By Nate Risch
09/08/2015
From 1982 through 1991, I daily-drove BMW 2002s. I stopped only when we bought the house in Newton, whose one-car garage was large enough for only my ’73 3.0CSi. An E21 528i became the family car. Then an E28 533i. Then a succession of E30s. Then a blur that seemed like one of just about everything.
By Nate Risch
08/31/2015
The Detroit Bureau bills itself as “The Voice of the Automotive World,” which came as quite a shock to me, since I always thought Satch Carlson was the voice of the automotive world. Anyway, The Detroit Bureau cites an unnamed BMW executive who claims that the next BMW M3—and by logical extension, the next M4—will be plug-in electric hybrids (PHEV). If that’s true—and that’s a big “if”—is the motoring world ready for green M cars?
By Nate Risch
08/31/2015
Last week, I polished Darth and shod her with bottlecaps. (Her? Darth? Sure—like you haven’t ever been sent to the Dark Side by a woman?) I was prepared to begin daily-driving the black-on-black ’76 2002—the first time I would’ve done so with a 2002 in 25 years—which was, in fact, the whole idea.
By Nate Risch
08/25/2015
“Let me tell you about the very rich,” wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald. “They are different from you and me.” Boy howdy; for one thing, as Ernest Hemingway noted, they have more money—lots more. And if you want to see how they spend it, come to Monterey for Car Week. Then pay your way into some of the week’s big-buck events, like the Quail, or the Pebble Beach Concours. You’ll start to wish you had a little more Flagler-Rockefeller DNA.
By Nate Risch
08/25/2015
Last week, after I attended to the black 2002’s sticky accelerator, I accidentally cleaned off my knees and elbows with Inox stainless-steel polish (sure, laugh it up). The next issues had to do with appearance—no, not mine, the car’s. This was rather remarkable; I had no way to know in advance that once the accelerator was freed, the inexpensive 02 would need so little to be drivable.
