Hugo Becker

Last year, after my 2008 BMW 135i was wrecked for a 135i to be named later (right rear quarter taken out by an uninsured driver), I found the replacement – a 2013 BMW 135i, N55…

Our Senior Editor Chuck Vossler, uncovered this gem on the interwebs not long ago. On Copart’s site was one “1948 BMW .01”. Odd BMW wasn’t building cars in 1948, in fact BMW just plain wasn’t…

The ’13 135i was recently dropped off at BMW of Kansas City South for scheduled maintenance. My Service Advisor, Clint Wong, knew I’d need a loaner and he arranged to have a surprise waiting for…

The German economic miracle, the ‘Wirtschaftwunder’, was predicated by the western allies currency reform – the replacement of the old Reichsmark with the new Deutschmark, tax reform, and the Marshall Plan. It aided Germany in…

One of the few things Germany did not have a shortage of at the end of World War II was rubble. There were over 400 million cubic meters of rubble on the streets of Germany…

On the southeast edge of Eisenach, Germany, there is a steep hill. On top of that hill sits a fortification, a castle. It is not one of those popular fairy tale castles like Neuschwanstein in…

In May of 1922 the restrictions on aircraft engine production, imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, was lifted. Possibly this serves as one of the reasons BMW’s secretive benefactor, Camillo Castiglioni, went to the trouble…

Every now and then you run into people who are in a hurry. Alex Zanardi is one of those men who are in a hurry to live life to the fullest. He is a very…

In 1916 you will not find a company known as BMW, hard as you might look. The first mention of BMW is in 1917, as the company that succeeded Rapp Motorenwerke, so how is it…

It was announced the other day that almost 500,000 VW and Audi TDI cars have been equipped with, ahem, inappropriate software. The software in question was included in the ECU code and allowed the cars…