DISCLAIMER: PIC HEAVY
Hi all! Welcome to my 2021 M2C Failed ED PCD road trip thread! Meant to post this earlier, as the trip happened in December, but just finally getting to it. I still haven't gotten through any of the videos I took.
A Teaser Pic...how many M2s make it to Big Bend National Park?
BMW announced the end of European Delivery in early May. I've done ED in the past (
https://www.2addicts.com/forums/show....php?t=1315020) and, while I loved my 2018 DCT M4, it took me all of about a day to decide I needed to order a new M2C with a stick and try to shoot for the very last delivery ever. So, I placed the order with Jimmy Bach at Steve Thomas BMW
GOLFFRR. We actually didn’t even have an allocation, but Jimmy was sure he’d get one and he did in early June. Let the waiting begin.
I started a thread of the “End of an Era M2 ED” cars. It can be found here:
https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1720376 There ended up being about 15 orders just in that thread and they were, all but one, stick shifts.
My build is as follows:
2021 M2C
Sunset Orange
Orange Stitching
Exec pack
Bi-color wheels (for the bright finish popping off the orange)
M driver’s package (for the 174 mph limiter because I was doing ED)
And…
SIX
SPEED
MANUAL!!!
Last summer consisted of a lot of back and forth and ups and downs on the ED as portrayed in my ED thread. After lots of thought about whether I should go East or West, I decided that the last ED should be an Alps and Western Europe experience. The trip I had planned was to be almost 3 weeks and I was going to take the car all the way down to Gibraltar. I even secured the okay from BMW to take the car on the ferry from mainland Spain to Ceuta, Spain, a walled/fenced Spanish city on the coast of North Africa. Yes, this was allowed and covered by the insurance. I don’t believe anyone ever did it. Mallorca and Menorca were also allowed, along with Sicily (roads are terrible though), Corsica and Sardinia.
I was then going to rush back up through Portugal, wind through the Pyrenees, and sip my way through Bordeaux before getting to the Nurburgring for a one day lapping experience with a group set up by Donnie Isley at the BMW PC
willwin2day. I’ve done this before and it’s a blast. Turned out the weekend we were supposed to be there for that event was also the F1 race weekend. Last stretch would be a blast down the autobahn to Munich for drop off and the long wait.
The best part of this planned trip was that my Orange M2C Stick Shift was to be the very last ED car. I had secured a 5 pm delivery on Saturday, September 26, which was supposed to be the last day.
Alas, none of it was to be. Initially, they pushed back all of our delivery dates and mucked up all the schedules. Then I cancelled just before they cancelled on everyone a few days later around early-mid October. I cancelled and opted to ship the car to the PCD, not entirely knowing if I’d take it. I told Jimmy that the car needed to get there in time for me to get it home before serious winter and before Christmas because of scheduling issues.
I needed 2 weeks, one for the car to get treated at Extreme Colors Auto Spa (they do the BMW PC cars) with a full front end clear bra, tint and ceramic coating. During this week, I’d spend 4 days on the track at the BMW PC and one at the Land Rover Off-Road experience at the Biltmore in Ashville, NC. The car finally hit the Brunswick port in mid-November and I secured a December 7 delivery. This was a tad later than I would have desired, but I was told that I’m basically working from home until June (or longer) and I just had to have the stick while traffic wasn’t in the equation.
The cross country route is below!
