My Euro Delivery Trip Report! Met 1M Engineer Jurgen Schwenker

[djafactor]

What an amazing day! The delivery at BMW Welt was unbelievable! A stunning building that wraps you in luxury making one feel so special. My father and I arrived at 8am and toured all main floor atrium exhibits, taking in the vast space. 9am was delivery time so we went straight up to get all the paper work done. While grabbing breakfast I could see my car in the lower delivery atrium. Nice way to enjoy a latte, talk about excitement!

Met with Krasten for delivery and walked down to the lower floor, I was so taken back by the car that I just stopped talking and was staring for a good 4-5 mins. My father was laughing with Krasten.

Once delivery was completed we took our victory lap and exited down the ramp to meet up with a couple of BMW interns for the M-Studio visit. The guys were true enthusiasts and walked us through the offices to the design studio. We passed the garages where there were tons of camouflaged test mules, New M6, M5s etc. CRAZY!

We first met with the head of M! Brian Watts. Great guy who spent an hour with us talking about M, the 1M car, and the direction that BMW M wants to go. Amazing! He personally showed us some ultra rare M's. M3 GTS, M3 CSL, M1, 1M Safety car, New M5 Safety car, e36 M3 GTR. Started up the 1M safety car with Aprokovic exhaust...OMG we were giggling like school girls! Brian has a ton of enthusiasm for M and practically guaranteed that the 1M would be a classic.

An hour later Jurgen Schwenker arrived. He was one of the leads on the 1M development. This guy is the man! He is even quoted in the 1M official brochure! A great guy, so funny and animated, cracking jokes with tons of insight. 15 minutes into the conversation he said "Follow me" and took us to the garages to show us the 1st 1M test mule. This was the actual first car that they hacked together when starting the project (I remembered it from early spy pics). He then went on to detail what they did and how they did it. So many details I could write a book, this car certainly is one of the most special cars that M has every produced. The thing that I loved from the meeting is how he showed genuine love for the car and you could tell he has a lot of great memories from the project. Jurgen specializes in brakes at M and said that they worked on the development before and after work hours with a team of about 20 total.

Now for the most important bit... Sharpie in hand, Jurgen signed the underside hood and dated it! Took some pics, I was so excited I couldn't even concentrate. In all he spent about an hour and a half with us, showing personal pictures on his iphone while telling stories about when he was the driver for the marketing pictures and videos.

Overall, what an amazing day. I definitely did not take enough pictures as I was so overwhelmed at everything that was going on. Also didn't get a chance to talk more with the bimmerpost guys I met, again just too much smiling to think...lol.

We are now in Innsbruck on our way to drive the Austrian Alps. Car is more than I imagined, I've already done 200km/h on the autobahn! Jurgen said I need to be gentle, "like I'm driving a hot supermodel", for around 500kms then to go all out. Can't wait to bring it home share space with my e30 M3.

What a day, what a car!!!

A couple of pics. Internet here is garbage so I'll have a ton more to share once i'm back in MTL.

Big thanks to my dealer BMW Canbec & BMW Canada for setting this up!

And yes....My shirt coordination with M colours was planned...lol

cheers

Amit

[eeghie]

Originally Posted by djafactor

What an amazing day!
And yes....My shirt coordination with M colours was planned...lol

cheers

Amit

Congrats, nice form, so sorry I could not join!

[Dackelone]

That is very cool! You have a special car with a special history.

[1mGator]

Wow ... congratulations, welcome to the Club .... enjoy the rest of your trip and give us plenty of updates.

[Redadair]

Great write up! Congratulations on your tour and Signature from the M Studio.

ED's are great fun

[Dee Pee]

Dammits I really wanted to do ED but I'm in my 1M already. Do they do regular tours? I have to be in London for work in a couple months and I'm thinking about popping over if it's possible.

[mPlasticDesign]

Amit, that is just plain AWESOME!

[Aussie_in_London]

Nice write up mate and some cool pics.................

Looking forward to seeing more from your Alps drive.

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

That is very cool! You have a special car with a special history.

no doubt! where were Jurgen And Brian when we were there? Actually.. I've met both of them before... and I'll see Brian at ofest 2011 in Birmingham (his home town)...



Amit.. I am envious... my E30 M3 had to go to make way for my 1M....
Congratulations on a neat M studio experience!


enjoy Innsbruck.... I REALLY like that city.... and make sure you had to Stelvio pass..it's SS38 in Austria... about 2.5 hours from innsbruck..

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by Dee Pee

Dammits I really wanted to do ED but I'm in my 1M already. Do they do regular tours? I have to be in London for work in a couple months and I'm thinking about popping over if it's possible.

you can always schedule a plant tour at Leipzig.. or possibly contact the M studios for a tour. And of course you can always visit the Welt.. it is open 7 days a week.

[TunedM2C]

That is awesome. I'd cover the signature with some sort of clear coat.

[m_thompson]

Originally Posted by Tuned1

That is awesome. I'd cover the signature with some sort of clear coat.

That was my thought. I wonder what you could use that would not disolve the Sharpie ink?

[djafactor]

Originally Posted by m_thompson

That was my thought. I wonder what you could use that would not disolve the Sharpie ink?

Definitely going to clear coat it. We will have to do some tests at the paint shop to see what works.

Drove the Geslor & Gossglokner passes today. Wow! Roads were pretty clear of traffic, the car is made for these roads. Pics coming soon! Tomorrow we are heading to Stelvio.

Amit