Daily Driver – My 2006 BMW 3 Series
Although I spend my time shooting cars, it’s a very rare thing that I get time to shoot my own car. Earlier this year, after months of planning & preparation, I was finally at a stage where I was happy to take the time out to shoot it. I’ve owned the car for three and a half years now, but since day one I’ve always had in mind just how I wanted the car to look. Some of it was simple, whilst other parts took a lot longer to come together. My main aim was to create something that didn’t look modified. I wanted it to look like a car that BMW could have released. To achieve this, a lot of genuine BMW parts were used, albeit cherry picked from other models. The wheels comes from an E63 7 Series, the brakes were an over the counter option available from my local dealer, Brembo for BMW Performance. The boot lid is a full carbon CSL style trunk, inspired by the E46 M3 CSL whilst the front splitter is a rare Hartge Japan item, and took two years of searching to find. Not long after this shoot, that splitter met an untimely demise which resulted in the car being raised on its KW suspension whilst another splitter was sourced. The real reason I wanted to shoot my E90 was for posterity. I spent so much time agonising over such small decisions, researching part options online and trying to come up with a unique look that I just wanted something to look back at in years to come and say ‘I’m proud of that.’ Since ‘completing’ it, I’ve mostly been staying on top of maintenance and ensure the car is running 100%, all of the time. There’s just over 140,000KMs on the clock now […]
Electric – The 2014 Volkswagen e-Golf
To most of my friends, the idea of an electric car is abhorrent. We get our kicks from the good ol’ fashioned internal combustion engine, whether piston or rotor powered, and powered by fossil fuels. It’s all we’ve ever known. I was the same until the very moment I released the brake on the new Volkswagen e-Golf. As the age old saying goes, it’s just like a Golf. Both inside and out, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the e-Golf and a regular Golf, save for the blue detailing around the car. To drive one is definitely the most surreal motoring experience I’ve ever had. You take off and travel in complete silence. Sitting in traffic, you can hear people having conversations on the footpath and even in other cars. You become acutely aware of the idle of other engines and for the first time in my life, I was conscious of the pollution we’re putting into the environment every day. You also learn to drive in a completely different manner, as you’re aware of the energy being consumed to propel the car. With all of its torque available immediately, the car is a lot quicker off the line than some might expect. I don’t think the gentleman in the MKV Golf GTI was quite expecting such a silent and rapid getaway between traffic lights on the N11. With a maximum range of around 200KM (for a paltry €2’s worth of electricity), I’m genuinely excited about an electric future. I’m now looking forward to the day where I can commute in silence and with a clear conscience. Of course, there’ll be something louder tucked away for the weekends… Photographed exclusively for Volkswagen Ireland.
