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.

Helicopter

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.

Sideview Mirror Shot

Keeping Up with Cameron

Parked in Red Feather

Jon's Imola Hood

Cameron's Apex and Brembos

Cameron's Side Gill

Todd's Nostrils

Todd's Side Gill

My Front Fender

My Side Gill

Parked in Red Feather

Group Shot

Group Shot

Group Shot

Group Shot

Todd's Wheel

Parked at Red Feather

Produced just 13 days and 22 cars apart in October 2001, Glenn and my M Coupes (#39 and #17 of 2002 and the first of the year in this color combination) could have shared time together before being shipped out. It really was amazing to see them next to each other again almost 9 years later. They are near spitting images of each other. Besides Glenn’s rare sunroof-delete option and my European clear bumper lights, not a lot separates them from the outside. One interesting thing we did note – that we wouldn’t have if they weren’t parked within feet of each other – is that Glenn’s shadow chrome roadstar wheels were noticeably darker than mine. On the inside, Glenn’s driver seat bolster is the definition of perfection and about the only one that could make mine look less so. I have the 6-disc changer in the trunk and an alarm LED in the center console, but those are about the only noticeable differences.

Back in February, I was beginning to give up hope of ever finding a steel gray over imola red M Coupe and thinking of settling. When Glenn was nice enough to let me come down and gawk at his coupe, my fortitude to press on with my search was renewed. Now that I have finally found one, I’m so glad I held out all these years.

Thanks to Colby Gregory for taking all these amazing photos.