Let there be (white) light! No? Not yet?

Got me some WeissLicht LED bulbs ($149 from jlevistreetwerks.com) to make the halo lights and day times bright white like the regular beam xenons. This is standard on all the new BMWs but the 2007s came with ugly halogen bulbs for the halos.

I would have never have guessed that replacing any of my headlight bulbs would require professional help. It's supposed to be something the average guy who likes to pretend to "work on his car" on a Saturday afternoon should be able to do in his driveway at home, right? Not if you have an e90 sedan!

There's an "access panel" in the WHEEL WELL which requires A COIN to open. Yes, it said "coin" in the manual. You can get "access" (assuming you have extremely tiny hands) to the low beam xenon bulb and turn signal bulb through the access panel, but apparently not the angel eye bulbs. To get to those you have to remove the ENTIRE WHEEL WELL PANEL! Ridonkulous!

After tinkering around for 2 hours with my gearhead friend Ben, we were honestly just glad that the all the lights were working just as well as they were before we even started. I decided the best thing to do was to wait until I get the rims put on by Group5 since the wheels are going to need to come off anyway. FAIL!

I prefer my BMW grilled...

Got my new gloss black grill in the mail ($90 from jbspeed.com) the other day to replace the factory chrome one. Pretty easy to install and looks really clean! You can just pull out the old grills and snap in the new pieces. The top trim requires some more work: you need to screw out some torx screws from the hood (one of mine was stripped so that was lame - ended up having to break the old trim...the other option was to drill out the screw but that risked damage to the hood, knowing me). My first official "mod"...yeeeah!

Other titles I considered:

• Who invited Paul Wall!?
• The whole top diamond and the bottom row's gold...
• Call that b*tch Weber cuz she got a grill!

New shoes!

My new rims (19" hyper-black Linea Corse LC818s) arrived at Group5 Motorsports a couple days ago, but I still can't put them on since I need to wait for my tires to be shipped. I got antsy and had to go see them in person. OK, I'll be honest...I've gone to visit twice already!

The picture above is the rear wide 19x10" with an aggressive 22m offset (notice the concavity in the center)

And So It Begins...

$25 BMW keychain. Yup.

This is going to be the first of many unnecessary things I will purchase for this car. And it's going to get a lot worse. I already ordered an angel eye kit (to convert the standard halo headlights to bright LEDs and use them as day-time running lights), 19" hyper-black Linea Corse LC818 rims (19x8.5 fronts and 19x10 rears), KW lowering springs, and a black gloss grille to replace the chrome OEM one (to match my rims, of course!). Some other mods I'm considering are a Bastuck exhaust (for a throatier but not too loud sound) and a GIAC flash (increases horsepower and torque by at least 50 vis software...who woulda thunk!)

I know what most of you are thinking. What are you, 18!? The way I look at it is that yeah, maybe I'll get over all this once I do it. And that's fine. Worse comes to worst, I go back to stock everything and sell off all the aftermarket crap. What's a few thousand dollars to live out your high school dream, right? Right? Anybody?/? =(

Pics coming soon!

Epic Win!

Speeding ticket on the way home from the dealership. That is how I fucking do! LOL

There's a stretch of about 2 miles of open road on Camino Santa Fe on the way home and I decide this is the perfect place to let the turbos open up and get the real BMW driving experience. I mean it was damn near 10pm on a Wednesday...what could go wrong? So I get the car to about 110mph, enjoying the surprisingly responsive paddle shifting and the rear wheel drive pulling me out of curves with ease, only to see a cop car a few hundred feet on the side of the road. WTF? Really!? I start braking but I'm going way too fast and as expected, he pulls me over. I apologize to the cop for speeding and explain to him that I JUST pulled off the dealer lot and wanted to test out the car on some open road and it wouldn't happen again blah blah blah. He seemed pretty understanding and even went as far as making conversation about the 335's specs and compared it to his Dodge Charger at home (which he claimed would smoke my car...dick.). I'm thinking I'm about to get away with this...

Nope. After all that he hands me a ticket, citing me for doing 88 in a 50 zone. I guess there's no sympathy for Beamer owners...something I'll have to get used to I guess.

Lovesprung...

Three vehicular transactions in one day! I returned the convertible, sold my sister's Corolla, and bought another car on 9/27. I think in the back of my mind I always knew that the best car for me in terms of price, practicality, and fun was going to be either a G37 or 335i sedan. Basically, a much better version of my Accord.

In the end, the 335i's awesomely fast twin turbos won me over...plus, I found one with all the options I wanted (navi, satellite radio, power everything, black on black, sport package, etc.), it was in really good condition, and got a great deal. I'm actually glad I went through my weird, lengthy car buying process . In the end I felt a sense of happiness, relief, and confidence in the fact that the car I ended up with was a great fit for me in all apsects and I'm not going to be stuck with that "what if..." feeling for the next 5 years.

The One That Got Away

Everybody needs to do it at some point. You gotta go for the gold, try to get that super hot girl, land that dream job. For me, that moment came in the form of a 2007 BMW 328i convertible. I'd always wanted a convertible and I felt like my next car should be something nice, something fast, something I enjoyed driving. I considered and test drove just about every car that exists (I'm sure my friends were pretty annoyed after months of hearing about all my car ideas). At first I planned on keeping the Accord as my secondary car so why not get something crazy for the weekends? I finally pulled the trigger after my Mom, of all people, pushed me to do it. "Now's the time to be stupid," she said...I guess that was enough justification?

I got a manual since the 328i was pretty boring in auto and the 335i was out of my price range (added about $10K). The week I bought the car there was a crazy heat spell in SD so I took the car out and drove around aimlessly the first few nights. After a bunch of cruising and abuse, practical Jimmy kicked in and I decided to take advantage of CarMax's 5-day/no limit on mileage return policy. There wasn't a single reason why I backed out...but rather a mix of things: 1) I felt like a douchebag. Yea, I know, most people who know me would think, "But you kind of are...". Whatever! And I know I worked hard to get where I am blah blah blah but the image of that young kid in a drop-top Beamer just doesn't sit well 2) The manual transmission was fun and made the 328i a lot zippier but day-to-day driving became a bitch at times. How are you supposed to text or update Facebook?! 3) I couldn't even fit my backpack in the trunk! With the top up!

No regrets, though...I had a great 5 days. I landed that hot girl at the bar, but the glares and "WTF is she doing with HIM?" whispers  were just too much for me I guess. Maybe I'll try again when I'm 40.

Was she hot? She was...nice...

I was a working man now and it was getting kind of embarrassing to pull into the DivX parking lot in such a beater. Don't get me wrong...the DivX folk are a bunch of techies (especially back then when we were pre-IPO) so they definitely weren't about the bling. In general the DivX lot was split into two major categories: a) the hipsters/hobbyists who drove late model VWs, Audis, Gremlins, classic station wagons, etc. and b) the 'I'd rather spend my money on ridiculous REI equipment and cool gadgets and drive a hybrid or typical Honda/Toyota' crowd.

Since I didn't have a lot of money and I still drove to LA often a lot I figured I needed something dependable so I went with the latter group. My safe choice ended up being a 2002 Honda Accord SE. I bought it used for about $12K with 50K miles on it and it has about 165K miles on it today after 5 years. In true Honda fashion it never broke down on me and has been as reliable one would hope. I added some Jimmyness to it over the years (DivX Certified Pioneer head unit w/DVD-P, two 12" JL subs, 400W amp, MB Quart tweeters, 6.5s, and 6x9s, and limo tint all around), but I never got super attached to the car...it definitely was no 1987 brown Corolla. I guess the best way to describe it is that it's like you're 20th birthday...nothing too exciting, not as memorable as you're 18th, but you need to get through it on your way to 21 (when all hell breaks loose). Maybe I'll appreciate the "Black Widow" more later on as I start having to spend retarded money fixing my next less reliable car. Luckily I don't have to say my final goodbye yet since my sister is taking the reigns (minus the tint).

My First

"Poopsy" was my first in so many ways: my first joy-ride in the 7th grade, the first time I ditched school and drove my friends around, the first time I picked up a girl from her house, my first house party, my first accident, my first time getting pulled over for being brown in Torrance, my first drive down to SD for college, my first day of work at DivX, and the list goes on. So many good times with this car. From the age of 16 all the up to my first year of work after college I drove the shit out of this thing and it never gave me any major problems. I eventually sold her for $500 after years of dependable driving and 250K memorable miles. After all that unconditional love and support, I guess we still end up moving on. Mo' money, mo' problems yo!