Punishing the $2,000 BMW in its First Event: a Stage Rally
The work’s done, and Ryan’s taking the caged-up E30 to the Empire State Performance Rally. Can he and co-driver Alex Jagger get the BMW to finish, or get stuck in the woods?
The Empire State Performance Rally has a reputation of being among the toughest of grassroots rally events in the Northeast. Our clapped-out BMW 3-Series project has a new, NASA-approved cage and some vital new suspension parts. Ryan's put in 100 percent to get all the bugs -- and there were a lot of bugs -- worked out. It certainly seems ready to go.
But is it?
Held yearly in Narrowsburg, NY, the ESPR was formerly a tarmac event, but for the past couple of years its stages have been gravel only. It attracts a wide field of competitors from all over, but some consider the event a real carbreaker.
In the weeks since Ryan got the BMW back from Matt Farah, who tried to drive it up a Colorado mountain in an episode of /DRIVE on NBC Sports, he's been rushing to get all the work done in time to get it on a rally stage. Not to give away too much of the story, but Ryan literally drove the BMW from Broken Motorsports in Union City, New Jersey right up to the first rally stage. That's how close the timing was. And that's for real, not some made-up TV show timeline. But you know projects are like air; they'll fill up every but of space they're given.
Can Ryan and co-driver, Alex Jagger get the already sort of sketchy BMW to finish the rally without catastrophic damage, or will they be hitchhiking back from the woods?
