[Jack's dad]

Reeves BMW in Tampa just took delivery of three demo cars: red/bamboo/cl coupe, silver/black/sycamore coupe and silver/red/cl sedan. All cars wore 19's. First impressions:

1. You won't be disappointed. Cars look great , drive great and sound better. Car is fast as hell but more civilized than the E46 M3. Steering is very direct, ride is not at all stiff, even with the 19's. Shift action is very good with reasonabably short throws, though I did get a "little bit" of the rubbery sensation we've heard about.

2. Silver looked great on both cars. The red is not as red as Imola - has a bit of orange in it, almost like guards red on a Porsche.

3. Fox red is nowhere near as red as in the E46, and is closer to reddish orange or reddish brown. It is not a pure red. It looked great on the silver car and would probably look fine with anything but Melbourne.

4. The CL trim looks fantastic and looked really nice with both red and bamboo leather. We are having a rare cloudy day in Tampa today, but at least in moderate light conditions the Sycamore did not look as brown as the pictures floating around last week. On the other hand, it does not appear to be as black as the brochures either; almost a dark brown in impact. I would think it would look fine with black and tan interiors but not sure it would look all that great with fox red.

5. Overall the car strikes me as an incredible GT with amazing performance levels that I will never be able to fully exploit, but yet completely usable as a daily driver. This will be my fifth BMW and I have no doubt it will be my favorite.

I did have a camera with me, but I know next to nothing (maybe less) about
digital photography so it is hit or miss as to whether I can get these photo's up. I will give it a shot next...

Steve