By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

Is this tacky, or cool? A BMW M5 with a very unique M5 paint scheme is either something you’ll love or hate. I the lines and how the M5 looks like the real logo, but I still feel something is missing. Comment below what you think is missing, and read more at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

Tonight Hollywood Blvd went up in smoke. No, it wasn’t the premier of the long awaited remake to the Cheech and Chong Classic (see: Express, Pineapple). The smoke enveloping the touristy Hollywood and Highland area was of the spent tire variety from the likes of BFGoodrich, Falken and Nitto. And it was all part of a drift demo produced by Formula Drift. Hit the jump to see how and why FD scorched the Walk of Fame plus some quick videos from the event.

Continue reading "Video: Formula Drifters Tear up Hollywood Blvd" »

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

The 2011 BMW M5 is the ultimate driving machine every way you look at it! Sports car speed and handling with luxury and road manners that everyone can enjoy, the 2011 BMW M5 is the pinnacle of four door performance. Spied tearing up Nurburgring with twin turbo enjoyment, the 2011 BMW M5 proves itself to be a very capable vehicle.

Not much is known about the new vehicle yet, but we can be assured by the BMW logo it is automotive perfection. BMW prides itself on building high performance vehicles that can be driven safely by all drivers. With a twin turbo V8 turning out just under 600 horsepower, this spunky sedan is a nice blend of daily driver and performance monster that everyone can enjoy! Great job BMW, read more about the 2011 BMW M5 at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

So what do you think of this crazy gold M5 on Jalopnik? And did Vivid Racing beat Russia to the punch with the gold 7-series they ran in Gumball? More pics after the jump!

Continue reading "Gold M5" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

How do you like the body kit and paint on Ghanim’s M5? Looks like he maybe customized the Hamann kit?

As if Chris Bangle didn’t do enough to this poor 5er, this M5 got some more "help" from Kerscher and AC Schnitzer. Check out the partially smoked head- and tail-lamps. Max Factor called, I think he wants his eyeliner pen back. More views after the jump.

Continue reading "Eyeliner on an M5" »

Check out this crazy BMW M5 Ute, which was finished a few days ago by Stuart Appleby in Australia. Jalopnik has a huge gallery of photos. Stuart definitely needs to update his website, but then again, it looks like he’s been pretty busy.

Over the past week I’ve been selling a bunch of items here and there to try and make a little loot. One such item is my old BMW M5. You see, it was getting up there in age, performance was still everything it ever was, but since I just started my business MR. ANGRY INC. and needed the capital, it had to go. I checked all the other prices on used M5’s on the net and then low-balled all of them by three grand. By doing this I sold in the car in about 40 minutes. A gentleman called, we struck a deal and POOF!! M5 is sold.

Now this is where is gets interesting. You see, after I posted that it was sold, I began receiving multiple emails from other M5 owners telling me how I was doing "them" a disservice by selling my car under the normal value, and that by doing this I was actually dropping the values of their cars… WTF? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

These are e-mails from people I don’t know, and yet they feel the need to tell me how the sale of my car affects them–simply amazing. I sell my car, take the hit and the rest of the jackass peanut gallery out there decides I’m to blame for decline in prices of an eight year old German muscle car.

Ladies and gentleman, you frickin’ kill me. Now go out and there, do something productive and stop wasting my time with your BS comments. Schmucks…

Ever have one of those weeks where just about everything went wrong? Well, last week was my week for everything in my garage to turn to crap. Let’s start with Monday. It was a great day here in NYC and I decided to take my 2001 BMW M5 out for a little jaunt. Keep in mind that this car is no spring chicken. I say this because once you say BMW and M5 in the same sentence people get certain ideas in their heads, like you probably go to country clubs and buy expensive t- shirts and stuff. My old M5 has 91k miles on the clock and over the past six months has been beating me senseless with repairs. The newest issue seems to be a fun knocking noise coming from the driver’s side front end. I’ve heard everything from thrust arm bushings (no idea what those are), to the steering rack, to the struts. Either way I know it’s going to be expensive, because, well, M5 and cheap never follow each other. I brought the car into the mechanic only to find the sound had stopped. Typical, right? So, I picked the car up, drove thirty miles and the sound came back. Simply astounding…

Next up, my trusty old 1997 Mercury Villager, AKA, the "Danger VAN." This old girl is the work horse of the fleet with 117k miles. Now I know some of you out there will snicker at the fact that I drive a minivan as a daily driver, but ya’ll can go scratch because I LOVE this thing. I don’t worry about parking anywhere, I can haul parts in it and it only cost $2,500. Until now, that is. On Thursday I was driving through the Midtown tunnel into NYC, air conditioner blasting, radio on, when I looked down and saw the temp needle BURIED in the red. OH SH*T! Being in NYC and broken down is one thing, being stuck in the Midtown tunnel one hour before rush hour is something completely different. I limped the van out of the tunnel and right into a parking garage. It was pissing anti-freeze and smoking like an SOB. Crap, there goes car #2.

Fast forward to Saturday. I was heading to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) in Hyde Park, NY in the Charger with some friends, when I went to get off an exit ramp and the power steering started whining like a stuck pig. I pulled off and checked the reservoir only to find it completely empty. Ah…the joys of old car ownership. Luckily I had a quart of power steering fluid with me and put it in only to watch it start to drip right out. Wonderful. Now keep in mind that the Charger is my ROCK. Yes, it’s old but this car has NEVER left me stranded. Now here I was 75 miles from home with a leaking power steering pump. Ugh… It did get me home, though.

So now I sit here typing this with my three cars all needing work. Four if you count the Daytona, but that’s a whole ‘nuther story. The Charger I can fix myself, so no worries there. The BMW, well, I have no idea how fix that strudel wagon. And the Danger Van, I may be lucky enough to get away with a thermostat, new belts and fan–unless of course the head gasket blew, then it just gets donated to charity. Either way, though, this was a rough week, and I know the bill is going to suck when all is said and done.

I don’t know, maybe I should sell everything and buy one good vehicle. Problem, there is nothing out that can do everything. So like I said earlier. UGH.

Continue reading "The Fleet is Down!" »

As a consumer I suppose I do my fair share of complaining just like anybody else, but I have to admit I am getting my ass handed to me at the pump these days. I also have four cars, all of which fulfill a certain "purpose." You see, as an enthusiast, I love to drive–doesn’t matter if it’s to the grocery store, the local car wash or a on nice road trip. Well, this weekend pretty much beat me down in the wallet as I ended up making two round trip excursions from Queens, NY to Boston, MA. Thats 209 miles x 4 or 836 miles in total. For the first drive I opted to take our 2001 BMW M5. It may be seven years old and have 90,000 miles on it, but it runs like a clock and will still spank the majority today’s performance cars. Problem is, though, it takes only premium, that meant a $74 dollar gas bill for a round trip. Ooof.

Another problem arose on Sunday when I had to go back up to Boston. The weather was suppose to be beautiful for the next two days and as I was making the trip back up to Bean Town by my lonesome I opted to take the Charger. This was all fine and dandy until I realized I was only averaging about 8 mpg at speeds of 85 mph and up (I was practicing for my upcoming Bullrun). That meant four fill-ups in total as I still had some driving to do when I was actually in Boston. This is where it began to hurt, the first round trip run in the M5 was $74 bucks, then each subsequent Charger fill up was around $65- $68, and there were four of those. So lets see, 74+66+66+66+66 (I’ve averaged) totals $338… WOOF!!!!

This is actually a little scary, because for the first time in my life, I am going to have curb what I love doing the most–driving. Hopefully fuel costs won’t be doing the same to everyone out there in CarDomain land as well.