By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

BMWs are known for exotic and luxurious goodies, but I’ve never seen “life vest” as an option. Boating illegally without proper flotation devices and sinking into the abyss, this BMW owner boldly goes where no BMW should ever go. Maybe he thought the BMW logo was a boat propeller! Read more about the soggy 3-Series failure at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

Have you ever noticed that the car model you owned in the past has grown in size, in weight, and in displacement? This phenomenon affects almost every car line from BMW to Honda, with a few exceptions. Remember when the name Honda was synonymous with lightweight, economical cars? The company established itself in the United States in 1970 with the N600, a small four-seater. It hit pay dirt with the introduction of the larger 1973 Honda Civic, a car that was light and fuel-efficient yet could fit four adults in modest comfort. Honda sold many first-generation Civics during its seven-year run, as the car was just what Americans needed during the first OPEC oil embargo. During subsequent redesigns, Honda offered more Civic models. What had been just a two-door truncated sedan became a three-door hatchback, a formal four-door sedan, even a five-door wagon. Engine size increased as well, growing from a 1.3-liter four-cylinder to a 2.5-liter. Read more about the ever growing models, including BMW, and a surprise Detroit entry at Automotive Traveler.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

These two Bimmers are parked across the street from our office—I just snapped this pic from my cube. I’ve always loved the 80s 5-series—they just look so tough. As for the newer 3-series… I’m still not so sure. How about you? Which do you prefer? Old or new?

Just look at this lunatic showoff! Not something you want to try with your own ride—I mean, that BMW is sounding pretty rough, and I’m sure the abuse is to blame. While the ghost-riding was suicidal enough, the point where I really thought things were gonna hit the fan was when the random bystander hopped in to become a defiantly unsecured passenger. Crazy much?

Ok, wraps with lots of graphics and stuff can be kind of cool, but how about doing a wrap for a color change? Check out this 3-series in Munich, Germany. I guess the guy thought white would look better than black. There have been a lot of matte black wraps lately, too, like the one on this F430. Keep in mind this treatment costs anywhere from $1,500 to $4,000, and the door jams, etc., remain unchanged. So what do you think of this trend? More pics of the Bimmer after the jump. Source: e90post.com via Jalopnik.

Continue reading "Color Change Via Wrap?" »

You can take that banner-sized euro license plate and replace it with one of our tin postage stamps. Because for 2009, the US-issue BMW 335 is going to be available with a twin-turbocharged 3.0L inline-six diesel that makes 265hp. The 335d, and its gas-powered 335i and 328i brethren, will also get a mild facelift and come equipped with a crapload of whizz-bang wireless gagetry. More at edmunds.

Vince’s background is in mechanical engineering, and his day job involves designing patentable algorithms for predicting online users’ behavior. His 2001 BMW 3-series track car is his hobby and obsession, and he admits to geeking out a bit on it:

Why a geeky car? In my opinion, the joys of modifying my car is not to constantly look for horsepower performance. The subtleties of modifying for the better involves looking at implicit parameters, such as optimizing flow under the car, through the oil cooler, the angle of the splitter, the flow in the forced induced plumping right down to the driver’s accessibility in the cabin and comfort.

What makes this track car unique? Most of the projects and parts put together are NOT off the shelves. Most of them are fabricated from materials from local hardware stores and companies that carry specialty equipments (eg Pitot tubes and sensors).

Man, I really hope I get to check out this car out at Buttonwillow in June. Be sure to click through to his ride page to see everything he has done to it. His steering wheel (stock Sparco with BMW paddle shifters attached) is impressive enough, but you’re sure to be impressed by some of the other tweaks and gadgets.

Want to learn more about the Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge? Check out cardomain.com/grm! And yes, we’re still looking for green track cars!

e30 Bimmers are all the rage with the GRM crowd these days, and I’m beginning to see why. I got a ride in a spec e30 car at VIR last year, and they can definitely be made into fun little track cars without a huge investment. It looks like Robert has built himself a pretty cool one–with turbo power:

We believe this is the only 4 cylinder turbo being raced in BMW CCA Club Racing, and it was built by two complete amateurs, in my garage. All the rage in the BMW community has been to add Euro parts, and if engine swaps were done it was to add cylinders not remove them. Regardless of that fact, we pulled our 6 cylinder and built a turbo DOHC 4 cylinder.

I really liked this shot of Robert’s garage, and yep, those are operating room lights. Be sure to click through to his ride page, which has lots of great photos and more details on the build. Robert is really hoping to be invited to the Ultimate Track Car Challenge at Buttonwillow in June, and I’m hoping to see him and his car out there.

Motor Authority reports that China’s Lifan Auto has appropriated the design of BMW’s Mini Cooper, creating an uncannily similar vehicle that they’re calling the "3-series" (sound familiar?). Chinese automakers’ penchant for copycatting is getting them kicked out of a lot of parties—but hey, if you’re looking for a reasonable facsimilie of a legitimate car that’s thousands of dollars cheaper than the real thing and will kill you in your first 10-mph collision, Lifan might be your new best friend.

I didn’t like the E30 3-series when it came out in 1984. My dad had owned a 1600 (the predecessor to the 2002) and I thought the E30 looked like a sellout yuppie mobile. Well, compared to  BMW’s current offerings, the E30 seems like a simple purist machine. E30s are becoming increasingly sought after, and the spec E30 racing series is getting quite popular. There are still lots out there, but nice ones tend to get snapped up quick. And good luck finding a nice, reasonably priced E30 M3.

We have tons of cool E30s on our site. This rare 325iX has a Megasquirt engine management system. Ben’s car is gonna be sick when it’s done. Brian’s M3 is stroked and is putting out 275 hp. Piper Motorsports has by far the craziest E30 on CarDomain. And Pat seems to be addicted to Bimmers in general and E30s in particular (see pic below).