Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Triumphant Teutonic Triumverate

It’s an answer to a question that nobody asked. The four door luxury sports ‘coupe’, an oxymoron, frankly. But the odd thing is, it works. The Mercedes-Benz CLS Coupe spawned it all and showed the world that a car can be rakishly good looking, have a low roofline, four doors and still be utterly desirable. [...]

“What happens if we mix the sound of a classical orchestra with the modern tones of a powerful motorsound? What’s the outcome if we try to use the momentum of a melody and blend it to the deep sound of a V8 or the high tone of a biturbo engine?” These are the questions the [...]

3-Series, 6-Deep

The BMW 3-Series stands as one of the all-time greats. At the top of every automobile magazine’s list of best cars for the past three decades and the performance benchmark by which all other sport sedans are measured, the 3-Series is a modern icon of automobilia. Outdoing the last one is tantamount to making the [...]

Mo'-ped

Typically, riding a scooter as a full-fledged male has the ability to take you down a few notches on the coolness scale. Well, BMW hopes to change some of that, as they try to edge in on the ubiquitous scooter market with the introduction of the BMW Concept C motor scooter. Using a high displacement [...]

Family Dragster

The last generation M5 will have its final hurrah in five-door form and under cover of darkness. Edo Competition, the mad German tuner, has just pulled the cover off its BMW M5 Dark Edition. The V10 has been ramped up to 555 horsepower from the original and already ferocious 500 via increased air flow, allowing [...]

Frosty Goodness

There are very few times when it’s not good to be an American. This is one of them. BMW is producing the M3 CRT in limited numbers (67) for markets other than the U.S. Yes, you can cry now. The Frozen Polar Silver painted sedans are designated as Carbon Racing Technology vehicles due to the [...]

M-agnificent

Fully into the post-Bangle era, BMW has created what might be the actual perfect BMW. Every proportion of the BMW M5 bleeds with utter German perfection. Gone is the shrill V10 in exchange for a firecracker 4.4 liter twin-scroll twin-turbo V8 overflowing with technology. Power figures? A head-spinning 560 hp and 502 lb-ft of torque, [...]

Black Ice. The Good Kind.

We all pretty much know how ferocious the current BMW M3 is. Screaming V8 and handling of the gods are part of the package. Now, dial it up down a few notches into the form of a teflon Ninja street scalpel with the very limited production BMW M3 Frozen Black Edition ($73,650). The first thing [...]

Ultimate Deference Machine

In commemoration of the BMW 328 75th anniversary (no, not the leased 328 in your neighbor’s garage), Bavarian Motor Works has created what really can only be described as a breathtaking reintepretation, recently revealed at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este in Como, Italy. Aptly called the BMW 328 Hommage, its resemblance to the original 1930′s [...]

M Pedal Power

Carbon fiber bikes have been around for a while now, though that doesn’t make them any less exclusive. BMW M Performance cars have also been around for some time, and they remain high on the list of uber-desirable cars. Well, what happens when you combine the BMW Motorsport name and the lightness and strength of [...]

Big Deux Coupe

The original BMW 635CSi from the 80′s was a tough act to follow. Crisp, clean lines and an aggressive stance, along with a beautifully forward angled grille made the 6-Series Coupe of yesteryear a true classic.The reincarnation in 2003 proved to be less than thrilling, looking more like a large lozenge than an iconic coupe. [...]

Bow to Good Design

The Ultimate Steering Machine? Perhaps the new BMW Intermarine 55 will establish that new slogan for the Bavarian automaker. In a stunning collaborative work between BMW DesignworksUSA and Intermarine, the Brazilian luxury yacht manufacturer, the goal was to create a new design theme for nautical vessels, incorporating such automotive cues as trapezoidal windows (instead of [...]

Don't call it an M1

Since its inception, the BMW 1 Series has always been a bit of an ugly duckling — there, steadfast, ready to perform, but simply too repulsive to seriously consider. Then, one day, (coincidentally the same time we received a batch of photos) the BMW 1 Series underwent the Mermaid Theory and we suddenly found ourselves [...]

How sweet es ist

DiCaprio floundered in “Titanic,” U2 released the not-so-great “POP” album and Apple hyped the “what the crap is this?” Newton. We’re all allowed to hugely screw up at least once, but then we’ve got to do something truly great to make up for it. The Departed,” “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” and the ubiquitous [...]

The 2010 Paris Motor Show had landed and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to for a man to assume an amplitude of impossibly sexy cars, leggy models, and enough bespoke suits to make the men of Positano blush. Well, if this year’s display of supercar prowess is anything more than a declaration that the recession is [...]