52:47So I think, you know, for me, there's kind of two faces there, right?
- 52:50There's that corporate model of, you know, the marketing group who.
- 52:53Doesn't seem to pay attention to the heritage of BMW the way that we would,
- 52:57but then there's that M group that's really, really kind of getting in there.
- 53:00But you know, that journey for me, you mentioned Bob LUTs, you know that his, his
- 53:03book Idiots and Icons, and I've heard he takes, you know, credit for more things
- 53:07than he actually was responsible for, but you know, he claims responsibility for the
- 53:112002 Turbo and, and Saban the round all the way it was and, and some other things.
- 53:15And maybe he was, but you know, you look back at those things, you know, the, the,
- 53:18the turbo for example, 2002 and then there was a gap for, you know, the, the 2002
- 53:22was around for a while and in various forms, tis and things, but really, you
- 53:26know, you had some other cars and then the E 21, which James loves, and then we
- 53:30got to the, to the E 30 M three, right?
- 53:32And that was kind of the first almost, I know we had M's, right?
- 53:35We had M fives and M sixes, but it was like, oh, we're gonna do this again.
- 53:38And then they've carried that on and it feels like they're making more performance
- 53:41oriented cars now than they were before.
- 53:44Um, they are obviously, but where I still get confused though,
- 53:47you know, I saw the other day.
- 53:48It was an X four M competition.
- 53:52I don't understand that at all.
- 53:53Right?
- 53:53To me, that's.
- 53:54Somebody in the marketing group is like, let's throw some labels on it
- 53:57so we can get a price tag for it.
- 53:58That's not really a performance.
- 53:59Yeah.
- 53:59We like to call that badge engineering.
- 54:01Right.
- 54:01And that's where I was kind of going with this in the sense of the future
- 54:04of BMW in that when one of our members, and one of our authors actually wrote
- 54:08an article about this and it was kind of the demise of the M badge, you know,
- 54:12like I don't think M holds as much value as it used to because they'll
- 54:16throw the M badge on anything to your point on our X five, on our next two.
- 54:20And you know, then there's the M 2 35 and the M1 30, you know, all
- 54:23this stuff and it makes no sense.
- 54:25Now granted, BMW is not the only guilty party here.
- 54:28Audi does the same thing.
- 54:29They will throw an S in an RSS on just about anything, right?
- 54:33It's like, what is going on over there?
- 54:35So there's a little bit of, I think, feel like badge engineering going on
- 54:38in the German manufacturers right now.
- 54:40Maybe they took a page outta Porsche's playbook because they
- 54:43started adding the alphabet after Carrera, you know, 20 years ago.
- 54:47We get it.
- 54:48But they took that from, from Chevy and, and Ford back in the
- 54:50eighties and, and late seventies.
- 54:52But I guess.
- 54:53It makes me just wonder where things are going.
- 54:55But it also raises another question and people don't realize.
- 54:58You know, you hear in the news now, even right now, Porsche and Rimac, right?
- 55:02It's a big deal.
- 55:03Like Porsche made a huge investment in Rimac.
- 55:05You know, Bugatti is part of the VAG family.
- 55:07You got Audi, you got Lamborghini, Volkswagen, all these like, it's
- 55:10now a big conglomerate, right?
- 55:12It's not just Porsche.
- 55:13And to your point, they've really transcended BMW people don't
- 55:17realize bought Rolls Royce.
- 55:19They own Mini Cooper, they own a lot of other brands in there.
- 55:22And are, you know, those of us that are in the know we go, oh X one.
- 55:26Yeah, that's a Mini Cooper, that's a countryman with different
- 55:28sheet metal on a big deal.
- 55:29Right?
- 55:29Stuff like that.
- 55:30Or you look at the minis and you go, well, it's a lot of BMW in here.
- 55:33You know, that kind of deal.
- 55:34Do you guys think that was the right move?
- 55:36Like has MW just kind of stepped to the side and said, oh, we gotta
- 55:40innovate by acquisition, right?
- 55:41We can't just do it alone anymore.
- 55:43I think there's a solid core in BM bmw.
- 55:45Donovan kind of, uh, said that as well, I think, and I, I don't think
- 55:49that just because there's a solid core to the company, there's very clearly
- 55:53a group of people in Germany, uh, I'm sorry, in Germany, in BMW, um,
- 55:58in the US and Germany that are very passionate about the roots of the brand.
- 56:02And, you know, there are some outspoken folks that won't let things go too far.
- 56:08Off the rails if they can help it.
- 56:10You know, to me that's part of a solid core.
- 56:12We lament so many things that the reality of it is we consumers we're
- 56:17not solely in control of the automotive market is a very difficult market.
- 56:22And to navigate where you're going to drive on a winding road that you've
- 56:26never seen before, you know it's tough.
- 56:28And you have to be prepared so far out ahead for so many
- 56:31different possible outcomes and shifts of how the industry goes.
- 56:35Just because you do it wrong occasionally.
- 56:38I think you have to be willing to do it wrong so you can evolve and do it right.
- 56:43And I think BMW isn't afraid to, to stick it out there and see if it works.
- 56:47You know, you're kind of, to your point before, Eric, do we do, are
- 56:49they just throwing it out there?
- 56:50I don't think that they're.
- 56:51Willy-nilly throwing it out there and just hoping something is gonna work.
- 56:55I think it's strategic on a variety of paths, many of which they
- 57:00feel very compelled to pursue.
- 57:02I know that they are on this model proliferation on the, the
- 57:06numerous models they now make.
- 57:08I think that that is very specifically to target a way that other manufacturers
- 57:13that they use as benchmarks have sold cars, and they feel like that's an
- 57:17important thing, that they'd love to just do it their way, but they're, they're
- 57:22gonna have to evolve and, and do some of these other things, but they still have
- 57:26that solid core that is a tremendous number of solid performance cars.
- 57:30So with that being said, and I know people are gonna hate me for this,
- 57:34and I already made, I already made the comparison between the E 36 and
- 57:36the Miata, but you know it, there's a lot of truth in that statement.
- 57:39But some of these other brands, specifically German and Italian brands,
- 57:43European, the big brands, they stand on these pedestals of racing, pedigree.
- 57:50Let's face it, Ferrari, Mercedes, Porsche, I mean, then the list goes
- 57:54on and on where they have these.
- 57:57Mountains of awards that they've won, and BMW does have racing pedigree,
- 58:01and we didn't really talk about it too much in motorsport, but I always feel
- 58:04like it's, it's a blip on the radar.
- 58:06And so these other companies, you know, their heritage comes
- 58:08from the racing pedigree.
- 58:10But for BMW, where does the heritage come from?
- 58:14German engineering and tradition.
- 58:16I, you know, I think there, there's certainly, um, part
- 58:18of that tradition is racing.
- 58:20I don't think that that's the only focus, you know, let's, we know that
- 58:24Porsche makes performance sports cars.
- 58:26That's what they do.
- 58:28And it's no shocker that using their production cars, which is performance
- 58:31sports, car market focused, that they have made tremendous race cars.
- 58:35Same for Ferrari.
- 58:36Mercedes rarely does it with their own production cars.
- 58:40Maybe a little bit recently they've dabbled, they'll build
- 58:43something and then, you know.
- 58:44Put their name on it, or, you know, I'm not gonna make fun of F1, but, but it's
- 58:49not, it's, it's not a Mercedes, you know?
- 58:51Let's face it.
- 58:51So b bmw.
- 58:52But even to your point, even, even to your point there, BMW dabbled in
- 58:56Formula One, it always feels like they're dabbling in motorsport, right.
- 58:59For a little bit.
- 59:00A little bit in IMSA and then they get out, right?
- 59:02They're always kind of there, but I never feel like they're at the front
- 59:06of Motorsport like they were for even a minute in lamonts with the V 12 LMR.
- 59:11But again, it's a blip in the radar because they were
- 59:13overshadowed by Audi, right.
- 59:14For many, many years after that.
- 59:16And so it's, it's always like, what's going on, guys?
- 59:19Like, pick something.
- 59:20I, I don't, I don't think that they are devoted to motorsport at a fool heart
- 59:25level, and not that the others are, you know, foolhardy in their pursuit.
- 59:28But I think there's always a very measured approach with BMW.
- 59:32And I think the world and the series organizers know that, that, you
- 59:35know, they're not here to stay.
- 59:36They're here to have a program and they put this program together and they run it.
- 59:39And they're not just headlong into this thing.
- 59:41No matter what happens, we're gonna have the leading F1 team.
- 59:45And they, they did it for a while and they were successful.
- 59:47And like I said before, they, they are a car manufacturer.
- 59:49They're not a racing car manufacturer, and they, they need to pivot as the
- 59:52industry pivots and F1 became not the important thing for them to pursue.
- 59:57If they stop pursuing it, you can't be afraid to stick your nose out and
- 1:00:01you can't be afraid to pull it back if you're gonna be an agile business.
- 1:00:04So it makes me wonder like some companies like Porsche and Ferrari, et cetera,
- 1:00:08that are at the front end of a lot of these motorsport, uh, disciplines that
- 1:00:12are out there, a lot of the technology that they develop, they use motorsport
- 1:00:16to refine and build and, and make better, and that eventually trickles
- 1:00:20its way down into the production cars.
- 1:00:23Is the same true of BMW because they don't spend, let's say,
- 1:00:26nearly as much time there.
- 1:00:27Are they using it as, you know, a science fair project?
- 1:00:30I don't, you know, I don't think it's a science fair project.
- 1:00:32You know, they, they got out of F1 when there was questionable future as
- 1:00:36to, as to what we're gonna be doing with internal combustion, et cetera.
- 1:00:39And then they, they started pursuing Formula E and they've gone after that
- 1:00:42when they were clearly behind in electric technology and they needed to get on
- 1:00:46board and spend more time on that.
- 1:00:47I don't, I don't think they're behind.
- 1:00:49I think they're innovative people.
- 1:00:50I don't think you have to innovate purely on the racetrack.
- 1:00:53Sometimes the racetrack is also the place to just show the world what you've done.
- 1:00:57Is it innovation?
- 1:00:58Is it showing the world what you've created and just, you know, you
- 1:01:01can't package it in a production car.
- 1:01:03So here it is on the racetrack for everybody to see.
- 1:01:05I like what they've done because I think it's prudent, prudent and racing
- 1:01:09maybe aren't the most compatible things.
- 1:01:11Um, you know, they're, they're certainly not for the most successful, you
- 1:01:15know, they're not for Ferrari, right?
- 1:01:17Nobody would say that their pursuit of motorsport excellence
- 1:01:19was necessarily prudent.
- 1:01:21But they took a different path and they, but they're a
- 1:01:23different company because of it.
- 1:01:24I, I think, you know, in this way.
- 1:01:27BMW has been true to its roots, which is a solid car.
- 1:01:30It's a performing car.
- 1:01:32You know, I often refer to it as a and and lovingly.
- 1:01:34So this is a working man's car.
- 1:01:36This is a, this is a little bit of a blue collar German car because I'm so
- 1:01:40fortunate, um, you know, from a Emerald standpoint to be in the BM BMW world.
- 1:01:45Because I can sell parts to people that make decisions and then
- 1:01:48put their hands on those parts when they put 'em on their car.
- 1:01:50That doesn't happen in Porsche world and, and Mercedes world,
- 1:01:53at least not to this level.
- 1:01:54So to those roots, I think the BM BMW approach has been pretty true.
- 1:01:58Donovan, anything you want to add before we segue?
- 1:02:01But I would say, you know, you talk about them being on a blip on the radar,
- 1:02:03I don't think that's totally fair.
- 1:02:05Right?
- 1:02:05You think about, you know, Mercedes was gone for many years after the Lamont
- 1:02:08incident and things, but you know, BMW is is kind of always been there, right?
- 1:02:12And, and kind of kicking ass when they do, even going back to seventies, like the CSL
- 1:02:15cars we talked about, you know, some of the other ones, the, the M three, the LMR,
- 1:02:20when they come on the scene, it's big, you know, I, I know what you mean about,
- 1:02:23they kind of come and they go, right?
- 1:02:24I'd love to see, you know, another BMW F1 team or a big, you know, l and
- 1:02:28p team and they'll get back to it.
- 1:02:29But I think when they do come in, it's big news.
- 1:02:33And you know, it's interesting.
- 1:02:34You guys are making a good point though.
- 1:02:35I never really thought about it this way, that, you know, I think
- 1:02:37it is absolutely true that Porsche develops nine 11 on the racetrack.
- 1:02:41I don't think BMW does that.
- 1:02:43Right.
- 1:02:43And I don't know.
- 1:02:44Right.
- 1:02:44But it, to me, it seems like the other way around, let's go out and, and
- 1:02:47test some technology or let's show off what we've done where we're not
- 1:02:49designing a race car for the street.
- 1:02:50It's kind of the other way around.
- 1:02:52So that's, I, I hadn't thought about it that way.
- 1:02:53It's kind interesting perspective, which I think is a great opportunity
- 1:02:57for us to now change gears.
- 1:02:59And talk a little bit about Bimmer World since James brought it up
- 1:03:02here as we were kind of wrapping up our talk on Motorsport.
- 1:03:06So for those of you that don't know what Biber World is, it is a premier
- 1:03:10North American BMW performance facility.
- 1:03:13Bimmer World Racing Drives development and keeps the company on the
- 1:03:16cutting edge of BMW performance.
- 1:03:18They make available for their customers applications for street, all the
- 1:03:22way through professional racing.
- 1:03:24And they are the most knowledgeable staff in the BMW market.
- 1:03:27So James, let's talk about Bber world as I've kind of set it up for you there.
- 1:03:31And tell us about the origin in the history.
- 1:03:33You alluded to being in, in BMW ownership from back in your college
- 1:03:37days, but how did you get from that?
- 1:03:39To being the president of Biber World.
- 1:03:41Oddly and I, I figured this out many years later, when you start
- 1:03:44a business, you are immediately the president of said business.
- 1:03:47So that wasn't that long of a path, as you might imagine, because I started
- 1:03:52my ownership of the BMW early on.
- 1:03:55We talked about that, the E 30 M three that I started taking to the racetrack.
- 1:03:58And since I was in college and I had enough money to buy the car, but
- 1:04:01not to do anything else, I started selling parts from the car back seats.
- 1:04:06You don't need those on a racetrack, AC compressor.
- 1:04:09You don't need that.
- 1:04:10You know the things out of the car.
- 1:04:12By definition, I was immediately president of Bimmer world.
- 1:04:15So I didn't, you know, didn't call it Bimmer World until
- 1:04:19maybe a couple years into that.
- 1:04:21And it was a way, you know, Bimmer World really is the name of my experience
- 1:04:25to be able to own, enjoy, appreciate, drive, race, whatever it is, BMW cars.
- 1:04:31And I'm lucky to have ended up, you know, with my nose down in a place that,
- 1:04:35that turned into a business with lots of great people that sells BMW parts to
- 1:04:40a, you know, a wide range of customer.
- 1:04:42But it was a long journey of figuring out how to keep a race car on track
- 1:04:46and, and do the things I love doing with the people I love doing it with.
- 1:04:49And so it, it just kind of turned into a company, I guess.
- 1:04:51So for those that don't know, what kind of products does Bimmer World offer?
- 1:04:54These days, we offer everything.
- 1:04:56We, we sell less expensive maintenance parts.
- 1:04:59Uh, you know, the aftermarket in the, in the way that, you know, if you,
- 1:05:02if you just need to have your car to get to work, we got you covered.
- 1:05:06We're cost effective.
- 1:05:07We sell floor mats.
- 1:05:08We sell stuff that my mom needs for her car, and then we, we sell.
- 1:05:13Racing parts and track parts and, you know, drifting parts.
- 1:05:17We haven't pursued some markets to the end of the earth, but we are, you know, in,
- 1:05:21in my opinion, it's a, it's a very wide range of products for anybody that owns A
- 1:05:26BMW and wants to get them from a supplier who can back them up with the knowledge
- 1:05:31on how to use them, how to select the right things, how to make the parts work
- 1:05:34in concert for the best possible outcome, which, you know, as you get more and
- 1:05:37more into the performance and racing world becomes a more important thing.
- 1:05:40For those of us that have been buying parts from Bimmer world, myself included,
- 1:05:44in every package you get, there's generally a couple things in the box.
- 1:05:49There's stickers and things like that, but what's the deal
- 1:05:52with the Haribo gummy bears?
- 1:05:54Not the gummy bears, right?
- 1:05:55The golden baron.
- 1:05:56So those are, those are straight from Germany and, and we go to great
- 1:06:01pains to get them from Germany.
- 1:06:02The FDA has tried to shut us down before.
- 1:06:05It's difficult to get the quantity of German.
- 1:06:08Golden baron that we get.
- 1:06:10But no, I just, I thought that'd be fun.
- 1:06:12You know, I, this whole business is the thing I like to do with
- 1:06:15the people I like doing it with.
- 1:06:17And it's fun and it needs to stay fun.
- 1:06:18And, and that's just one of those things, like I've always said to the
- 1:06:21people in, in our warehouse, you know, when somebody opens up package, it
- 1:06:24should feel like Christmas morning.
- 1:06:26So they should get a package that's well wrapped, that's well packaged,
- 1:06:29you know, that just looks like, gosh, that thing I've been waiting
- 1:06:32for and couldn't wait to arrive.
- 1:06:34And so it gets there and then, you know, there's more fun inside.
- 1:06:36It's, you know, there's parts, but then there's also, you know, the stickers,
- 1:06:40the gummy bears, the gold bear.
- 1:06:41And then, I don't know, I just thought it was a nice touch and, you know, it's,
- 1:06:44it's grown into something I never thought it would because sometimes we can be a
- 1:06:48slave to the bears and, and you know, I, I know when we're out of bears or
- 1:06:53you know, when they've, when we've had a shipment that wouldn't get clear customs
- 1:06:56or whatever, because I start getting hit.
- 1:06:58On social, you know, where are my bears?
- 1:07:00I didn't get the bears with the last shipment, you know, so it, it's a
- 1:07:02thing now, but that's all right.
- 1:07:04It's a fun thing.
- 1:07:05So was that something like when you were first getting started you were just
- 1:07:08like, uh, you just chuck it in the box?
- 1:07:10Like, why the gummy bears is just because No, not even because I used to get
- 1:07:14stuff when I was building my car back in the day with, from summit racing.
- 1:07:17I used to get stuff in the, in the box and stickers and stuff like that.
- 1:07:20I'm like, this, what's this crap?
- 1:07:21I don't need this.
- 1:07:22You know?
- 1:07:23I don't know, maybe I turn the corner, but, you know, at some point
- 1:07:25I, it just, it became fun, right?
- 1:07:27It's, I, I, I have no idea why, and I have no idea why they're German.
- 1:07:31I, I'll tell you what, I do a lot of my best, most creative work at like 3:00
- 1:07:36AM in the morning, and, and I don't do as many 3:00 AM work sessions as
- 1:07:40I used to, but sometimes, especially when I'm writing something or whatever,
- 1:07:44it just rolls at 3:00 AM That's just, that's the golden hour for me.
- 1:07:48And I have a feeling that this is one of those ideas that came up as I'm.
- 1:07:53At my desk doing work, dumping out whatever, whatever happens
- 1:07:56at those hours of the, the night.
- 1:07:58I, I've had a lot of horrible ideas.
- 1:08:00Um, so I'm, I'm glad we're talking about gummy bears, not.
- 1:08:03You know, hundreds of thousands of dollars that we've blown
- 1:08:06on failed racing programs.
- 1:08:07But, you know, they, they're all probably from that similar,
- 1:08:10uh, period of, of the evening.
- 1:08:12And for some reason it just felt like a good idea.
- 1:08:14I think it's a great idea.
- 1:08:15To me it's that added delight of, you know, oh cool, I got something special.
- 1:08:19And you think about it, package design is really important.
- 1:08:21Three times you open an Apple product and you're like, wow, this is really
- 1:08:23put together well, or you know, and I love the stickers too, so any stickers
- 1:08:27you wanna throw away, send my way.
- 1:08:28And we all have buddies that have them plastered all over
- 1:08:30their toolboxes and everything.
- 1:08:31There's a home for all this somewhere.
- 1:08:32So I think it's a really cool, absolutely.
- 1:08:34Awesome.
- 1:08:34Thank you.
- 1:08:35What's on the horizon?
- 1:08:36Is there anything new?
- 1:08:37Anything you want to tell the audience about with respect to Bimal?
- 1:08:41We just keep growing and we just keep doing what we do.
- 1:08:43I, again, you know, for me it's a, it's a lot about being able to do BMW things.
- 1:08:48I'm working to be able to do more of those things to kind of broaden our horizons.
- 1:08:52Um, Kevin, our marketing manager, came up with the idea, it's like,
- 1:08:55Hey, we're so focused on this racing world, in this performance world.
- 1:08:59There's a lot of other BMW worlds out there.
- 1:09:01So we're, we're working to kind of pursue those and enjoy those and
- 1:09:04participate alongside our customers.
- 1:09:07I think that's our current focus.
- 1:09:08I mean, we're, you know, we're working on race cars and new race programs.
- 1:09:11The GT four or GT three, I guess M four is coming out.
- 1:09:14We've got this pikes car that's, that's ridiculous and that thing's
- 1:09:17gonna gonna keep getting some love.
- 1:09:19And so there's, there's plenty of projects that we're working on,
- 1:09:22but you know, we're just trying to do everything BMW and do it well.
- 1:09:25And you know, I think that's our pursuit right now.
- 1:09:28And you actually brought up a really good point on our previous get together.
- 1:09:31When we talked, you were wearing your powerflex hat
- 1:09:33and not your Biber world hat.
- 1:09:35You guys were getting geeked and getting psyched up to take the E 36 2 Pikes Peak.
- 1:09:39So let's talk about that.
- 1:09:41How did it turn out?
- 1:09:42Good, the bad, the indifferent?
- 1:09:43So it was good.
- 1:09:45It was good in that it was a three and a half year project
- 1:09:47and we finally had that baby.
- 1:09:49It's an E 36 in loose words, but it is an E 36 with lots of E 36 DNA.
- 1:09:54It did go up the mountain successfully and quickly.
- 1:09:57You know, with a project this large in scope, I guess wasn't really
- 1:10:00a concern of mine because I know that the guys I'm working with,
- 1:10:02but I was proud to see that happen.
- 1:10:04It's the craziest car I've ever driven.
- 1:10:06The first time I've driven it.
- 1:10:08With the big motor, we dino it at 1,110 horsepower, but we couldn't
- 1:10:14put enough weight on the tires to, to keep 'em from spinning.
- 1:10:17So we don't know actually how much it made, but we know that we threw
- 1:10:20a hundred more millibar a boost at it on the mountain, and we
- 1:10:24made more power on the mountain.
- 1:10:25So we assume it's somewhere around, we'd said initially when we built
- 1:10:28the car, 1350 at, at the crank.
- 1:10:30And you know, we're, we're probably much closer to that at the tire right now.
- 1:10:35So Pike's Peak is this ridiculous event where you wake up at one something
- 1:10:39every morning so that you can be at, you know, on the mountain in line at
- 1:10:42three 30 in the morning, and you go up to your section in the dark, and then
- 1:10:46just as the sun starts to peak up and you've had your third or fourth coffee,
- 1:10:49you're starting to wake up a little bit.
- 1:10:52You strap into this thing and get launched, like it's a space shuttle
- 1:10:55and it's quite the wake up call and that was one of the most terrifying
- 1:11:00things I've ever, you know, to get woken up like that every morning, like
- 1:11:02here we go in this ridiculous machine.
- 1:11:05It was nuts.
- 1:11:06But it was amazing to get to your point, we finished third in class, ninth overall,
- 1:11:09we didn't get to run to the top 'cause there was ice on the top of the mountain,
- 1:11:12snowed eight inches the night before.
- 1:11:14It was foggy on the way up.
- 1:11:16It was an interesting event.
- 1:11:17But I love the car, I love the car I was in.
- 1:11:20I had so much fun in that thing and I'm gonna have a lot of fun as we
- 1:11:22continue to develop it for next year's hundredth running of that event.
- 1:11:26So I gotta ask, because I'm sure the audience is wondering too,
- 1:11:291300 horsepower, let's just say theoretically, out of which BMW motor.
- 1:11:35It's an E 36, so it's, you know, wait, it has to be an E 36 motor, right?
- 1:11:39No, no, of course not.
- 1:11:40It's, and that's the best thing about an E 36.
- 1:11:43They can be anything.
- 1:11:44So that's out of a P 63, which is the Motorsport version of an S 63 tu, which
- 1:11:52is the current and outgoing M six GT three motor that we've hopped up quite a bit.
- 1:11:58So V eight twin turbo.
- 1:11:59Lots of boost.
- 1:12:00That's gnarly, man.
- 1:12:01That's really cool.
- 1:12:04So, any lessons, any lessons learned from that car?
- 1:12:08That's an experiment.
- 1:12:09It's also just throw it out there and show what we figured out, show
- 1:12:12what we can do, and we work with our partners on a build like this.
- 1:12:16And we do, we do stuff that's, it's really hard to translate it
- 1:12:19into things our customers will do.
- 1:12:21We certainly learned things.
- 1:12:23We've, you know, we were on a, a set of MCS four ways that, that's their
- 1:12:27new damper design and we got some good experience with those and, you know,
- 1:12:31had some revisions and so forth that, that will serve us well as we, as we
- 1:12:34bring those to market various things.
- 1:12:36It, you know, we're, we're not gonna put a transaxle in a lot of people's cars.
- 1:12:39We're not gonna put arrow at the, the level that this car has it on anyone's
- 1:12:43car, but, you know, we're, we're gonna go to the wind tunnel and we'll get to, we'll
- 1:12:46get to play with Arrow on a project that has the budget for that, and then we'll
- 1:12:49be able to translate that in general terms to things that we do with customer cars
- 1:12:53and our own product line and so forth.
- 1:12:55So there's always learning opportunities and the better you get at translating
- 1:12:59'em to the things that make money instead of just blow money, the more
- 1:13:02successful we are at our business.
- 1:13:04In closing, anything else you'd like to add about bimmer world that you wanna
- 1:13:07share with the rest of the audience?
- 1:13:09I say it and, and maybe, uh, not often enough.
- 1:13:11First of all, in the, and the core thing is, you know,
- 1:13:14Bimmer world is, is our people.
- 1:13:15And, and I love people I work with and what we do, and I love
- 1:13:19that our customers do as well.
- 1:13:20I get a lot of great feedback on that.
- 1:13:22We're all here doing it because we love doing it.
- 1:13:24And so that's kind of a core piece to me.
- 1:13:26But I love growing stuff.
- 1:13:27I, I love just for growing stuff, just for that reason.
- 1:13:30Just like, I want to go fast just because I want to go fast, because I
- 1:13:34wanna win races just because you should be standing at the top of the podium.
- 1:13:36It's just, it's, you know, the, the drive to grow things.
- 1:13:39But I'll tell you in the, in the world of larger business and private equity
- 1:13:44and all that stuff, I'm really thankful to have chosen a career that I'm able
- 1:13:48to still do what I love with people.
- 1:13:50I love doing it with and without any of the BS that seems to, if you're
- 1:13:55not careful, find its way into to the thing that you like doing and.
- 1:13:58Make it not as much fun as it used to be.
- 1:14:00Thanks.
- 1:14:01Thanks everybody for supporting us and giving me that opportunity.
- 1:14:04And I, we get thanks a lot for, you know, the things that we do, but can't
- 1:14:07thank my staff and my customers enough for really allowing me to do what I do.
- 1:14:11So yeah, that's awesome.
- 1:14:12A lot of us are still trying to realize that dream, right?
- 1:14:15Doing what we love and getting paid to do it, I suppose.
- 1:14:18But, uh, that, that's super admirable and very awesome and congratulations
- 1:14:21on all your guys' success over these many, many years of being in business
- 1:14:24with Bimmer World and going from just BMW enthusiasts to, you know, this,
- 1:14:28this big company and big support system for BMW and BMW enthusiasts.
- 1:14:33So I do have one.
- 1:14:35Kind of pit stop s question that I've been holding before we wrap up here.
- 1:14:39And it's for both of you guys.
- 1:14:41So I'm gonna make this one optional.
- 1:14:42We ask this a lot.
- 1:14:43It's the, you know, the island question we call it, or the the three car garage.
- 1:14:48So I'm curious your guys' opinion, and I've probably asked you both this
- 1:14:51before on previous pit stops, but just to refresh our audience's mind, you
- 1:14:55have the option of filling your three car garage with three BMWs and it's the
- 1:14:58only three BMWs you can have for the rest of your life or any three cars.
- 1:15:03And money is no object.
- 1:15:04So I'll start with Donovan.
- 1:15:06What's in your three car garage?
- 1:15:07Oh man, I'm gonna say BMW since this is a BMW question and I'm gonna
- 1:15:12exclude anything that I currently own.
- 1:15:14So I'll go high side M one's gotta be in there just for the collector value.
- 1:15:19I think Dixie and A and an O2 turbo.
- 1:15:21I think those are gotta be, I mean, and I'm taking the, the
- 1:15:24collector ish out of it, right?
- 1:15:25Assuming they're all equal.
- 1:15:27Yeah, we'll stick with that.
- 1:15:28James, what do you think?
- 1:15:29Yep.
- 1:15:30BMWs, because that's what we're talking about.
- 1:15:32I think I'm gonna put that 3 28 in there and I might take it out of
- 1:15:35the garage occasionally, especially since I didn't pay anything for it.
- 1:15:38It just transported its way into my three car garage, which I also don't have.
- 1:15:41But you know, whatever, there's gotta be an E 36.
- 1:15:44I absolutely love them.
- 1:15:45And since I get to choose whatever I want, I wanna take that chia E
- 1:15:5036, because I think that's the most gorgeous car BMW made and you know,
- 1:15:54of a, of an arrow of the touring cars that I just absolutely loved.
- 1:15:57So the chia E 36 will be in there.
- 1:16:00And then, because we've gotten the opportunity to talk about 'em so
- 1:16:03much tonight, and a little thumb of the nose to some people out there.
- 1:16:07I'm gonna put a G 80 in there because I think they're gorgeous and I'm
- 1:16:11gonna back that puppy in so that when I open the garage door, all
- 1:16:14you get to see is the the grill.
- 1:16:16And I think you may not appreciate it now, but you're gonna learn to
- 1:16:19love it whether you like it or not.
- 1:16:23Oh, that's awesome.
- 1:16:24That's awesome.
- 1:16:25Well folks, for more information on BMWs, your source has got to be Bimmer World.
- 1:16:31You can find them@www.bimmerworld.com or Instagram and Facebook at Bimmer World.
- 1:16:38But if you wanna continue this chat or express your opinions, be
- 1:16:41sure to join Donovan on Garage.
- 1:16:44Riot the social media platform for Petrolhead like you@www.garageriot.com
- 1:16:50or download the Garage Riot app.
- 1:16:52From the Apple or Google Play stores and sign up today for free.
- 1:16:56So that being said, both of you gentlemen, this has been a blast.
- 1:16:59I know you, I gave you both grief.
- 1:17:01I, I understand both your passion, your love, and your pain for BMWs.
- 1:17:06And you know, I can't thank you both enough for coming on the show.
- 1:17:08I think this has been a lot of fun.
- 1:17:10Believe people learn something along the way and, you know, if you've got
- 1:17:13comments, questions, or suggestions, you know where to put 'em, drop us a line
- 1:17:20on, uh, Instagram or Facebook or any of the social media platforms we're on.
- 1:17:24We're happy to hear from anybody out there.
- 1:17:26But again, thank you to both of you guys for coming on here.
- 1:17:28This has been really awesome.
- 1:17:29Yeah, thanks for having me again.
- 1:17:30Yeah, thanks so much.
- 1:17:31And, and this is a podcast, so it's audio only.
- 1:17:34So everybody won't get to appreciate.
- 1:17:36One of the things that I enjoyed most is every time you would say
- 1:17:39something about BMWs, it was negative.
- 1:17:41I love Donovan's eye roll and then like, look up in the corner or whatever.
- 1:17:45Amazing.
- 1:17:46So just know that, that you're up against two BMW guys and
- 1:17:49it's not a fair fight tonight.
- 1:17:51Alright, well we'll have you back for the VAG episode then.
- 1:17:53Then I, I can really get beat up on Oh boy.
- 1:17:58And on that phone, Michelle,
- 1:18:04if you like what you've heard and want to learn more about gtm, be sure to
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- 1:18:15Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can call
- 1:18:19or text us at (202) 630-1770 or send us an email at crew chief@gtmotorsports.org.
- 1:18:27We'd love to hear from you.
- 1:18:29Hey everybody, crew Chief Eric here.
- 1:18:31We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Break Fix, and we wanted
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