M Coupe Buyers Guide

As it’s been over a month, and I have not done a write-up of my own M Coupe event, Alex was generous enough to let me post his. It was pretty awesome to have one of the largest coupe gatherings in the country at my house. It was an epic day! From Alex as copied from his blog, Life on the Lee-Side:

Fall is officially here, which means it’s time for the M Coupe Buyers Guide Fall Barbecue. M Coupe Buyers Guide is the best M Coupe resource on the internet.  We meet at its creator Jon’s house every spring and fall to stretch our car’s legs a little and geek out in his driveway. This year we had a record setting 9 M Coupes, 2 M Roadsters, 3 E90 M3’s, 2 E36 M3’s, and 2 motorcycles.  My brother John flew out for the weekend and drove the new addition to my fleet, a track prepped M Roady (I’ll post more about that later).

The New Addition

As the cars rolled into Jon’s neighborhood the numbers in attendance this year became staggering compared to previous years.  Lindsey travelled the farthest distance, coming all the way from Bozeman, MT in his Cosmos Black M Coupe with gold wheels.  Colby had the newest addition, with his nearly mint Dakar Yellow M Coupe.  Seth, who I met by refusing to allow his oil to be changed at Jiffy Lube came up with his Estoril Blue M Coupe.

A Record 9 M Coupes

After the obligitory photo session we drove out usual route through Poudre Canyon and Stove Prairie.  The High Park Fire this year had scorched large swaths of the canyon, while the ongoing drought had reduced the Poudre River to a trickle.  The colors of the canyon were diverse, with the usual yellow and orange colors contrasted deeply by black and greys in the burned areas.  There was a certain beauty to the destruction that contrasted the vivid colors of our M Coupe’s brilliantly.  The impact of the fire on the community, even after three months, was still fresh.  Signs thanking firefighters were posted by many residents and on Stove Prarire helicopters were dropping straw on mud slide prone burn areas.

80 Years of Automobile Evolution Separated by a Gas Pump

Staging Before the Canyon

Colby’s Dakar Yellow M Coupe

Firefighter Gratitude

John Driving the M Roady

Into the Canyon

Drought Stricken Poudre River Slowed to a Trickle

More Gratitude

Headed Up Stove Prairie

See the Helicopter?

John and I had to break off at the end of the drive, but not until we all got together for one last photo session overlooking Horsetooth Reservior.

One Last Group Shot

John in the Roady

Well, it was just barely spring, but I’ll count it. Saturday afternoon in Fort Collins was not a typical day though. For several weeks, there has been a large fire burning just west of town. Unfortunately, this fire has covered all three of my favorite driving roads and nearly 200 houses (High Park Fire Map). Fortunately, the wind was pretty mild and not our of the west, so Fort Collins itself was not full of smoke. No typically beautiful blue skies though.

As an alternate route, we decided to go a little farther north and drive up to Red Feather Lakes. It ended up being a pretty fun drive. It’s not nearly as curvy as our usual roads, but very scenic with a few fun corners. We were also able to see several fire fighting helicopters refilling their buckets which is not something you see everyday. I believe Red Feather had been issued a pre-evacuation order so traffic was sparse, and town was virtually empty for a nice Saturday afternoon.

As Colby, our usual photographer, was busy, my wife Jenn took it upon herself to get some good photos. I think she did great for being her first time taking photos of cars (and good practice for the Dorkfest trip). You’ll also notice there are more photos with people in them than usual :). The only downside of having the photographer with me is that my car is not in as many photos :-).

Our group was a little smaller this time, but two new coupes joined the fun this year. In attendance were:

• Jenn and My 2002 Steel Gray over Imola Red M Coupe
• Cameron’s 2001 Estoril Blue over Estoril Blue M Coupe
• Jon’s 2000 Imola Red over Black M Coupe (sunroof-delete)
• Todd’s 2010 Jet Black over Fox Red M3

After the drive, we came back to my house for brats and drinks. Cameron’s new coupe has a variety of envy producing modifications that we all enjoyed gawking at and later test driving (man it felt fast). All in all, it was a good day.

I can’t believe it’s already been a year since our last fall get together. As you can tell from the photos, winter started a little early in Colorado. It had snowed almost a foot at my house just a few days before. The day of the BBQ though, the temperature was around 50, the roads were dry, and there was fun to be had. It also made for some interesting photos. The weather did keep a couple of our mountain living friends stuck at home, but it was a great day overall.

In attendance were:

• Jenn and My 2002 Steel Gray over Imola Red M Coupe
• Alex’s 2002 Imola Red over Imola Red M Coupe
• Kevin’s 2002 Alpine White over Black M Coupe
• Colby’s 2002 Alpine White over Imola Red M Roadster
• Todd’s 2010 Jet Black over Fox Red M3

It’s interesting that all but Kevin’s coupe had red interior, and all but Todd’s M3 had an S54 (though his 4.0L V8 is not so bad either). Jon road up with Alex because his imola red S52 coupe was having some cooling system issues after a track day earlier in the week.

We started at our house at 9:30 am. Even though this is my 4th coupe BBQ, it still feels like Christmas morning sitting in the garage and first hearing then seeing coupes driving down my street towards my house. When everyone had arrived, we set out on our usual route up Poudre Canyon then back on Stove Prairie Road. We were not sure what the roads would be like (especially on the far less traveled Stove Prairie), but were very pleasantly surprised.

Our first stop was at the intersection of Stove Prairie Road with Poudre Canyon where we took so many great shots last year. It was a little muddy this year and far less scenic, so we didn’t stick around too long.

Instead we sent Colby and my sister Lindsay back down Poudre Canyon about a mile to the tunnel to take some moving photos which came out very nice.

After that Colby put down his roof and had Jon drive his roadster while he turned around and took some photos.

We all made it safely back to our house and enjoyed some brats, beer, and time staring at my beautiful driveway. Until next spring…

All the photos of are courtesy of Colby and Alex. See more on Colby’s Flickr Photostream and Alex’s SmugMug page.

It’s hard to describe the Dorkfest experience. If I had to sum it up in a single word, I’d probably go with overwhelming. Although fun, amazing, exciting and dream-come-true would also apply. For someone who has been obsessing about M Coupes for more than 10 years, I just didn’t know where to look. In every corner of my vision were single cars I could happily spend an hour contentedly gazing at. Since I did not have the 56 hours required to check out each one in detail, I had to pick and choose, and it was soooo hard. I had never seen more than 4 coupes in one place before, this was a whole new experience. Leaving Saturday night and facing a 1250 mile return trip to Colorado, I was already excited for next year. Yeah, it was that good.

The Journey

When it was first announced that Dorkfest was making a comeback, I knew if there was one place I wanted to be this year, it was there. I started looking at flights and arranging rides from the airport. It was not until much later, when local-ish coupe owner Lindsey said he wanted to make the drive, that I seriously considered driving my coupe. I was a little hesitant to put that many miles on at one time, worried about rock chips, windshield cracks, and time away from family. I slowly got over my concerns with car because I did get it to drive; I’m not going to sell it; I don’t need to worry about mileage; and I could take some steps to help protect it. My wife then very generously said she would stay with the kids for 5 days while I was off having fun (she’s coming next year :)). In the end, I did get a few rock chips on the hood and a couple nicks in the windshield, but I will definitely be making the drive again next year. It just would not have been the same without having my own coupe there as I’m sure Jeremy Banks and Michael Wong can attest.

Lindsey set off from North Dakota where he’s been working at 3:30 AM Thursday morning. He made a stop at his storage unit in Cheyenne and made it to my house around 10:00 AM. Not only did I make him get right back on the road but had him help me carry our washer and dryer out to the garage in the few minutes he had to “rest”. Thanks Lindsey! We then set out through Poudre Canyon where you can find me almost every Saturday morning. You’ll probably recognize the bridge in the photo above from my previous photo shoot; it is just too cool to pass by. We hurried towards Steamboat Springs to grab lunch at Beau Jo’s (a Colorado pizza place that rivals the best anywhere) before their lunch buffet ended at 2. We made it to town at 1:53, but they had already locked up for the afternoon due to their “summer hours”. We grabbed lunch across the street then continued west towards Salt Lake City. Just a few miles out of town, I was able to experience my first hard rain in the coupe. It did excellent with it’s new tires, but I had to call Lindsey to figure out how to turn the rear wiper off. The photo below is near the Colorado/Utah border in Dinosaur, CO which is very close to Dinosaur National Monument.

After some awful, loose gravel road construction in eastern Utah, we reached Salt Lake City around 8:30 and Greg (jonesmechanical on Bimmerforums) invited us to stop by his house to hang out. Unfortunately his 700+ hp turbocharged cosmos black over kyalami orange sunroof-delete M Coupe was in his shop where he’s welding his own two-stage exhaust system, so we did not get to see it, but we did get to see the monster tires he has ready for this superstars (his custom 3-piece roadstars). I can’t wait to see that project come to fruition. It was a lot of fun hearing his M Coupe history and how he ended up with his car. I fortuitously wore a Ferrari t-shirt, and Greg told us one of his good friends was a tech at the local Ferrari dealership and could get us a behind-the-scenes tour the next morning. We were planning on heading out early, but how often do you get a Ferrari tour?

Steve Harris Ferrari in Salt Lake City ended up being a pretty amazing place. One of our first views upon entering was a line of cars consisting of a 288 GTO, an F40, an  F50, and an Enzo (basically shelf number 4 on my car model shelf :)). It was incredible seeing all the Ferrari supercars lined up. Interestingly, we all agreed of the four we would want the F40, but I would give the 288 GTO a close second. I could have stood and looked at those four cars for hours, but alas out tour continued. We next got to hear the new 458 rev up to 9000 rpm. I can say I’ve honestly never heard an engine that sounds like that, just plain awesome. We walked into the next room where there was another 288 GTO with just 5,200 original miles which had won best Ferrari at last year’s Concorso Italiana near Pebble Beach. The place was so overwhelming I don’t think I even spent any time checking out the Ferrari Daytona coupe, F430 Scuderia, and some of the other 30+ Ferraris they had. The next room had some older Ferrari’s like 308s, a Mondial and a Testarossa, but it was a blacked-out Lotus Exige S240 that caught Lindsey’s eye. He said he would feel obligated to wear a Darth Vader helmet to drive it around; I can’t disagree. We next peeked into the wash bay where a 1952 Ferrari 212 was being prepared for concours. It was one of the first Ferrari models built and had a little bit of shooting-brake styling. Entering the kitchen area we were greeted by a ’70s 312P (or 312BP) racing prototype. Zach, our tour guide, said that model was never beat in any race it entered; although it was not entered into the 24 hours of Le Mans because of concerns over engine longevity. Their specific car is believe to be one of the back-up or test cars and was not actually used in competition. Our tour concluded, Lindsey and I hopped into our coupes to continue westward.

Because of our late start, we decided to just hop on I-80 for our journey that day. The next 800 miles were relatively uneventful until we turned off onto I-680 to head South towards Danville. We were greeted by 15 miles of stop and go traffic because of a roadside brush fire. It was my first such traffic experience in the coupe (and first in a manual transmission car to be honest). By the end I was already figuring out tricks to give my tired legs some short breaks. Did you know you can set the cruise control at <10 mph? Once past the fire and back up to speed it was starting to get dark. Traffic was no less congested but now moving 65+ mph with people weaving through much faster than that. We decided to play it safe and ride out the last few miles in the slow lane. That plan backfired as twice our slow lane was closed for construction without warning forcing quick lane changes and once compelling Lindsey to come to a complete stop to avoid hitting the cones. We survived and made it to the Danville exit where we promptly pulled off into the first parking lot to regroup. Putting the hotel address into the GPS yielded directions instructing us to get back on I-680 to which we quickly had it give a significantly longer, but interstate free alternate route.

Upon entering the hotel parking lot we were immediately greeted by a pair of coupes which were just a sign of things to come. As we made our way around the back of the hotel, more and more coupes came into view. I felt a little bad parking my coupe covered with 1200+ miles worth of bugs next to the clean and pristine coupes, but I was in no state to try and find a car wash at that point. After grabbing dinner across the street, the group who had been hanging out at Val’s house returned to the hotel. We checked out each others cars then went and hung out at Denny’s across the parking lot before calling it a night.

The Main Event

Lindsey and my coupes were still filthy, so we rolled out of bed at 6 AM to go find a do-it-yourself car wash. I’m sure my detailing mentor Colby would have been appalled, but we had to play the hand we were dealt. We got them pretty cleaned up then applied the secret sauce: Adam’s Polishes Brilliant Glaze. I swear it adds 6 inches of depth to the appearance of your paint :). We made it back to the hotel in time to eat a quick breakfast than headed out with the early caravan to the Blackhawk Museum parking lot.

On arrival at the Blackhawk shopping center, the coupe I was most excited to see – Andrew’s steel gray with Kinesis K59 wheels – was already there (it didn’t disappoint). We parked, determined that was indeed the parking lot we were supposed to be in, then waited for everyone to arrive. It was almost other worldly seeing lines of M Coupes pulling into the parking lot from all directions for the next hour. Each one was more exiting than the next.

Soon the entire parking lot was full of beautiful M Coupes from all over the western U.S. The farthest travelers were from Alberta, Canada; North Dakota; and Texas. Almost every color was represented aside from phoenix yellow, laguna seca blue and oxford green. The rarity highlights were a low mileage evergreen sunroof-delete and one of the two alpine white over imola red S54s I’ve been searching for many years (see “My Unicorn”). There were also several mint <15,000 mile examples.

It was also really amazing to see almost every combination of modifications side-by-side for comparison. There were roof spoilers, hatch spoilers, front splitters, side skirts, superchargers, big brake kits, projector headlights, an S50 engine, and lots of coilovers. With all that, there was not a bad looking coupe in the whole lot. I think it goes to show that the M Coupe styling is a great base to work from and open to a lot of different styles. Aftermarket wheels were also well represented. My favorites were Andrews aforementioned Kinesis K59s, Carey’s BBS LM Champion Editions, Tommys BBS LMs, Alan’s SSR Professors  SP1, CCW LM20s, Matt’s Fikse Profil 5s, Rob’s BBS RXs and Bob’s BBS CHs. As everyone slowly filled up the parking lot, the coupe owners just mingled and ogled. We were also joined by a couple interlopers, but no one minded the Porsche Carrera GT or BMW Z8 in our midst.

Soon it was time for the big photo. Bob was able to talk the museum into allowing us to bring all of the coupes up at one time for the group photo (the initial plan was just for groups of 15). Getting everyone lined up was a project, but Bob did a great job directing, we had no accidents, and we even had room to spare. All the owners stood in the middle of the plaza and waved up to the photographers on the roof of the Blackhawk museum.

While we were grouped together Rob shared a few words and did the raffle. Jeremy’s son Carter pulled out raffle numbers for prizes ranging from stickers, shirts, maintenance packages to a ZHP shift knob. My number unfortunately was not pulled, but it was a good time.

Following the raffle we broke for lunch. We carefully exited the plaza and spread out through the restaurants in the neighboring shopping center. While most were eating, a few stayed up in the plaza setting up some more photos which came out great.

The afternoon tour of the Blackhawk Museum was also very cool. They had a fantastic collection with the highlight being the set of Alfa Romeo BAT concepts. The highlight for me was walking through the museum with my good friend Bob Epstein. While the tour guide told the history of each car, Bob would tell me what it was like to drive, what color he used to have, or who he knew that previously owned it. Awesome!

The Drive

Following the museum tour there was an organized drive. We started with a large group of 30+, but we were slowly weeded down by traffic and an emergency gas stop by us out-of-towners. The plan was to do a fun/scenic/technical drive and eventually end up on Treasure Island in the middle of the bay. It was just our luck that there was both 49ers and Giants games that afternoon and the traffic on the bridge was ridiculous. After well over an hour sitting in traffic, the final three of us (Lindsey, Peterson and I) finally made it where we found just 3 others. It did make for a fantastic photo op, but I’m not sure it was worth the time and effort to get there that particular day. Thanks for the great photos Peterson!

Conclusion

After leaving Treasure Island, we all went our separate ways. I made my way over to Val’s “after party” where some of the out-of-towners ate, drank, showed off modifications and talked coupes for hours and hours. It was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. I left Val’s around 11 and without a motel room reserved decided to head back east towards Colorado. I took naps in Sacramento and Reno and drove the rest straight through arriving home at midnight the following night. The trip was short and sweet, and one I will never forget. I made a lot of new friends and put faces to the screen names and email addresses of many others. I can’t wait for next year!

Photo credits go to lots of different people. There are many more photos posted on the Bimmerforums Dorkfest Photo Thread and the Dorkfest Facebook page.

Thanks to my loving, gracious and very understanding wife being willing to stay home with two little kids, I’m driving to Dorkfest 2011 at the Blackhawk Museum in Danville, CA. The main event including photos, museum tour, and scenic drive are being held August 27th. If you have been around for a little while, you’ll know the appropriately named Dorkfest is the largest gathering of M/Z3 Coupes in the U.S. It’s been on hiatus the last two years, but this year is the revival. With 50 coupes already registered with more than a month to the event, we’re well on our way to breaking the previous record of 58 coupes set by Dorkfest 2005. I almost want to giggle at the thought of a virtual sea of coupes in all colors. That in itself is worth the price of admission. Speaking of price of admission, it’s FREE! And you get a free t-shirt just for showing up (if pre-registered).

I’ll be convoying from Colorado with at least one other coupe, but we’re open to picking up more anywhere along the way. We’ll be heading out of Northern Colorado through Poudre Canyon, onto Highway 14 through Steamboat, by Dinosaur National Monument all the way to Salt Lake City. Then we’ll probably just hop on I-80 through the rest of Utah and Nevada. If you interested in joining us, just send me an email at jon@mcoupebuyersguide.com. We’re not opposed to scenic detours :-).

I’m very much looking forward to meeting in person people who helped me in my search, those whose coupes were found on my site, and many I talk to almost daily through email or on the forums some of which I’ve “known” for years. I will also do my best to cover the event and the epic drive there and back. If you have a coupe, you don’t want to miss this. Click on the free registration link below.

Dorkfest 2011 Registration

 

As promised, there was just no way we  could hold ourselves to just one BBQ per year. This time, we included a drive too which will undoubtedly be part of every future BBQ. The day started early for Colby, Lindsey and Kevin who met at 10 AM in Loveland to start the drive up to Estes Park where Alex met them later. On their way back, my wife Jenn and I joined up with them at a little general store in Masonville from which we headed north on what most of us now call our new favorite road in Colorado: Stove Prairie. It was a beautiful day for a drive with blue skies, perfect temperature, and the aspen leaves turning a stunning shade of yellow. We probably would have appreciated it more if it hadn’t all gone by in a blur. After a “spirited”, grin-inducing drive up Stove Prairie, we breathlessly pulled to the side road where it meets up with Highway 14 in Poudre Canyon for a few photos. The group ended up including:

• Alex’s 2002 Imola Red over Imola Red M Coupe
• Colby’s 2002 Alpine White over Imola Red M Roadster
• Kevin’s 2002 Alpine White over Black M Coupe
• Lindsey’s 2000 Cosmos Black over Dark Gray M Coupe
• Jenn and My 2002 Steel Gray over Imola Red M Coupe

When our coupe did not arrive in time for the final Bimmer Burger Night of the summer, my amazing wife suggested we should just host our own BBQ to introduce our coupe to the world. Our coupe came at kind of a busy point in our lives, so we sent out the invites the day before. Amazingly we were able to find a few takers on such short notice. We then thought, “We should do this every year and make it an annual thing.” Hence it became the 1st Annual M Coupe Buyers Guide End of Summer BBQ. We had so much fun, we may need to institute a Fall BBQ, Spring BBQ, Beginning of Summer BBQ, and Mid-Summer BBQ.

Our attendees included Glenn with his 2002 Steel Gray over Imola Red sunroof-delete M Coupe with only 7,000 miles, Lindsey with his 2000 Cosmos Black over Dark Gray sunroof-delete M Coupe, and Colby with his 2002 Alpine White over Imola Red M Roadster. My little sister Lindsay also stopped by to hang out, see my coupe, and take some photos. I’m not sure why they say sunroof-deletes are so rare; I was the only one there with a sunroof :). Next time, we’ll try to plan ahead a little better so some others will be able to make it.

My driveway became something out of an Z3 M lover’s fantasy. We all stood in the street and giggled at the sight. Colby brought his very nice camera and the results are below:

Let me know if you’d like a higher resolution version of any of the photos.