Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
There might be no replacement for displacement, but turbochargers do a great job of taking the place of cubic inches when it comes to power generation. Just watch how well the BMW X5 M does in the following head-to-head drag race.
Fans of cars live in a kind of fantasy land. Sure, they’re loyal to the models they adore and haven’t driven, but they don’t live in the reality of the vehicles as owners of them do.
It’s ironic that so many years of history can be distilled into short alphanumeric combinations. However, that’s exactly how the past four decades of a German automotive powerhouse can be summarized – with short strings of characters such as BMW, M, 3.0 CSL, M1, and M3.
As you can imagine, having your BMW covered in real silver would be prohibitively expensive and cause your car to be too heavy to drive. BMW Individual has come up with the next-best…er…actually, better…thing: Pure Metal Silver paint.
The following Petrolicious film shows us all that a young man can bond with his father and his mother through a love of cars. In this case, those cars – all of them – are E28 BMW 5 Series.