Bimmer Book Review: Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic by Rob Siegel

Boston Bimmer - August/September 2013

Rob Siegel is a regular Roundel columnist of The Hack Mechanic, who has written a touching story that just happens to be about cars. The real story is about how a person develops a passion in life that provides him or her with a focus that can transcend all of those negative aspects of day to day life. Cars are Rob's anchor, and in particular '70s BMWs. He has strayed from the BMW fold from time to time, but in general has forged a life that circles around BMWs and family.

Rob entered the BMW fold via a particularly unreliable Triumph GT6 that he bought new that ended up driving hirn to a beat up BMW that started his love of 2002s. Interestingly, I had a similar introduction to BMWs by way of English sports cars that cemented my interest in the engineering and driving experience of '80s BMWs. My fault was in owning a whole series of British Leyland and Lotus products before I found nirvana with a BMW M3 that I still own to this day. So maybe I'm not the best choice for an objective review of Rob's new book.

Rob's GT6 was an essential part of him meeting girls and his wife in particular. That even seems to have started his life long love affair with 70s BMWs to the point of borderline obsession. He regularly talks about his 7 car rule during the book, but usually to say how he has broken the rule. Along with the philosophy there are good sections on the care, feeding and repair of several areas of BMW maintenance and a particularly good discussion on BMW Air Conditioning which is an understandable obsession given the design of '70s and '80s BMW air conditioning systems. Maybe it will help me get my '88 M3 cold again.

The book reminds me of Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance, although it has more maintenance than the Zen classic and less in the way of heavy philosophy. Rob acknowledges the similarity between his book and the Zen work, but in reality they end up being significantly different. Rob's book is much more a book focused on the cars in his life and how they relate to his major life events rather than a philosophy book that just happens to have a motorcycle involved. The book is structured into many sections that sometimes focus on a car, or an event, or some other item of interest. In that respect the book is not a seamless read. It sometimes seems like a lot of long magazine columns put into a chronological collection which makes it a choppy at times.

I think many club members will see themselves in the book and it should be looked at as an easy (although rather long at 400 pages) read that will remind them of the many late nights under a car with oil slowly dripping on their face as they attempt to get to that bolt on top of the M3 transmission that just can't be reached by a normal human - even though the book says you can.

For people like me, this the book has a real connection. If you have all of your car work done by a shop while you are out playing golf, I don' t think the book will have the same fascination.

Article from and courtesy of Boston Bimmer - http://www.boston-bmwcca.org/Bimmer/default.aspx