Relevant Web Sites:
www.editorscharitychallenge.comwww.800charitycars.org
The war of all wars has officially begun. No, we aren't talking about leveling another third-world country; this is something much more entertaining. It's a war between the magazines to buy and build the ultimate car for $25,000 or less, culminating in a battle at the track to see who's the best.
It all began when the people at eBay approached Primedia with an offer to pit the editors of the numerous magazines against one another, all in the name of charity. We gladly took up the gauntlet, and thus began the eBay Editors Charity Challenge.
With $25,000 in hand, we scoured eBay for a couple of weeks looking for the perfect car. We knew it needed some real power to compete with the muscle car magazines, but we also had to buy something we could easily modify within the budget.
We looked at a few VWs and a Porsche 944 or two before finally settling on a '95 BMW M3 with the potent 3.0L M50 motor. With our $25K, we decided we could buy and turbocharge the M3, not to mention upgrade all the running gear in order to make it competitive with anything out there.
After prowling eBay for a few days, we located the car we wanted. It was a Dakar yellow '95 located in Chicago of all places. After checking prices for shipping, we decided it would be cheaper to fly out and drive back to California, but we needed to do it in 2 1/4 days. We named it "The 8 States in 3 Days Fun Run."
We arrived in Chicago on Sunday and spent a good part of the day getting to where the car was located. Once we picked it up, we drove over to Chili's to grab a bite to eat and give the car a once-over before setting off across this great country.
During our inspection, we noticed a few small things. A headlight was out, the sunroof didn't fully open, the passenger window was temperamental, the trunk didn't lock properly, the Yokohama ES-100s were almost bald on the rear, and a U-joint was wobbly. With 2,200 miles ahead of us, this was going to be fun!
We set off determined to make it out of Illinois that night. We spent the night in Davenport, Iowa, and made it back onto the highway by 7:40 the next morning. By 12:30 p.m., we had entered Nebraska and were we flying along, determined to make Colorado by nightfall and hopefully Denver by quitting time. At about 3:30 p.m., we heard a loud scraping and noticed other drivers were pointing at the back of the car. After pulling over, we realized one of the exhaust hangers had broken, so we used a coat hanger that a newlywed couple donated to us to secure it temporarily. At about 5 p.m., our rigged muffler got loose again, so we decided to fix it at the next place we found. We also chose to charge the A/C because it was getting hot in the car. By 7:40 p.m. on Monday we had entered Colorado, and at 11:30 p.m. we were on the other side of Denver, getting ready to head into the Rocky Mountains.
We awoke the next morning at 7:30 and set off for the last day of driving. After tickling a wooden bear at lunch, we crossed the Utah border. There's some beautiful land out there, but not much else. By 3:30 p.m. we had entered Arizona and less than an hour later were in Nevada. By 6:45 p.m. we were leaving Vegas on the final stretch before we hit California. It wasn't until 11:00 p.m. that we pulled off the 101 freeway and were officially home.
Stay tuned over the next few months to see what we do to our eBay Challenge M3, and be sure to check out www.editors charitychallenge.com for details about the project and random updates.