BMW 2002 turbo: The Car So Aggressive It Was Debated in the German Parliament There aren’t many production cars that have ended up in a national parliament debate. A war memorial, sure. A political scandal involving a transport minister, occasionally. But an actual production sports car argued over at federal government level for the design … Read more
BMW X5 Le Mans: The SUV That Beat the Cayenne Two Years Before the Cayenne Existed Hans-Joachim Stuck took a BMW X5 around the Nordschleife in June 2001. Seven minutes, forty-nine seconds, ninety-two hundredths. Three hundred and eleven kilometres per hour on the Kottenborn straight. The first SUV in history to break the eight-minute barrier … Read more
BMW NAZCA C2: THE M1 SUCCESSOR BMW WAS TOO SCARED TO BUILD A 350 hp BMW V12 that weighed less than a Mini Cooper S For all the heritage BMW has built around the M1, for all the magazine covers Top Gear and Evo have given the M1 Hommage and the more recent retro pieces, … Read more
The V16 Goldfisch: BMW’s Secret Engine That Forced Mercedes to Build 85 Prototypes in Response Most automotive readers know the headlines on this one. A brown BMW 750iL with science-fiction air scoops behind the rear wheels and the radiators stuffed into the boot, hidden in BMW Classic’s warehouse for decades, finally rolled out at Techno-Classica … Read more
BMW M5 E60: The Most Ambitious Engine BMW Ever Built, Bolted Into the Most Hated Chassis They Ever Sold Sixty-one thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds in 2005. Twenty-two thousand pounds today. That’s what Top Gear quoted in their best-ever V10s retrospective for a clean E60 M5. Sixty-five percent depreciation in twenty years. By way … Read more
BMW Z8: The Car Top Gear Trashed in 2000 Now Outprices Every Rival It Lost To Two hundred grand. That’s what a concours BMW Z8 trades for today, on either side of the Atlantic. A pristine Aston Martin DB7 Volante from the same year sits at about fifty. A Ferrari 360 Spider, seventy to eighty. … Read more
BMW 507: The Most Beautiful Car BMW Ever Built Almost Killed the Company Walk into any decent auction in Monterey or Pebble Beach and one of these things will cross the block for two million dollars. Minimum. The Surtees car went for nearly five. People queue up for the privilege of bidding on something that … Read more
DTM: How German Brands Created, Dominated, and Killed Their Own Championship DTM is the story of a suicide in slow motion. A brilliant championship, with the best touring cars in the world, cutting-edge technology, and elite drivers, that was destroyed by the very brands that created it. It wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t bad luck. … Read more
BMW M1: The Supercar That Almost Wasn’t and That BMW Never Dared to Repeat Introduction: When BMW Wanted to Play in the Big Leagues BMW decided it wanted to play in the big leagues. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche. The folks in Munich wanted a mid-engine supercar to compete in Group 4 and, while they were at … Read more
BMW M3: How to Kill an Icon with Cylinder Counts and Turbos Introduction: The Birth of a Legend The M3 was born naturally aspirated. Everything else is an excuse. There is a truth that few want to hear: the BMW M3 died years ago. What remains today is a heavy sedan with All-Wheel Drive, an … Read more
