[E82tt6]

Photobucket link: http://s161.photobucket.com/albums/t238/Cvickers13/









Review (very long):

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Alrighty, forget that, it was just the best of times! This was one of the very best vacations I’ve ever been on, possibly the best. My only regret is not being able to take more time, and having to wait another month and a half to get my car back in the United States! I spent time in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Lichtenstein, and drove on roads that I can only describe as some of the best I’ve ever been on. My father accompanied me, and it definitely qualified as the best “Family” vacation I’ve ever taken.

The trip started with a flight from Newark to Munich, and as one might expect, it was nearly two hours late thanks to the lovely air traffic situation in the New York metro area. Lufthansa always provides solid service, and free booze, though if I were to do it again, I might spring for Business Class, things are a bit tight back in coach. Landing in Munich and getting through Customs and Immigration is an absolute breeze. It makes you wonder what we do wrong with our system! It took about 15 minutes, and most of that was waiting for the bags to get off of the plane.

After collecting luggage, it was off the train station to catch a ride to BMW Welt. There was a patient individual at the ticket counter that spoke better English than I did who was able to get me pointed in the right direction. The trains are clean, comfortable, and punctual, with new trains on each line coming to the airport every 6 minutes on the dot. It was completely painless to navigate to the U-bahn stop on the doorstep of BMW Welt. Exiting the station, and seeing the building looming over you is quite an impressive sight! Off to the right are the Olympic Stadium, and the Olympic Tower. Just ahead is the North entrance to the Welt. The building impresses as soon as you enter. The right wall is made up off glass that seems to stretch up forever, and off to the right is an equally impressive staircase that leads up to one of the sections devoted to BMW Motorad. Along the right wall, each on their own platform with a digital data display touch-screen in multiple languages, is the majority of the BMW line, including an area devoted to the BMW Individual Program!

Straight ahead is the information desk, with a small café just to the left. The individuals at the info-desk directed us to the large glass elevators located just behind them, labeled “Owners Only”. As you ascend to the Owner’s Lounge via the elevator, you are afforded an excellent view of the entire north half of the building, including parts of the car pickup area. Exiting the elevator, there is a staircase directly in front of you that leads down to car-pickup, and the Owner’s Lounge to the left. As with the rest of Welt, glass is employed extensively, allowing for a view of almost all of the building once you enter. In the lounge are multiple desks, and helpful people to take and store your luggage, as well as direct you to wherever you need to go. You are issued a key-card that acts as a voucher to the restaurant and gift shop, as well as access to the tour, and other areas.

We were running a bit late, thanks to the air-travel delays, so after dropping our luggage, we proceeded immediately to the tour. After being shown a brief video about BMW’s history, as well as design philosophy, we are escorted to the factory itself. Along the way you pass the BMW Museum, which is shaped like a giant silver bowl, and get a good view of BMW Headquarters, which completes a line of the 3 BMW buildings, along with the Welt, and Museum.

First stop at the factory is the press center, where miles and miles of steel and aluminum sheeting are pressed into parts and panels. The presses are incredibly impressive structures, standing nearly two stories high, and exerting dozens of tons of pressure, creating body parts and other components with incredible accuracy and speed. From there, we walk down a series of underground hallways to the assembly center, which is one of the most impressive displays of manufacturing technology I’ve ever seen. We’re asked to put on safety goggle, and are briefly shown a room where assembly robots are tested, maintained, and programmed. From there, it’s through a door into the assembly line, which is absolutely jaw dropping. It’s very difficult to accurately describe. There are untold hundreds of robots laid out over what seems like multiple acres, all seeming to move chaotically, and without order. As you watch, you see that the robots are actually performing a sort of “dance” that only a genius could orchestrate. Though their movements seem completely random, they are all working in unison to assemble a car. Robotic arms will swing parts around through the air, missing each other by centimeters, applying glue precisely to the areas where needed, before elegantly putting the parts in line, and applying dozens of welds in a matter of seconds to turn multiple parts into one. From there, each part is passed on to another series of robots, where it gets more and more complex. Looking up to the roof, one can see zig-zagging lines of partially completed E90 frames, twisting for multiple dozens of kilometers above the fray.

As you walk on, the parts get bigger and big, and the assembly more and more complex, but the robots continue to move with the same unflappable inhuman precision. Parts of the frame are joined together, right and left with top, motor mounts and supports welded in, all done faster than one could believe to be possible. As the line progresses, the precisely angled bits of metal start to look more like a 3 series, and less like something out of a science fiction film. Well, a little less, anyhow. The Coupe de Grace is what I’ve been told is the most advanced use of robotics technology in the world. A series of nearly 30 robots turns the frame of a 3 series sedan OR wagon into something entirely recognizable in under a minute. All the robots on the assembly line will work correctly whether they’re dealing with a sedan or wagon, no need for reprogramming, retooling, or even just a flip of a switch to let them know it’s time to build a different car. It’s all completely automated. In this last series of robots, a naked frame is covered in body panels. More than two dozen robots, all working in concert, take all the necessary body parts, apply glue, and place all the skin on the car with exact precision. After everything is in place, the robots twist and turn, applying nearly a hundred welds in the blink of an eye, just in time to let the car move on for further assembly, as the next naked frame slides in to have it’s metal skin put on.

Next, we head to the paint-shop, where the process is briefly described with a series of hoods in various states of being painted. There are more than 6 steps, altogether, many of the them involving the car being dipped into electrically charged baths, and rotated completely around multiple its axis to allow all bubbles to be removed. We then go to the paint line, where we are greeted by more robots. Cars roll in, already through the first three steps of the process and have the first layer of primer applied. The robots that do this work, as always, with inhuman speed and precision, completely coating the car with whatever primer color is called for in a matter of minutes. We are told that BMW uses several different primer colors, depending on what color will be used. In this factor, there are three different automated lines for painting. Two are dedicated to the standard colors, and the third is used exclusively for BMW Individual. US and Euro cars are painted right next to each other, so if you really want one of those nifty Euro colors that you can’t get here, a little bribery to have the car shifted over to the correct line to get it done shouldn’t be too difficult. A 3 Series sedan picks up more than 28 kilograms in paint.

Next we are taken to the engine shop, were all of the 6, 8, 10 and 12 cylinder engines for all BMW AG products are made. Our trip here is unfortunately brief, but we get to see the engine builders at work, putting together NA 6 cylinder motors. Each individual is responsible for adding a handful of parts to the motor, before it is moved to the next person in line for further assembly. Here, the tour guide told us in a hushed voice that the tour of this area was normally much more extensive, but that BMW was in the process of testing a new, experimental 6 cylinder engine that progresses technology further beyond what is available today, and that he was not allowed to show us the rest of the building, particularly the R/D areas. As it was, photography was not allowed, but the implication was that there would technology that was visually apparent that would give competitors a leg up, and was not yet ready for public consumption. This of course leads to one’s imagination running wild as to what the next generation of twin-turbo motor might have to offer…

From here, we are taken to the area where final assembly starts. There is a giant room, full of painted and partially assembled cars. Robots swoop down and wisk them off to other parts of the factory as is required when a customer places an order. We are told that there is generally a surplus of common colors, particularly white in this area, to allow for very quick response times when a customer orders a car in these colors. We then progress to the drive-train assembly area, where rows of axles, engines, and transmissions are bonded to each other by hand, before being married to a chassis. The efficiency of the process is astounding. As a car comes into the driveline assembly area, it’s chassis code is read by a laser scanner, and the correct drive train, complete with engine, transmission, driveshaft, differential, brakes, and both axles is installed into the car by robots in all of 60 seconds. We then move to the interior assembly area, where there are rows and rows of every possible combination of seat, waiting to be dropped into a waiting car. Technicians install them, along with a multitude of extra supports to keep the chassis together, before sending the car off to glass. Here the front and rear windows are installed, with the doors saved for later, as they are completely assembled in a different part of the plant, removed right after painting. There’s one more stop, a roll off the assembly line of a completed car, with a little bit off gas. Each car is then strapped to a dynamometer, and acceleration measured to ensure that the car is completely within spec. The car is then rolled out of the factor, and off to truck or train for delivery. A few cars out of every hundred built are taken by BMW test drivers for additional quality control, to make sure everything not physically measurable is also completely up to spec.

Following the factory tour, we spent more time working our way around BMW Welt. All of there motors are on display, mounted on a wall, with detailed computer animations showing how they work. Also present is a display of every exterior, interior, and trim color used by BMW, along with the advanced “Efficient Dynamics” technology. The Hydrogen 7, along with the sequential turbo 4 cylinder Diesel are prominently displayed. Just past them is the BMW/Sauber F1 car, with it’s engine sitting on a pedestal next to the car itself. The BMW Individual room is one of my favorite areas, a Ruby Black 650 on display. I tried my best to capture the color in pictures, but it’s difficult. I will be getting my next car in this color, even if it costs $5,000 extra, it’s that good. Next to the Individual room is a 123d with the complete “tii” performance catalogue installed. I took several pictures of the lip spoiler, which I think looks fantastic. It’s more aggressive, but not to the point where it looks more Evo than BMW. The Performance Seats are FANTASTIC. One of the people working opened up the car so I could try them out. Extremely comfortable for a seat with that kind of bolstering and it fit me very well, even though I’m at 6’0 and 210. Easily on par with the new racing-bucket seats that Porsche offers. Of course, no trip to BMW Welt would be complete without a trip to the gift shop! I spent a good bit of money here, including a high quality die-cast model of a 135i Coupe in Blue Water. They have models of almost every car they’ve ever sold, including several variations of E30s. I picked up a very nice BMW/Sauber F1 jacket from their F1 shop.

I then walked over to the “Hourglass” part of the building, which is dedicated completely to the 1. I spent as much time in there trying to take pictures of the architecture as I did of the cars. It’s a strange blend of sweeping curves, waves, and hundreds of identical triangles making up the walls of the building. On the bottom floor, they have a “cut out” N54 in a glass case, reduced to crank, rods, pistons, injectors, valve train, and the turbo setup. Very cool, and it really lets you appreciate the direct injection technology. Also on display was a wheel from the F1 car, covered in all the buttons and knobs that you would expect.

When it was time to head off to the hotel (A Marriot), a cab was called, and our luggage was put into it for us. On the cab ride to the hotel, there was a chance to appreciate Munich itself. A very cool city, and a very interesting blend of new and old architecture. The Marriot was excellent. Very good service, and comfortable rooms, with two restaurants and a well stocked bar! For the next day (Saturday), I planned a trip to the zoo to kill time before going to do the pickup. The zoo was nice, though smaller than the Bronx zoo by a good margin. If you’re an aquarium nut, it’s a must see. I spent a good 2 hours in the small aquarium section alone.

After the zoo, it was time to head off to BMW Welt to do the pickup! After checking in, I was given a locker to stow all of my stuff, and reservations were made for me at the International Restaurant. If you have a chance to eat there while you’re at BMW Welt, I highly recommend it. The food is outstanding, as is the wine list, and prices are very reasonable. After a good lunch and the restaurant, it was time for the pre-pickup information session about the car. You watch a detailed presentation about BMW design philosophy, and how it applies to the 1 series, before doing a driving simulation with a 1.5 turn lock-lock wheel to test out various features of the car, including DSC. I was told that I was the only person all day to not crash when doing the non-DSC “Test drive”, where they throw the car into oversteer more easily than normal in the virtual corner exit. You also get a chance to play with the headlights, and other safety features.

After this, you’re taken to the car. You walk down a staircase next to the Owner’s Lounge, at which point your car, on its own circular platform, is spotlighted and begins to rotate like a car on a platform at a car show. The delivery area is in the middle of the building, on the second story. It is surrounded by people watching you take delivery from above, often clapping and taking pictures. The presentation is fantastic. You are then given the opportunity to walk around your car, before being familiarized with all of it’s features, and then given the key, on a special “BMW Welt” key-ring, with your initials laser-etched onto the back.

I absolutely LOVE the color combination. Lemon works perfectly with Blue Water, a very good compliment. Blue Water itself looks great on the car, and really shows off its lines. It makes the car seem elegantly aggressive. From the inside, Lemon is fantastic. It’s a very difficult color to describe or photograph well. It’s best described as a very light yellowish cream color, close to white, close to cream, with a little dab of yellow. It works well with the rest of the interior, which is black. The High Gloss Black trim gives the whole interior a very nice two-tone appearance. I really like the manual sports seats, and had absolutely no problems getting into a comfortable driving position. Based on my test drive in a power-seat car, and the amount of head clearance I had in that car vs mine, I think the manual seats actually sit about an inch closer to the floor than the power seat, but I could be mistaken. The transmission is excellent, with short throws, and good feel. Better than many previous offerings from BMW, and the shift knob is just about perfect, in my opinion. The car had 0.03 miles when I started it up.

From the delivery area, you perform a parade lap around the delivery platform, and then take a special ramp down to a concealed exit from the building. At low speeds, I was struck initially by the similar feel to an E46 M3, tight, well weighted steering with a feeling of poise, and performance ready to be unleashed. I drove back to the hotel somewhat gingerly, making sure to vary the revs between 1000 and 4500 with gentle throttle and engine braking. I took pictures, pictures, and more pictures. Then I sampled the local beer.

The next morning it was time to start the trip. First stop was Neuschwanstein, the castle that Disney used to model the one in “Cinderella”. This entails a drive through the Bavarian country-side, right down to the Alps, perfect for breaking in a new car! The drive there is about 100 miles, mostly over glass-smooth roads with lots of low and high speed turns. It was easy to keep the engine in a good moderate RPM range, with lots of variations in revs, with minimal throttle pressure. The car drove magnificently over the curves, handling better than I expected. It does seem slightly more roll happy in the rear than the front, but this could just be an illusion. The drive was fantastic, and I wish we had roads like that in US. Neuschwanstein and the area around it in the Bavarian Alps are absolutely beautiful. Jagged, snow-capped mountains, are offset by deep blue-green lakes, and forests. The roads, perfectly paved and well banked twist and turn through the hilly country-side, occasionally crossing through a town, or tuning into a temptingly long straight. I was well behaved, and kept the in low boost, though the same can’t be said of the poor tires.

From Southern Bavaria, we set out for Lucerne in Switzerland. The flawless twisties turned into empty autobahns, where I did my best to keep the RPMs varied by accelerating and decelerating from 90-120 and back in 6th gear, though after about 150 miles, I started paying less attention to varying the RPMs, and started cruising. I was passed several times by sport-bikes that must have been going 180-200mph, given how quickly they blew by while I was cruising. From Germany, we entered Austria, then briefly into Lichenstein before crossing over into Switzerland. Going through Austria, I saw the first REALLY cool car of the trip, an F430 Scuderia, complete with plastic rear window, racing seats, 6 point belts, and smoking-hot brunette in passenger seat with a big frown about how uncomfortable the car was. It could be described as a work of art, or a musical instrument. The sound of the car entering the highway was melodious, and the acceleration was stunning. I didn’t attempt to keep up, given how new the car was. After a brief stint on the Autobahn in Switzerland, with its oppressive 130kmh limit, I head onto some smaller roads, and start to get into mountain country.

The Swiss landscape is beautiful beyond description. Unfortunately for you all, I was too awestruck to take very many pictures, but they wouldn’t do justice anyways. The way the hills rolled and dipped, coming right up against nearly vertical mountain faces looked fake. It was as though someone has carved the landscape out of foam, rather than it being the result of natural forces. The road crossed by a beautiful lake, the water looking like it was glass dyed sea-foam green. There were a handful of small villages along the shores of the lake. In most places, the mountains seem to rise directly out of the water, making building impossible. Here I found a pull-off that made it possible to take some pictures. There were many similar features on the road to Lucerne, which was one of the best I’ve driven on.

Lucerne itself is a fantastic city. Most of the architecture is ancient, dating back to the 1400s in some cases. The Hotel we stayed at looked like it was out of a movie, especially in the morning when a thin dusting of snow sat on the moss-covered roof. The old wood-beamed building was quite modern inside, and the restaurant was fantastic. The food was vegetarian, but incredibly flavorful. The asparagus was the best I’ve ever had. Lucerne is a great city of walking, with many pedestrian areas, and lots to see, including two ancient wooden bridges. The city is picturesque, with surrounded by jagged mountains on either side, full of historical building, with a beautiful river through the middle. The water of the river is unbelievably clean and clear, with a slight aquamarine tint, clear enough that you can see 15-20 feet straight down to the bottom of the river. I didn’t make it into the deep sections of the lake, but even there I would imagine you could see as far as light would penetrate. The morning was cool, and slightly windy. The mountains around the city where surrounded by clouds of powdery snow blowing from their peaks. As one would expect, there are watch stores everywhere, and it was difficult to keep my money in my pocket.

Leaving Lucerne, I had about 400 miles on the clock, and started to get a little more aggressive with the gas pedal, but still kept things reasonable. We headed out to Chur, and from there down through the mountains via the San Bernardino pass. This was bar-none the most beautiful road I’ve ever been on in all regards. High speed limits, perfectly paved with corners of all shapes and sizes. There were many sports cars blasting up and down the roads, including lots of Audi S and RS cars, which seem to be a popular choice for the Swiss driving enthusiast. The new A4 looks sharp! As you climb, you start to go through tunnels, and over high bridges through the mountains. It seems every time you exit a tunnel, everything gets whiter, and whiter. At the height of the pass, just before the tunnel, everything was covered in snow other than the roadway, which was kept clear by strong sun, salt, and the thankfully high 28* F temperatures. The tires performed better than expected in these conditions.

Exiting the 7km long San Berdandino Tunnel, you are met with a view of high mountains and snow covered forest all around, dropping down steeply into a lush green valley over a seemingly endless set of twists, turns, and switchbacks. You feel like you’re at the top of Europe, looking down into the valley beneath the pass. Everything around you at 2200 meters is covered in snow, but just a few miles, and dozens of twists down the thin strip of tarmac, you can see pure glacial rivers, and lush green hills and forests. This has to be where that stupidly expensive bottled European water in those funky-artsy-cylinder-bottles comes from. It seems a little bit more worthwhile after seeing the views.

The car ticked 500 miles just after crossing through San Bernardino, so it was time to get a bit more aggressive with it. Even at altitude, the pulling power in second and third gear is monumental. Coming down the tight twisty roads, I had absolutely no problems hanging with an RS4 on corner exits, and through the corners, though neither of us was pushing past 7/10ths in the corners themselves. The trip would have been worth it to drive this road alone. It was driving heaven. It’s where the good sports-cars go when they die. Flawless pavement, the kind of scenic views people pay tens of millions of dollars to see in mountain-top villas, perfect corners that are entertaining without forcing you to push it to dangerous levels. The only thing one could ask for would be less truck traffic, but with frequent long straights, passing is easy. There are not enough superlatives in the English language that can be applied to this road. Easily the best I’ve ever driven and I can’t imagine much topping it. From here we headed to Lugano and Como, and the roads started getting more heavily trafficked.

Como was a mad-house, and would have been impossible to get around without sat-nav. Picture the worst driving city you’ve ever driven in the USA, and make the streets half as wide, add 10x as many poorly signed traffic circles, and 15x the number of suicidal motorcyclists and scooters. The food and wine was very good, as one would expect of Italy. On my second day, we decided to take a scenic drive around all of Lago di Como, starting by driving from Como to Belagio. Two minutes out of the city, things seemed good. The road was fun, if only paved to US standards, and the views were great. Five minutes later, we got onto the REAL roads. I don’t think ‘narrow’ is a strong enough adjective to describe the width of these roads, but I’m not really sure what is. Suicidaly narrow might be a better description. After 5 minutes of driving, I realized why Italians are such religious people, and why there were at least two large churches in every lake-side village we went through. On one side of you was a sheer rock wall, sometimes covered in climbing vines. On the other side is the edge of a cliff. The road, at its widest points, it about as wide as a 1’er is long. At its tightest points, usually around blind hairpins, it would barely even pass for one lane on a highway. Normally, this wouldn’t be so bad: twisty road, challenging turn, good views. However, in this case, there is a large problem. Traffic goes two ways. I managed to avoid hurting the car, but by the skin of my teeth. At one point, the passenger-side mirror was running through the climbing vines on the side of the road, and the driver-side mirror was perhaps 2 centimeters away from the side of a small truck, his mirror an inch or two directly above my roof. On these roads, I came to the conclusion that the 1’er is very easy to place intuitively wherever you want it on the road, within millimeters if your life is depending on it! Finding gas in this area was also challenging, as I do not know the Italian word for ‘octane’. I tried the usual suspects ‘octane, octano, super-plus, benzin supremo’, but from what I could make out in the angry yelling, there was no such gas in all of Italy. Fortunately, I came across a Shell station with clear labeled 100 octane gas as the needle crept towards empty. After making it back down the peninsula towards Lecco, I headed up the East side of the lake, where I found the roads much more to my liking. Most of them at least came close to being recognizable as two lane roads, and I didn’t have to frantically dive at a sheer rock wall every time I saw a Fiat Punto headed my way. That said, after a couple of hours of driving on the really bad roads, it wasn’t as nerve wracking as it was at first. I just accepted the fact that there was a good chance that I would be hit head on by a crazy Italian in a 30 year old sub-compact hatchback going 60 miles per hour around a blind corner on a road that would barely fit two Minis side by side.

The drive around Como was good fun, and very tiring. I felt much more at one with the one than I did before the drive. Lake Como is very pretty, but a bit too crowded, dirty, and developed for my tastes. I think with about a 10th the number of people, it would a paradise. However, the water is stained by sewage (also used as tap water. Consider yourself warned), and every single inch of land close enough to flat to build on has been built on. I decided that on my next trip, I might skip Italian lake country. The food is good, but it feels to much like a big, dirty, overcrowded third world city was stuffed into as little space as possible on what used to be unspoiled natural beauty. In all fairness, there were less developed areas, by I couldn’t help but be disappointed by the level of sprawl.

The next morning, I headed out from Como, and decided to take the long way to Salzburg, going up by Stelvio. Most of these roads are more testing to drive at speed than any race-track I’ve ever been on, for a number of factors. They’re narrow, but not to the point where you can’t fit two cars. They have incredibly tight decreasing radius corners and hairpins, often completely blind, and sometimes with mid-corner camber changes. There’s also frequent construction. I was driving fast, but not too fast, and it was darn tricky, but also fun. It felt a lot like driving a challenging auto-x course at street speeds, while having to contend with oncoming traffic, occasionally mediocre road surfaces, wet pavement, and blind corners. At one point, going down a fairly long straight at 50mph or so, I was passed by a red VW Passat wagon that was at least 15 years old, doing close to 100 miles per hour. As he approached the 90* corner at the end of the straight, I kept waiting for him to brake, but he didn’t until perhaps 50m before the corner, and took the racing line in. As I came around the corner, he was already exiting the corner after that. Two or three corners later, and I couldn’t even see him anymore, and mind you that I wasn’t driving like a grandma. I can only conclude that the driver was skilled, insane, and knew the road quite well. I never imagined I would see anyone driving an old VW station wagon that fast on a road like that in my life. After a good 4 hours of driving on this type of road, we got onto the autostrada towards Austria. I felt at home on the Italian Autostrada, as it seemed just like a normal American highway where people completely and totally ignore any and all speed limits and driving laws. So really, not all that different from a normal American highway. It was a short jaunt over to and through Austria, where we re-entered Southern Germany to head East towards Salzburg.

This drive was all autobahn, and very pretty. There were about 1000 miles on the car at this point, so I didn’t hesitate to get it on it pretty hard, but no top-speed runs yet. The highway here mostly stays about 5 miles out from the edge of the Alps, so you get a good contrast between the gentle rolling hills, and the intimidating knife-edged peaks of the Alps. Road surface is perfect, and people know how to drive. No left lane pooping. I followed a new M6 most of the way in, we were both cruising comfortably 125-130. The 135i has wonderful high-speed driving manners. The brakes are unbelievable at these speeds, and the car tracks straight and true, with very little noise. Oil temperature tends to hang around 255 cruising at high speeds like this. The car doesn’t feel at all nervous or light in the nose, and remains completely composed, even under hard deceleration. 50% brake force or so seems to yield 130-80 deceleration a bit past the 1G range, based on feel. High speed acceleration in 6th gear is amazing. In top gear acceleration, it’s roughly on a par with an M6. Gas mileage remained good cruising at over 120, staying around 20mpg on a flat surface.

Salzburg is a wonderful city, with a large and pretty historical district, where we ate dinner. The restaurant was actually built into the side of a mountain, which is a nice touch. Right next to the restaurant was the church from Sound of Music where the main characters hide from the Nazis. There are several ancient churches, and ancient castles. There is lots of shopping to do, and it seems like the kind of place where I might want to spend a little bit more time exploring. The Hotel was world class, with a large well equipped suite for just over 200 Euros a night.

Shortly after leaving Salzburg, and heading for Frankfurt via Munich, the car hit 1200 miles, so it was time to let her rip. The car will effortlessly pull up to its speed limiter, which is at an indicated 250kmh. Maintaining this speed is rough on gas mileage, and oil temperature will raise slightly to about 265-270, but doesn’t seem to go above this, though I didn’t maintain top speed for more than a few minutes at a time. The car felt comfortable and secure at these speeds, and felt like it had a LOT of room left. I also had a chance to play with a few other sports sedans on the road, which was good fun. I ran into a modified 997TT on the way to Munich, which sounded amazing and pulled like a bat out of hell. You could hear the turbos compressing air from several hundred meters back. From 70 MPH, it seemed to be able to gain 1/8th of a mile by the time I reached 130. I also played with another M6 for a bit, which was much slower than the 997TT, but still much faster than the little 1’er, though it didn’t start to REALLY open up distance until after 120.

Going to Frankfurt from Munich, I also ran into a couple of Audis, including a new TT 3.2 Coupe which was quicker than I expected. He was alone, to my ~450lbs of people and ~140lbs or luggage, but from 80-130, I couldn’t pull away from him without down shifting. Past 130, even with the car in top gear, I passed him comfortably, but below that, I had to drop down a couple gears to pull convincingly at lower speeds. Even in 5th gear, he could keep up from 80-110 or so. That car is quicker than you would expect, given its reputation. Also ran into a B6 S4, which was a decent match. He was alone, and accelerating from 80-150 I generally gained a few car lengths, more when I was in front of him, and got to hit the gas a bit earlier. He would always pass me after 150, so I assume he had the limiter in his car removed. I didn’t find any 335s, or E46 M3s to compare acceleration with, but it was interesting playing around with the Audis.

At more moderate speeds, the performance is world class. Through second gear, I think the 1’er could keep up with most cars. Braking and handling is also better than expected. I didn’t find too much understeer, though I didn’t push the car real hard. I found that in higher speed corners, the car tended to a more open angle of attack, but never experienced any real loss of grip from the front tires. The stock tires are ok, but I’ve driven better. They don’t seem to hold up all that well either, they’re at least half worn after 1315 miles. As you all know, the controls are excellent, and I feel satisfied with the way the car feels in spirited driving coming from an S2000. Furthermore, it’s an excellent cruiser, very comfortable even on 8 hour jaunts. Stopping power from the brakes is superlative, and I think with some minor tweaks, it’ll be pretty capable on a road course in stock form. I only got a chance to test the ELSD accelerating hard from a stop with DSC off, I found its performance to be somewhat mediocre. Both wheels seem to spin, but traction doesn’t feel all that good, and you can feel the brakes working.

I’m 110% satisfied with the car, though I wish I could have ordered Tahiti Green after seeing that color over in Germany! Blue Water looks better in person than even I thought it would, and it’s a perfect combination with lemon, one I’d recommend to just about anyone. Blue Water seems to hide dirt reasonably well, though the car will definitely be getting a THOROUGH detailing as soon as it gets home. I averaged 58mph over 1315 miles of driving, most of it on twisty mountain roads, so I think my driving style would certainly qualify as “spirited”, and I still managed to maintain 21.9 mpg for the whole trip. I burned off at least half of the stock rear tread, if not a bit more, and I imagine I’ll be able to burn off the rest within a week or so of driving in the US, though I’ll probably replace the tires as soon as the car arrives anyways.

ED was wonderful, and after this, I think it’s the only way I’d get a new BMW. It was a great vacation, and a great way to break in a new car! Up next: Ruby Black M6? Maybe not, but even for an M car, with no savings attached, I wouldn’t even think about picking up a car any other way.

[Year's_End]

Wow. Do you do freelance writing or something? This is by far the most in-depth write-up I've ever seen on e90post. Thanks for taking the time to write all of this! Glad to see you had fun, and please post pics when you get the chance.

[Year's_End]

Nevermind, I see the photobucket link (right at the top). I deserve a slap in the face.

[Zeeman]

I am jealous. i have driven roads in the Alps but always with shitty rental cars....even then the roads were fun. Great write up & car looks great. That color combo looks great

[E82tt6]

Originally Posted by Bimmer Loyalist

Wow. Do you do freelance writing or something? This is by far the most in-depth write-up I've ever seen on e90post. Thanks for taking the time to write all of this! Glad to see you had fun, and please post pics when you get the chance.

Nope, but I appreaciate the compliment!

Yeah, I tried to make the link obvious by sticking it up top in bold

The Alps is ideal BMW territory, I think! You should try to get a rental bimmer next time you're over there.

[Year's_End]

Will do.^

If they have any M Coupes I'm all for it.

[Park2670]

Wow. I just spent about 40 minutes reading this, and I am very jealous! I hope that sometime in my life I will be able to get to visit Munich and take a European Delivery.

Very well written sir!

[E82tt6]

Originally Posted by Park2670

Wow. I just spent about 40 minutes reading this, and I am very jealous! I hope that sometime in my life I will be able to get to visit Munich and take a European Delivery.

Very well written sir!

Thank you sir!

The next time you buy a new Bimmer, I'd recomend taking some vacation time to do it the right way!

[Park2670]

I cant unless I pay full price. I work for a dealer, and get employee purchase.

[BMWE90]

how much did you pay over ED invoice for that car? I'm just wondering since it just came out.

[ChaneRZ]

too lazy to read. glad you have your car!

[E82tt6]

Originally Posted by BMWE90

how much did you pay over ED invoice for that car? I'm just wondering since it just came out.

Full ED MSRP. Most dealers aren't doing ED on them, because it comes out of their allocation, and they're generally selling those they get in at or very near MSRP. My dealer is fairly large, and they're only getting 3 or so 135i coupes a month, all of which seem to sell pretty much instantly. I think it'll most likely be another month before my dealer starts with any substantial discounts, as even their loaded to the teeth Sedona Red floor model sold. MSRP is the price you pay for getting something hot and new, but that's better than paying a premium!

Park, I think it would still be worth it at full price, but it does make you dig a little bit for travel money. With the standard ED discount, the savings nearly pay for the vacation.

[E82tt6]

Originally Posted by ChaneRZ

too lazy to read. glad you have your car!

Thanks. The wait for shipping will be tough after driving it, but it gives me a chance to get my tuning squared away in the meantime! I'm curious to see if the E-LSD function will be a help or a hindrance at the drag strip. Everyone who's road raced didn't think to highly of it. TOASTS the rear brakes very quickly.

[JackMac]

Congrats on your trip and upcoming re-delivery! Lemon is amazing, for sure. Good choice

[DanMardik]

Great write up! Very impressive writing.

[Rusty's508whp]

I regret not doing ED!!

[kpcoupe]

Now i want to buy a new bimmer just for the vacation.

[M2381]

Originally Posted by Rusty's508whp

I regret not doing ED!!

Agreed

[LOLrance]

cliffs?

[cycler]

Ah your entire story brings back memories for me. Im so jealous. I did ED back in Nov-Dec 2007 on my 2008 335xi coupe. As Im reading parts of your thread Im just thinking of the amazing time I had. My friend and I stayed in Munich for a few days, then drove to Prague for a few days and finally drove to Zurich. We finally drove back to Munich to drop the car off and fewl out the next day. I cant wait to order again.

[koreez88]

Everybody who's lazy enough to read, you're missing out on the whole lot, the write-up is amazing, the best one I've read on e90post so far.
OP should write for money.