The idea started innocuously enough, let's see if we can go see the Monza F1 GP this year. Then the realization that my lease is also expiring, so perhaps there is an opportunity to pick up a car while doing that, and it all snowballed downhill from there, as things sometimes do. Once we looked at dates and figured out time away from work, we started looking at including a second GP experience, and why not throw in a Nurburgring lap or two, and why not get to Monza via some fine Alpine passes while we're at it, and so on. This ended up being the best car experience I've ever done. But let's start from the beginning... Bandwidth alert, lots of photos.
A huge shoutout to our spouses who have shown the patience of angels and supported us all the way. Spousal support is the only way to do a trip like this if you don’t like sleeping on the couch for a year.
We had fun doing it and wanted to share the experience with you. It ended up being impossible to post all this from the road as it was happening, so our apologies for the delay. I hope other people in the US are inspired by this story and take advantage of the Euro Delivery program, while it still exists. (BMW has been scaling back, reducing incentives etc. and I fear it may go away at some point).
As for the driving logistics in case you're wondering, we tried to split everything in half. Both the exciting stuff (passes, track) as well as the boring sections (highway). We're both adults, good friends and trust each other to not do anything dangerous with the car, while still preserving a certain zest for driving and keeping things on the fun and brisk side. And yes we're still friends.
Here we are on Day 0, call us A and T, luggage nicely decorated with the supplied BMW tags, leaving Dulles towards Munich.
An uneventful flight later, we were picked up via the included Sixt limo service, yes please and thank you we deserve it.
Half an hour later, we arrived at the Welt and checking into the Delivery lounge while waiting for the appointment time. This was my sixth Euro Delivery, but my friend T was new to the whole experience and was soaking it in to the max.
A little food goes a long way after such a long flight, and with a long day ahead of us. As usual, the lounge was impeccable.
We had been warned there was a delay in getting the tags, so we would get the car delivered, and then go to see the factory and museum while they would put the tags on the car, after which we would finally drive the car out later in the afternoon. Since we wanted to do all those things anyway that wasn't an inconvenience.
And now onto the good stuff... Claudia, our delivery specialist took us to the multimedia presentation room, where she would demo the new unfamiliar features (driving assist stuff and cameras mostly).
And then we looked down from the stairs and finally saw it...
Individual Santorini on black M3 ZCP, 6sp, Exec, etc. I thought I was going to like the color but to be honest it blew my mind, exceeding all my expectations.
Meanwhile T was snapping away trying to see what else was happening around us.
But honestly we were both too excited about the car to not go there and start crawling all over it. I was indeed back.
Do I look happy?
Next stop, the factory tour. We don't have any pictures of that for obvious reasons, but it was interesting and I finally got to see the paint shop which had been denied on previous trips. Their new process allows wet application of the various layers (!), thus reducing curing time and cost. Munich plant is special because of the limited available space, they're in the middle of the city basically, so the robot placement is highly optimized and there is a very cool choreographed dance as they pass the workload from one another in those tight confines. Also interesting was that you could barely hear the panel press, and there was absolutely no floor vibration from that. If you've seen these presses elsewhere you would have been impressed too.
After that, we went back to the lounge for lunch and then across the street to the museum, trying to soak in as many things as possible in a short amount of time. We took more pictures there, if there is interest I can post some more later.
First sports cars, and no iDrive in sight.
Ten years later, still no iDrive.
Elegant lines of the period in a 328 streamlined by Superleggera.
M1 procar miniature display case...
...along with the obligatory 70's style PR efforts...
I want it all.
Later still, it was finally time to do the victory lap and come out of the building into a light drizzle. Tired but very happy.
We drove to our hotel and nabbed the last parking spot, a little tight but hey this is Europe.
After a showers and rest, we met with T's cousin who lives in Munich and went for celebrations at the Hofbrauhaus, where we closed the shop after midnight.
I know there are places with better food or beer. But we went there for the authentic beer garden experience and it turned into an evening to remember. Our new friends at the table hailed from Germany, Chile, Italy and Russia, quite a melting pot. In the classic German tradition, you share a table you become friends. Beer loosens tongues and inhibitions, erases language barriers and ultimately makes you wobble back to the hotel and fall into a deep slumber.