European Delivery and trip to Nurburgring

[bimmer98]

I thought I would share my European Delivery story as I lament here waiting for my 135i to arrive stateside. Only a couple more weeks by now. There really isn't a short way to tell the story, so here it is! I'll be adding pictures over the next day or two.

I've decided to take my Dad to the delivery with me. Having driven BMW most of his life, this would be like a pilgrimage. I'll have to carry an IOU to my wife, but as she said "If we are going to Europe, it isn't going to be Germany. Germany is a beer drinking and car country." My Dad and I had talked about it so many times, how could I go without him? It's time for new car and this is it. And so with my wife's blessing, my Dad and I did it what we had always talked about.

We flew into Munich on the overnight flight, so we arrived travel weary and excited. We took the rail to our Sheraton in Olympiapark. It's a great hotel and very close to the Welt. Through priceline, they are easy to locate and bid a reasonable price. The rail station is right outside of the hotel, basically. Also extremely close to the Welt. It was slightly confusing at the rail transfer in Munich, but we managed.

So we get settled in the hotel and head over to the Welt. In the backdrop are the Olympic stadiums, auditorium, lake, and pool. The Welt Architecture really blends into surroundings and is a fascinating design. It was still pretty cold, 35F at night. The area was noticeably a lack of landscaping, oddly I thought. Across the street is the factory and museum. More on that later.

Walking into the Welt is a fascinating display of BMW racing, interactive gaming, and displays of each brand, including Rolls, Electric Cars, Mini, and all lines including Individuals. Pretty over the top. We found out we could register for delivery early, so up we went the VIP elevator to the lounge. Registering was easy. Overlooking the delivery area is a large cafe. All you can eat during your stay. Pretty cool. There were so many happy faces as each person waited to walk down the steps to receive their car.

Fast Forward and it's Friday morning taking delivery. WE are the happy faces waiting for delivery in the lounge!! Delivery is a snap and our advisor gave an excellent safety review and tour of the car. He also gave valuable insight on the etiquette and law of Euro driving. 150 deliveries per day, on average. Cars are coming and going so fast your like, hey, that was a 120d, and it's gone and here comes another diesel, and another. cool stuff. So we get a little victory lap around the delivery area and as we are coming around the corner there is the 1M Pace Car sitting. Kodak Moment!!

We shamefully and with head hung low give the car back to the valet so we can have safe parking over night. I register a whopping .2 miles on the odometer. We hustle back into the Welt for the factory tour at 11:30.

The tour is pretty cool. I've been through the Spartanburg plant a couple times, and to see the paint system and all the robots at work is astounding. The efficiency and volume of production is truly staggering. It is impossible to describe and pictures are forbidden, so I suggest you plan for a tour of your own!

So we head over to the museum and spend about 4 hours there. Pictures are better than I can describe, but it accomplishes what a museum is intended to be. and it is a fascinating learning experience about the heritage of the brand.

We are totally worn out and head back to the hotel. Years and years of wanting and talking about some day coming and we did it! As we reflect on the day we remember that in the morning we will be picking up the 135i and taking the 5 hour drive on the autobahn past the Hockenheimring and to the Nurburgring!!

Saturday morning it's cold again on our walk back to the Welt. We stroll around one last time and head towards valet. As the car pulls up, the exhaust purr is a harmonic grumble only BMW has. We are grinning ear to ear.

Getting out of the city and onto the autobahn, and then to Nurburg I can only say we would have had a lot of trouble without the Garmin since I went without the navigation package. Germans know how to drive. The left lane truly is a passing lane. no matter how fast you go, someone is going faster. Watching the mirror and driving the appropriate lane and speed limit when they are posted is very important. So many nice cars blasting by at 150mph. I've decided to break in the car properly, so we aren't going more than 120.

We arrive to Nurburgring after a fairly stressful drive of 100mph or so most of the way. There is A LOT of speeding up and slowing down, and changing lanes. But our time is limited, and we knew we would be blasting by a lot of cool stuff, but the Nurburgring is where we want to be. As we arrive, we notice it's pretty high up in the hills, actually, and snow is still a bit present, but nothing will depress our spirits. The new ring and old ring are neighbors with the old ring actually being a public toll road of sorts. There is a small town between the tracks that harbors some small hotels, pubs, and get this, race ready street cars for rent!! I had read about this, and it is true. From a Suzuki Swift (seriously, don't laugh) to M3's. Subarau BRZ and Lotus too.

We check into a little hotel full of racing heritage and memorbelia. We seriously can't hide our excitement and must have looked like little kids. as we get to the room we can hear the sound of cars on the track and being still a bit of daylight, be jump back in the car, 350 miles on it now, and head to the old ring (Nordschleife). There is barely anyone around, but everyone in the parking lot is looking at my car. 135's just aren't that common. Tons of 120's and hatches, but very few 135's.

It's easy to buy a lap, so we do for $30 US. Seriously, my heart is pounding as we swipe the card and the gate goes up. Our goal is to keep the car on the track, obey the law of public driving and mostly keep to the right side of the road. The track is 13 miles long, 43 corners, and everyone of the somebodies of formula 1 racing have raced and driven this track. The track is a bit wet, but a noticable driving line has been dried out. We now there are some cars on the road, but we have the track to ourselves for a few minutes. We meander around the track obviously missing all of the apex and driving lines. Having been to several track events, it is difficult to hold back. But there are so many blind corners and elevation changes. I am reminded of why we agreed to take it easy as a line of super cars blows by us as if we are standing still. I saw them in the mirror from the distance, but they were upon us and gone in an unbeliveabley short peroid of time. It's not like we are going slow, but wow. Knowing the track is critical. I regret not using a video game to simulate driving to learn the track. I could barely make out what they were, but Porsche, M3, and Porsche again. There went a Ferrari. OMG, they all have roll cages. These guys are serious and the thought of crashing my new ride points me back to the right side of the 'road' and we move along through the carousel and such. the lap is over in like 13 minutes. Embarassing, but the from the grins on our faces you would never know it.

So we head to town for beer and pizza. We strike up a conversation with a few Brits. Unfortunately for one of them, some wires have fallen on his 320 exhaust and shorted out the ECU and they are stranded a long way from home. The other keeps a Porsche GTS race prepped in a garage nearby and flies in on weekends to run the Ring. We are baffled by this, but we would come to find out it is common. for about $2200 US you can get a season pass and run the Ring as much as you can when it's open. It would be the next day that we would truly come to understand what the Ring is all about.

Walking back to the hotel with already memories that will last a lifetime, we pass by the car rental place. The shop guy is still there and explains how it works. Entry level car, 4 laps, and only a $3,000 deductible if you crash out. We decide to sleep on it knowing full well we would be back in the morning.

And we are back in the morning. I'll skip all of the taking a crap, eating breakfast, and stuff. But all of it is a memory. SO, on to the interesting stuff.

Rent4Ring.com , check it out. Full safety briefing, car selection and a token for 4 laps. The m3 has a $80,000 wreck-it deductible, and the Subaru BRZ is $9000, so being novices of this track, we swallow our pride and rent out the Suzuki Swift. hey, in fairness we are thinking it's cheap, has a roll cage, track tires, upgraded software and suspension. Seats are nice. Stereo works. And it has a cool paint job. We watch as other novices rent more powerful cars wondering if we had made the right choice. $500 US and we are heading to the track with 4 laps.

The sun is out, the skies are blue. we would learn later it is the nicest day all year. The only day of sun in fact. Driving down to the Ring again it is a completely different story from the previous evenening. People are everywhere. But the area is so small, but cars are everywhere. The track is closed. Being fairly early, we catch the last parking spot and avoid the overspill lot, down over the hill in a field, if you can call it that, and sit tight. WE are completely confused as to what to do. We have realized that being foreign, getting confused happens easily, and it was happening now. So we leave the car and wonder around. I haven't mentioned, but right outside the track is a traffic circle. We make friends with a gentleman that has also rented a Suziki Swift. He is lined up right at the traffic circle. We talk about all kinds of things, and he is from Estonia. Flying in to run the Ring like our friends from the night before. He used to keep and e30 m3 at the track, but now he just rents a car when he comes. A lot of people do if fact. He has run a couple thousand laps. he speaks some german and explains that someone has painted a gigantic penis on the track overnight and it is closed while police come to make a report. public road. ahhhh.

As we are chatting up, we are boggled by how many super cars. countless $500,000 cars and up. Every make of car. Lambo, ferarri, maclaren, A8, GTS. $250,000 cars with 150,000 in upgrades are everywhere. It is like race, car show, and circus all at once.

Announcement, the track is open. Our new buddy asks me if I want to ride a lap with him and I agree. We are first on the track. He runs a nearly perfect lap, easily overaking even an M3 that first got the jump on us on the first straight. Knowing the track is key, and the Suzuki Swift turns out to be a pretty remarkable drive. It lacks HP to get the uphill straights, but handled very, very well. We see the penis paint and the crews are working to clean it up. He commentates during his lap, but it's too much to remember. But I do remember him pointing out a few landmarks and saying, "and you can go flat out from here."

It's hard to describe every moment, but I drove two laps and my dad drove two laps. People crashing was common. In fact, two cars got off track, over corrected, and crashed head on into the wall literally right in front of us, on two seperate occasions, going over 30 MPH for sure. One was a BRZ rental from our morning session. We later saw him paying the $9000 deductible. The other a Nissan GTR. It validated our decision to get the Swift. Thousands of people came out just to spectate. Many corners where packed with bystanders, with vending stands and everything. And so many fast cars to stay out of the way of, it was difficult and exhilarating.

What I'll never forget was sheer magnitude of the event. Everyone with a super car within 300 miles was there. And many more flying in to get their car out of the garage. People doing burnouts in the traffic circle, spectators walking around with beers. We saw the ring taxi, and our British friends again who had found loving support from the area and had rides and a tow back home. The police are present, but no arrests are taking place and everything is peaceful. We were in awe and argree something like this would never, ever fly in the US. But is was awesome to experience.

We were sad to leave this place of racing and driving heaven. Never can there be a collection of gearheads like this, anywhere. And our suspicion is it happens all the time here, on any weekend the weather is nice.

So, ending the story quickly, we drive the Rhine River valley as far as we can heading back to Munich. Many small town and countless castles. We comment on how much history we are blowing past and how a week went by so fast.

Dropping the car off was a snap. It is literally at the airport. Homeward bound and the realization that it will be 4-6 weeks to get my car back.

Hope you enjoy the pictures, but please give me a couple days to get them up.

[bimmer98]

[zamboni]

Great write up thanks for sharing your ED experience.

[Kreed]

Thanks for sharing! Looks like the trip of a lifetime.

[Pallance]

Stunning write-up, man! Brilliant! Congrats on the trip and your new 135i, and hang in there on the wait...

Now I REALLY can't wait to put my ED order in this week.

[racer_x]

Great story. Love the photos... Rent 4 Ring sounds like a great idea.

[Bmwbreed]

Where's the pic of your car?

[bimmer98]

I have the black 135i. It's next to the safety car! I'll have to post more pictures when I can get them organized.

[Dackelone]

Great story!! You have made life long memories of Germany & doing ED. Enjoy.
You can always go visit Paris - which I am sure is where you wife wanted to go! Not Germany land of good Cars and Wurst and great Bier!

It's funny, I have stayed at Hotel Zur Burg on my very first time visisting Germany and the 'Ring!!

Rent4Ring.com is run by Dale(I think), a British chap. He also runs the Bridge To Gantry blog.


Btw... here is that Penis graffiti...

[Bmwbreed]

Oh ok. I had to zoom the pic to tell. At first I thought that was a 120d because of the wheels.

[Mach1er]

[meg180]

Congrats on the car and the trip! Thanks for sharing

[bimmer98]

Thanks for your help prior to the trip Dack! Funny you found that "art work". In that area where the picture was taken is where many, many accidents occur. There were maybe 2,000 spectators hanging around watching and snapping photo's. check out some video here:

https://www.youtube.com/results?q=nu...-8&sa=N&tab=w1

[bimmer98]

Originally Posted by Bmwbreed

Oh ok. I had to zoom the pic to tell. At first I thought that was a 120d because of the wheels.

What I didn't know at the time of purchase was Germany requires snow tires for conditional driving through April 10th. I had to rent snow tires! At least they were OEM wheels, which you see in the delivery photo. I had them installed and ready to go ahead of time. They were a bit soggy to drive on the Ring with as we learned on our first evening lap, furthering our decision to rent the Suzuki Swift the next day.

[bimmer98]

Here is our rental car rounding the Carousel, although probably not as good of form as Sir Jackie Stewart!

[meg180]

[Bmwbreed]

Ya they have snow tire laws for winter. I remember changing them when I lived there seasonally. But I didnt even pay attention that this was in winter. Very cool rental.

[EINSER M]

congrats!!!!

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by bimmer98

What I didn't know at the time of purchase was Germany requires snow tires for conditional driving through April 10th...

Yea, snow tires are required from October to April. IF you get into an accident and it is colder than 7' C you may be charged at fault EVEN if you were not. So... needess to say everyone here buys snow tires. Btw... I have those same #141 winter wheels for my 135i.

Great photos, bimmer98! Post some more if you can. We all can't get enough of these ED adventures.

[jeremicium]

Thanks for the write-up. I'm in the initial planning stages for euro-delivery of an M235i next May/June. I'd love to see any pointers or advice you have on making the most of the trip.

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by jeremicium

Thanks for the write-up. I'm in the initial planning stages for euro-delivery of an M235i next May/June. I'd love to see any pointers or advice you have on making the most of the trip.

Just CLICK on the link (Dackel's European Delivery Museum Guide) under my I///M Fan signature...