Shawn Baden » BMW

BMW unscripted. Sabine Schmitz.

shawnbaden — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 03:15:51 +0000

Exhilarating. Sabine Schmitz is a legend. Watch this video and taste a piece of the Ring.

My name is Sabine Schmitz and the people call me the ‘Queen of the Ring’ or the ‘fastest taxi driver in the world’.

BMW unscripted. Murray.

shawnbaden — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:03:28 +0000

BMW unscripted is a series about people, talking about their life, passion and joy with the brand BMW.

I have kind of exceeded the speed limit a little bit. Am I supposed to say that in this recorded part?

I could connect with this car because it has a special spirit. It has a soul. And when I first drove it, I thought “woah!” This feels like it’s carved out of one piece.

This is going to be me in 30 years, cherishing my 2001 E39 M5.

At a minimum, skip to 1:30 in where you’ll hear “Third gear.” and then listen to the glorious exhaust note of the inline 6.

UPDATE:
Bill Marceau, the creative director from GSD&M of the BMW unscripted series ( contacted me and offered a better quality version with no subtitles (the original vision I suspect). I’ve made it available here.

For reference, the version posted by BMW on YouTube is available here.

A unique opportunity: 1-owner 1976 BMW 2002

shawnbaden — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:50:50 +0000

If it’s a true and legitimate 1-owner, then this 1976 BMW 2002 reported over at BaT (Bring a Trailer) is a very rare opportunity.

1976 BMW 2002

Unlike BaT, I don’t think the owner will have _any_ problem getting his $11k asking price. The BMW 2002 has a cult following (for good reason) and there are sure to be many of them ready to jump on this opportunity. I don’t fall in the cult category but I do like the BMW 2002 and considered buying one at one point. I personally don’t like the yellow (although many do) but the car should have solid bones with no (or little) rust being from CA. Also, 1976 was the last year of production of the 2002.

1976 BMW 2002

1976 BMW 2002 Interior

The Pinnacle of E34s for Sale

shawnbaden — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:36:43 +0000

IMO this is the pinnacle of E34s. If I was in the market for one, I wouldn’t change anything on the spec sheet.

M5 – and all the wonderfulness that goes along with any M car
1993 Euro model with 3.8L engine making 340 bhp as opposed to the U.S.-spec 3.6L making 315 bhp
“Thowing Star” wheels are the best looking wheels on any E34; there’s an extra set of “Turbine” wheels with snow tires
M-sport mirrors: it’s a seemingly small thing, but I feel this really updates the look of the E34
Color: Avus Blue with the gray bit on the bottom; I love Avus Blue and the gray on the bottom just perfectly proportions the E34 body

It’s very reasonably priced at $17k. I need more money…

1993 BMW M5

1993 BMW M5 Engine

1993 BMW M5 Throwing Star Wheel

1993 BMW M5

A mild attempt at hypermiling my 1995 BMW 540i

shawnbaden — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 02:24:38 +0000

For those of you that don’t know, hypermiling means to drive with the sole purpose of achieving the maximum MPG possible (safety permitting of course). To satisfy my curiosity, the past week I’ve made an attempt at hypermiling with my 1995 BMW 540i. Crazy huh? I simply employed some basic techniques such as depressing the accelerator as little as possible (a maximum of 1 inch was the guideline I tried to follow), coasting whenever possible, and using the cruise control a lot. I also kept my trips consistent as best I could – just to work and back, no freeway miles. The results? Unfortunately I didn’t take a very good measurement of my MPG before trying this but the best I remember from my on-board computer is 16.3 MPG. I suspect a more accurate figure would be 15 MPG. The first day of hypermiling turned in a solid 20.5 MPG thanks to being very focused. The next couple days I dropped to 19.5 MPG. And finally after getting a a bit more aggressive I ended the week at 19.1 MPG. Nothing scientific but about a 20% increase.

So what’s my verdict? First of all, having an instantaneous MPG gauge and on-board computer to calculate ongoing MPG is almost a must because you need the constant feedback to know what’s working and by how much. I tried some of the techniques in my wife’s 1999 Honda CR-V but missed the MPG readings. Another thing is that I suspect an automatic would make things much easier – rowing through 6 gears, shifting at 1500 RPM is a lot of rowing. I found accelerating slowly in the CR-V much easier. Lastly, driving slow isn’t much fun. I don’t see myself becoming a hypermiler but I will employ the techniques to some extent.

For more information and techniques, check out hypermiling.com.