Category Archives: Information

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7 Ways to Drive Improve Your BMW Driving

Driving is a great experience, but there are always ways you can make it better, especially if you’re enjoying a luxurious ride behind the wheel of a BMW.  If you’re not sure where to start, you’re in luck.  We’ve gathered a list of seven things you can do to drive your BMW a little better.

  1. Don’t Drain The Tank

This is especially important for the BMW 3 series, but you should keep it in mind for all of your BMWs — don’t run the car until the fuel tank is empty. There are much better ways to get some weight reduction. The fuel pump itself is inside the tank and is cooled by contact with the fuel — running the tank empty damages the fuel pump and can lead to an expensive and time-consuming repair.

  1. Eco Pro Mode for Winter Driving

We all love the traditionally turbocharged BMW engines, but that extra torque and spin put you at risk for getting stuck on snowy or wet roads.  No one likes the Eco Pro mode for standard driving — it makes your gas pedal feel heavy and you don’t accelerate as fast — but it’s ideal for wet or snow-covered roads.  You might accelerate a little slower, but it keeps you from spinning off into snowy oblivion.

  1. Pick the Right Shoes

Believe it or not, the shoes you wear can affect how you drive.  A good pair of driving shoes should securely fit on your feet but remain thin enough you can feel the car as you shift the pedals.  A good pair of Dockers will do the trick, and won’t break the bank either. They’ll allows you to get more responsiveness out of your car by providing tactile sensation and information through the bottom of your feet.

  1. Drive Defensively

When you’ve got the power of a BMW at your fingertips, it can be tempting to drive aggressively — speeding, accelerating quickly or braking heavily — simply because you can.  Not only does this put you at higher risk for an accident, but it’s also actually compromising your fuel economy. Studies have shown this type of driving lowers your fuel efficiency by up to 30 percent on the highway and up to 40 percent in city traffic. Drive safely and defensibly to improve your car’s fuel efficiency.

  1. Don’t Grind Your Gears

A manual transmission can take your driving experience to a whole new level, but only if you actually know how to drive it.  Grinding your gears, in addition to humiliating yourself, damages your transmission.  Shift properly, and avoid things like engine braking — shifting to a lower gear at high speeds to force the engine to slow the car down without pressing the brakes.  Yes, it is effective at slowing the car down, but it damages the car and leads to premature breakdowns.

  1. Stow the Cell Phone

This should be a no-brainer but it happens so often it bears repeating. Don’t mess around with your cell phone while you’re driving.  Distracted driving leads to more than 1.5 million accidents every single year — you can’t drive your BMW better if you’re watching a junker tow it away after you’ve totaled it. Stow the cell phone and if you absolutely need it, such as for navigation, use it in hands-free mode and stick it on your dashboard.

  1. Take a Class

If you’re like most of us, it’s been a while since you had a driver’s ed course — so you could probably use a refresher.  You can look into performance driving schools if you want to learn how to get the most out of your BMW, or you can simply look into your local DMV’s defensive driving course. Either way, you’re getting your skills refreshed, learning new skills and as an added bonus — many defensive driving courses qualify you for lower insurance rates!

Getting behind the wheel of a BMW should be something you enjoy — so take the time to become a better driver so you can enjoy it for many years to come.

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Inside Origin Autoworks

Vinyl wrapping vehicles seems to be all the rage these days. The idea is you can make your car any unique color imaginable while preserving the paint beneath. If you’re an owner of a $400,000 Lamborghini, you wouldn’t exactly be thrilled to find rock chips now would you. There’s a reason many hypercars are rocking wraps.

How is this not a factory color? Let’s call it BMW Frozen Dakar

Wrapping has become very popular in the BMW crowd as well. Here in the greater Sacramento area, Tyler Curley runs the company he founded, Origin Autoworks, a premier wrapping and detail service. Tyler started wrapping  two years ago on his own car for fun. After the success of his own creation, his friends asked him to do their cars as well. Soon, he turned his hobby into a fully-fledged business.

Wrapping has brought many a cool car into his studio; His second car he ever wrapped was a Ferrari 360. A huge chunk of his clientele happen to be BMW owners as well. Luckily, Tyler was kind enough to share photos of several  BMW’s he has wrapped the past couple years. M4’s, M5’s, M6’s, he’s done them all.

More recently, a friend had his entire E46 M3 wrapped by Tyler in a stunning electric blue. Originally a Carbon Black car, the striking blue sets it apart from the crowd with a serious whiff of exotica. All panel edges are of a beautiful detail from Tyler with zero signs of bubbling nor stretch marks. This is some professional quality stuff.

Tyler also has recently started detailing cars, providing paint corrections to remove swirls and scratches and ceramic coatings. If you have a Jet Black BMW, you know the pain of swirls. Ceramic coatings have proven to be much more durable than traditional waxes with a serious shine along with it to protect from the elements. They can last several years instead of only several months.

 

Ceramic Coating applied to 2018 M4 Competition Package

I asked Tyler about cost as well. Most full vehicle wraps are in the $2,500 range, a fraction of what more established shops will charge, who can charge upwards of $5,000. Now for those wanting to do simple roof wraps though, it’ll run only about $200. I’m currently trying to talk my friend into having his silver E46 M3’s roof and mirrors done in black. It represents an easy and cheap way to dramatically transform the look of your street fighter.

However, the best part about vinyl is the fact it’s completely reversible and will keep the paint underneath looking like new for years to come. Plus some like to change it up a bit too. Maybe you’ll want your car red for a couple years, grow tired of it, and then try blue instead. The possibilities are endless.

You can find Tyler here at his page: Origin Autoworks

This car was actually chrome before. Wrapping allows ability to change up colors

 

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How are those Cooper’s Doing?

I have not exactly been the best at updating how my Cooper RS-3 G1’s have held up the past several months. So I thought about it: why have I not written more about them? Tires are a pretty important component of the performance car after all. Then it hit me: It’s because they’ve been so damn good. Seriously, it came to a point where I didn’t know what else to say about them.

Last I checked in, it was winter time, and the G1’s handled the California rain onslaught with ease. Credit to the all-season design. Living in the Sacramento region, we received the gift of well over 30 inches last season. Over THIRTY! Normally, Sacramento gets the south side of twenty, so this past year has been wet to say the least. I didn’t mind, however, as I saw more chances to perform subtle oversteer corrections through corners. Yes, they did disconnect a little on roads with an inch deep of standing water, but besides that special circumstance they were quite amiable. Cruising at 70 MPH in the rain? No problem. Even when I did hit the deeper puddles, the car tracked straight and true right through it.

Then summer came with the heat. I literally do not think I ever got these tires to squeal, that’s how much dry grip they possess. My ZHP would show serious body roll in spirited driving and yet the rubber was dead silent, as if they were saying, “oh come on! Let’s go!” They’re named the G1 as to say that they can carry 1 G of lateral grip. And I believe it; They far outperformed the capabilities of my ZHP’s stock chassis and suspension.

Communication through the wheel was terrific as was steering response. The steering could be a bit busy, wandering a bit on the road sometimes but that’s more down to the fact the odometer rolled over 140,000 miles. They were far less meandering than the aging Sumitomo’s fitted prior. Furthermore though, the Cooper’s were dead quiet at speed and comfortable as heck over bumpy roads. Larger impacts of road reflectors and potholes still could cause a shudder throughout though, but that’s to be expected.

But the best part was the tread wear. Even after about 8,000 miles, the tires looked brand new. Wear was very even throughout as well, being not even close to halfway worn. On a staggered setup like on the ZHP, Cooper guarantees the tread life to 25,000 miles, a number that should be attained with ease. On a square patter, that number rises to an astounding 50,000 miles as long as you rotate tires.

So there you have it: Cooper’s Zeon RS-3 G1. For an everyday tire with some serious performance, and longevity, it’s a world class affair. And it’s an all-season compound too, that’s why it works so good in the inclement weather too. Price is quite competitive too and they’re available now on Tire Rack, so if you’re in the market for some rubber, put these on your shortlist. Well done, Cooper.