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

Friday morning, I met Kevin and his alpine white S54 M Coupe for a 300+ mile morning drive. We started at Starbucks in Fort Collins at 6 AM and went up Poudre Canyon, down Stove Prairie Road to Masonville, cut over to Loveland to go through Thompson Canyon to Estes Park, into Rocky Mountain National Park, and up the seasonally open Trail Ridge Road to an altitude of 12,183′. Up at the top, we pulled out of a scenic overlook and were followed by a Park Ranger the next couple miles. He eventually pulled me over and took my information. After 20 minutes and 100s of tourists staring at the two funny looking cars that were in trouble, he came back from his cruiser and gave me a written warning for not coming to a complete stop before following Kevin out of the overlook. It was almost enough to ruin my day, but we pressed on.

Trail Ridge Road

Trail Ridge Road

The original plan was to head back home from there, but they were doing road work at the bottom of the mountain that we didn’t want to have to go back through nor did I feel like following the park ranger who had turned back down the mountain. We decided to head down the other side to Grand Lake and Lake Grandby. From there we turned onto 125 to Walden, CO. There’s virtually nothing in those 55 miles. The first half of the road contains long sweepers through a valley along the Colorado River. It made me forget all about the ranger. At Walden we parted ways as I actually had to go home and do some work, so I headed over Cameron Pass, back through Poudre Canyon to Fort Collins. Kevin continued on to double his trip through Steamboat Springs all the way to Hayden.  He then headed south on Twentymile Road (a cool stretch as it turned out) to Oak Creek, then via 131 to Toponas.  He cut east on 134 and 40 to Kremmling, then south on 9 through Silverthorne, then 6 through Keystone and over Independence pass back to I70.  He said it was dark when he finally headed back.

This was the longest day I’ve spent in the coupe (about 7 hours), and it handled perfectly. Aside from the ranger, we did not have an issue and I came out of the driver seat feeling refreshed. It only makes me look forward to the 1,200 mile drive to Dorkfest even more.

View July 29, 2011 – Drive with Kevin in a larger map

Edit: We also saw an Evergreen M Roadster on the way up the canyon to Estes Park. It was right at a blind corner, so we didn’t even get a chance to wave.