derBayerische July/August 2023 - 3

TheSteeringColumn
Call me crazy, but I love the petrol machines that we call automobiles.
I am not super keen on alternative fuel vehicles such as diesel (not cheaper
than gasoline anymore!), hybrids, and EVs. Granted, my experience with
these engines is not extensive, so I may not be qualified to have an opinion.
However, I know how much I adore the growly, loud purr that my 135is
makes when I fire up the N55 engine. I love the subtle whir and whine the
turbocharger makes when I put the car in sport mode and accelerate quickly
down the highway. My 135is is horribly fuel inefficient, at best getting
18 mpg. My X3 M sport is almost equally as fuel inefficient at around
22 mpg. I have never once owned a vehicle that has been remotely fuel
efficient and maybe that makes me a bad steward of the environment and
fiscally irresponsible.
My experience with more fuel-efficient vehicles has been, as I stated,
quite limited. I test drove an i3 and wrote about my experience in this
publication. It was a cold winter when I borrowed the i3 for four days and
I found it confounding and annoying that I could not use the seat heaters,
play music, accelerate, drive quickly, or have sufficient heat in the car
without draining the battery. I ended up having to fuel up the 2-gallon tank
of the gasoline engine on numerous occasions and I disliked having to be
cold and uncomfortable in a car to achieve better battery performance.
BMW has decided to discontinue production of the i3, but oddly, it is not
because the car wasn't successful in the market, especially in Europe.
Please turn to James Chew's very interesting discussion of the i7 and iX in
this edition of dB.
I have had the pleasure of driving an i8 at Summit Point Raceway.
I loved the immediate response in acceleration and the unbelievable torque
that comes with an electric vehicle. While I also loved its huggy, low center
of gravity that made you feel glued to the tarmac, I didn't like climbing in
and out of the front seat. At a cost of $150,000 or more, it seems like an
expensive novelty. But it really was a joy to drive, and to quote Carscoops,
the i8 " will go down in history as the world's most successful sports car with
an electrified drivetrain " . Just to be clear, this was a one-off special event.
Our own HPDE events at Summit Point cannot support the participation of
EV vehicles. This is a policy that Summit Point has implemented due to the
perceived safety issues that EV vehicles pose on the track.
Most of my friends in California own Teslas. With gas prices often two
times higher or even three or four times higher than here on the East Coast,
I really don't blame them. Plus, the Tesla is a fun ride with all its torquey
stiffness. Elon Musk, or maybe the kind of people he hires, must have a
puerile sense of humor because the Tesla has all sorts of " games " one can
enable on the huge front-dash touch-screen display. My favorites are the
Whoopie cushion where you virtually place a pink whoopie cushion under a
passenger seat and " fart " down the road to a variety of gas-passing sounds
of your choosing. And Santa's sleigh which turns the Tesla into a virtual
sleigh, all the cars around you into reindeer, and the pedestrians into Elves.
Please don't judge me.
Maybe one day you will find me driving a hybrid BMW or even an EV
and being just fine with it. I think we have a ways to go before these cars
become totally mainstream. In Sweden, it is hard to find a used gasolinepowered
car because everyone wants them, and the government is pushing
people to buy new EVs. Certainly, I wish the cars I love to drive and
currently own would be more fuel efficient. When I visited the BMW factory
at Spartanburg, SC I was impressed by the hydrogen-powered robots and
trains that serve the assembly lines. There are certainly cost-saving and
environmental implications with the use of hydrogen power. My father, a
nuclear physicist, predicted that one day hydrogen-powered vehicles would
be the norm. Maybe I'll skip the EVs and wait for the day that hydrogen can
be safely harnessed in everyday settings!
Anna Maripuu
Co-editor
Please make sure we have your correct email address.
It can be checked and updated at the www.bmwcca.org website.
July I August
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https://www.bmwcca.org/ https://www.reflectionsautosalon.com/ https://www.reflectionsautosalon.com/ https://www.dandvautobody.com/ https://www.reflectionsautosalon.com/ https://www.dandvautobody.com/
derBayerische July/August 2023

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