By Nate Risch
10/09/2016
When I bought the 2003 E39 530i Sport in the dead of last winter, dead was the operative word; the car was advertised as dead—perhaps not dead parrot dead, but more than just a dead-battery dead.
By Nate Risch
10/04/2016
I have a confession to make: Although I have spent decades cultivating my image as a rootin’ tootin’ rally driver, a man who scoffs at the wussy-boy clean-car crowd who collapse in shivering collywobbles at the sight of a dirt road, who counts every rock chip as a badge of honor, the truth is that too many years spent wandering around the Oktoberfest concours and Legends Of The Autobahn have corrupted my aesthetic senses.
But that was before Nick Griot and his crew ruined me.
By Nate Risch
10/03/2016
There is an open secret about the Hack Mechanic: He’s cheap. Actually, that’s not true; like any gearhead, I’ll spend money like water on certain things when there is no way to get out of cheaply (hello, Kugelfischer injection-pump rebuild). But you can’t own twelve cars and keep the bank balance in the black without being ruthlessly thrifty. And so I am.
By Nate Risch
09/25/2016
If you have read practically anything I’ve ever written for BMW CCA—or anyone else, for that matter!—then it will come as no surprise that I find the early 2000s to be a high-water mark for BMW. Why? Simple. They were on top of the world.
By Nate Risch
09/25/2016
As we turn the corner from summer to fall, it’s time to evaluate how many of my twelve cars will stay through the winter. There are three spaces in the garage at the house, three that I rent in Fitchburg, and two at an equipment-storage space my old geophysics job leases.
