The tumultuous chain of events that ended with this wrecked Beemer began with a wrecked Beemer.

Here at Wheelsmag we'd been looking forward to the loan of an M3 Coupe. Despite what you may assume about motoring journos, even we consider it a rare delight to test such a car. But last week, we received the dreaded phone call that the M3 was 'no longer available'.

Either an act of God or act of unholy driving had taken out the precious M3 (we weren't told the circumstances). So BMW kindly substituted one Coupe for another - the lovely 135i manual with M sports pack.


My usual routine is to rise at the sparrow's proverbial and drive the short distance from inner-suburban Rosebery to Sydney's Moore Park horse stables, where I trade several hundred horsepowers for laying the boot into just one steed every morning. But yesterday, the alarm clock was drowned out by howling wind and pelting rain.

The place to be in such a downpour was inside a car and not on top of a horse, and parking the $80K Beemer for the day at the windy stable block would coat it in dust. It was returned to the 'safety' of my quiet home street.

Hmph.



Apparently, the innocent-looking warehouse block adjacent to my home was about to be demolished. At 3pm yesterday, 70-knot winds transformed the partially-enclosed warehouse roof into a sail of iron and brick, which tasted the freedom of flight for a millisecond before returning to earth in a mess of mangled metal.

The collapse showered the parked cars across the road with rocks, and the five cars and two trees nearest the former building were obscured by tonnes of rubble. And poking its proud nose out at the front of the queue was our little press car.

I can't recount in this public forum my exact words as I rounded the corner and saw the police, the streamers of crime scene tape ... and the Beemer that was almost perfectly crushed in half.


The expletives continued as the roving news crews unsuccessfully attempted to grab a worthy sound bite of the first 'owner' to arrive at the scene. I truthfully told them that the car didn't belong to me, and placed the dreaded call to its rightful owner.

The live cross that followed was the lead item of the Channel Nine news, the anchorman positioning himself directly in front of the only car that was still visible amid the mess. Great.

The only minuscule sense of relief was provided by the affable Police and the celebrating owners of the other cars, who will now get shiny new replacements for their automotive pancake stacks courtesy of the building contractors.

The other bonus what that it wasn't an M3 under that mess of twisted metal and bricks...



A positive note to this sad story can be found in the pictures. The 135i's rigid body structure upheld the impact of several tonnes of metal falling square on its vulnerable middle roof. Its optional sunroof didn't even shatter. So our BMW 135i has proven it's as strong as houses - by having one land on top of it.

Had passengers been in the car at the time, only the rear-passenger side occupant would have one hell of a headache. The four other cars under the rubble didn't fare so well, though they were older models and had borne more of the impact.

And when the BMW towie promptly arrived at the scene, he unlocked the car, turned the lights on, turned the engine on, and proceeded to drive the car up onto the flatbed.

So the first press car I have ever damaged was still driveable... Right?Thanks to BMW Australia for being such good sports... We saved the badge for you.