Hailing from Santa Ana, CA and currently residing in North Phoenix, by way of Nevada and Oregon. K-man here to bring you all the biased, opinionated, *correct* (in my own little world) takes on cars, music, literature, and really whatever the fuck comes across my scope of counterculture.
A little background to prove my oppolopnik-ness. My pops is much older than most, at a 40 year difference, I grew up in a Hispanic household that cherished domestic and import classics alike. My earliest memories are driving with my dad in his ’93 Volvo 240, while my moms drove my brother and I around in an ’84 BMW 318is, both rowing through the gears. When it came time to get my first car, I was very fucking lucky to get a $7k budget when I was 16. It came down to two choices, a ’95 M3 and a ’69 El Camino. The M3 was manual, and I have always been a sucker for the e36, but something drew me to the Camino like a Monty in Rescue Rangers smelling cheese.
As you can see I went with the Camino and still own it to this day where it is parked in my parent’s driveway in Southern California, driven every few days by my pops to keep the fluids from freezing up until I can afford a place with a garage (I’m in an apartment complex).
Currently you can find me slamming through the gears of Big Buddha, my ’01 525it m-type, that I purchased upon arriving in Phoenix. It’s been my daily driver for 9 months now, got it at 129k miles and got it just over 141k now. It’s been reliable for the most part, and was well sorted mechanically when purchased from a gentleman who rescued it from auction. This left me confident enough to pick it up even though the body needed some work. No rust thankfully, but the original owner managed to get it wedged between a truck and a guardrail back in 2015. It needed both front fenders and both doors, and his insurance wrote it off as the BMW parts were worth more than what the insurance valued it at, blasphemous, I know. This is when the second owner (the guy I bought it from) rescued from a copart of all places, in Washington.
Now my car is originally Topasblau, being that not many e39’s in general had this shade, he could only locate Avusblau parts, so there is a slight noticeable shift in the color when standing next to the car. But waaay before I get it painted, it’ll need new bumpers, a new hood, and fixing some leftover dings and scrapes from the original accident. In the meantime of saving for these parts, it did the normal 17 year old German wagon thing and surprised me with a few annoying little problems that have depleted my bodywork fund. Needless to say, it’s the best fucking driving experience I’ve ever had (not that I’ve driven many, if any at all, special cars).
Anyways, the OG and the IPA’s are kicking in. I look forward to discussing many topics with all of you, as I’ve already forged some report with a few of you.
Here’s to feeling good all the time.