The Great 2013 E30 Touring European Roadtrip

[EtaSax]

Echoing what pretty much everyone else has said, that is indeed Awesome. How was the ICE? As a railfan I'm dying to know how a ride on a well-executed high speed rail system was.

[buguhrich]

Have fun! Make sure to get a video of top speed on the autobahn.

[Eric]

Have fun! Make sure to get a video of top speed on the autobahn.

135mph isn't very interesting on any freeway....

[James Crivellone]

Day 2.

We started the day by getting the car registered, taxed, and insured.

If you are looking at buying a car in Germany and driving it around for a few weeks this is rather important process that is rather cumbersome and complicated. Thankfully Mike was with me and was able to take care of everything.

The steps we went through. Prereq: Car which has passed TUV inspection

1) Find an Insurance / Plates office and pay for Insurance, and the license plate itself. $100 Euro
2) Head down the Germany DMV, and ask for Red export plates (jokingly called Gypsy plates)
3) Talk with a cranky German DMV employee for around 15 min as she registers the car into your name
4) Pay $45 Euro to a clerk down the hallway
5) Return receipt to cranky German DMV Lady in which she provides you with the piece of paper authorizing license plates to be created for you
6) Return to License plate office and have them create the plates
7) Return to cranky German DMV lady and provide her the plates so she can put stickers on them
8) Be informed that you will not receive the updated title until the car is VIN is confirmed by a DMV employee
9) Go back and install the plates on the car, and drive BACK to the DMV
10) Return to cranky DMV lady and have her walk outside and verify the VIN
11) Receive Title and be done with the entire process

Success, German registration in my name



As a note, if you don't speak any German (which would be me) figuring out this process would be VERY difficult. I highly recommend if you want to do something like this to reach out to someone already living out here who knows how the system works. While it has some similarities to the United States many things are still done differently.

After we got that stuff done we went back to Mikes and began working on the car. Enroute back we heard a noise from the right rear which turned out to be the rear shock mount, so we nabbed a used one that Mike had in his collection and replaced it, as well as the headunit so I could have some decent music along the trip.

Removing the old Alpine Pullout deck



10Toes replacing the rear shock mount



Stereo / headunit replacement in process



Little baby amplifier that someone had installed in the car with the alpine pullout deck



After we got the car all happy Dave showed up with his gorgeous M3



We saddled up and decided to drive around a bit, hit a wrecking yard ,etc



At the wrecking yard they only had 2 E30's, but a fleet of E34's




Automatic E34 518i anyone? How slow can this car be? At least replacing the starter seems easy.



Stopping real quick before we spread out and went our separate ways



We then headed up to the top of Bamberg to this cool castle

View from the top



View of the car




End of the day



We are leaving for Munich / Austria today.. more to come!

[James Crivellone]

When do you plan on cruising through London?

Next weekish..

[James Crivellone]

Who are you shipping it through? Port of tacoma?

Still determining that, shopping around, however Yes it will come through the Port of Tacoma

[James Crivellone]

Echoing what pretty much everyone else has said, that is indeed Awesome. How was the ICE? As a railfan I'm dying to know how a ride on a well-executed high speed rail system was.

ICE was NICE (hur hur), very smooth, comfortable, very busy.. on time as well

[e30shmobberr]

high 5, great car and trip so far!

[F34R]

This is amazing.

[canakami]

Man. This is a dream trip; the car, sights, everything.

Stupid jealous over here =P

[e30edward]

Wow this is amazing!! Subscribed! :D

[defaultName]

I'm super jealous of this trip! I was planning something similar when I was living in Europe, but I was "talked out of it" by my wife (to put it nicely).

Oddly enough the plane just pulled into the tarmac and they had everyone board a bus to the terminal.

First time in Europe? This is pretty common actually and sometimes you actually walk back to the terminal!

[mikeedler]

Drive safe guys. It was a fun time getting the car ready and drinking some smoked beer. See you on the return.

[Eric]

:up:

[getouth]

This is the meaning of doing it big!