7,750 kilometers of M Coupe; a Clownshoe at the end of the Earth (Dempster Highway)

[FishermanIvan]

I was referred here by another forum, and figured some people might enjoy this.

My friend Mark and I took my 1 of 14 BMW M Coupe all the way to the Arctic Ocean and back. I've basically cut and paste from another forum, but here's the trip route. It was pretty fun taking an impractical car all the way out here.

I'm just gonna post a bunch of pictures with captions here... I'm still working on writing the trip up, and I'm doing it on a wordpress blog kinda thing. We'll see how that goes.

But yes! We went and conquered. And it was hella fun. I highly recommend everyone at least do the journey to Dawson. It's just a beautiful drive. Yukon blew me away. It was stunning.

For those of you who have me on Facebook, most of these are repeats. Sorry. Mark had the SLR camera and the GoPro, so he's got way more pictures than I. All of these were taken with my iPhone 5s. Also, I suck at linking with Imgur, so if these are huge... sorry.

Captions will be underneath the pictures, just so you're not confused.

Looking all clean and optimistic on a snowy September morning. FYI, we packed this car in about an hour; instead of doing any pre-trip planning at all, we went to Vegas for six days and got drunk all the time. There was no car prep; no oil change, no new filters, nothing. I put my year old winter tires on and we left. No spare parts, either. BMW confidence here.

Snow through Alberta. Re-enforcing my hate for this place haha.

One of many, many gas stops. We never made it more than 240 miles on a tank. Ah well.

Mile Zero of the Alaska Highway, in Dawson Creek, BC.

The Alaska Highway through upper BC.

It got nice out though. The rain finally stopped and we had amazing weather for the entire trip afterwords!

It only went up from here. The most we paid was $1.89 in Inuvik. For 89 octane.

It sure was pretty though.

That's Muncho Lake. It was pretty damn amazing. Soon after, we took a goat in the side of the car, knocking the mirror off and damaging the door and left rear fender. Nothing Mark could've done about it, but I'm glad I can hang it above his head for the rest of his life! :lol:

Yay!! We made it!

Cinnamon buns as big as your head, and enough to feed Africa for a year.

Yeah... The Yukon rules.

Dawson City from their golf course. My favourite place for the trip. We got loser drunk, met new friends, and woke up hungover as **** after partying till 5 am to drive the Dempster. Good planning.

More of Dawson. A city with dirt roads and wood sidewalks works well in B&W.

Wasps suck. This one tried my beer, and I drowned his ***. **** those things.

 

[FishermanIvan]

And away we go!

The Dempster. Not too bad, actually.

Tombstone Park. Amazingly beautiful.

Just desolate...

Halfway!! We needed the stop. The hangovers were brutal, and we were starving. Eggs helped, and we felt almost human again afterwords.

Across the Arctic Circle!

This would be in the NWT now.

And Victory! Made it, no problems at all. The highway was actually so good, it turned out to be a non-event. We were averaging over 100 km/h an hour, and after the McKenzie ferry, I put the hammer down and was doing 130 no problem. The worst part of the Dempster is actually the paved part between the airport and Inuvik.

Inuvik. Where $14 jugs of milk are a thing.

Our silent partner for the trip.

Inuvik to Tuytoyaktuk via Cessna 207. We saw Pingos and Tuk was pretty crazy. Such a different way to live!

Leaving Inuvik the next morning. Somehow, the highway was in even better shape on the way down.

Although it was raining... and the car got a little dirty.

I bought two of these in Inuvik. At the end of the return trip, I slapped one on the car. Pretty good badge of honour, I must say.

After another night in Dawson, another in Whitehorse, we ended up in Stewart BC. It's a beautiful drive in, but man... it's an old town. No cell service, no wifi, nothing.

Dipped into Alaska, because why not?

Down the interior of BC, through Houston, Revelstoke, Calgary and home.


It's tough to describe this trip.... It was pretty f-in' unreal. The Yukon is amazing; it's simply a stunning, beautiful area of the world. Nothing that we drove on damaged the car at all. Not even rock chips, really. People were worried about my car getting wrecked, but it just didn't happen. We could have hit an animal anywhere, so I'm not counting that. Our destination had nothing to do with the damage to my car. In fact, the Dempster was in such good shape that you could easily take a Ferrari all the way to Tombstone Park. The only thing low cars might have trouble with is the ferry crossings. We didn't, but my Coupe sits pretty high.

If you're looking for a road trip, just going to Dawson is worth it. It's a super fun little town.

Having done this trip, and having done the PCH last year... I would go up here again first. The destination is simply better.

 

[digitaldelay]

Good for you guys! I was a little worried about your dissimilar tires on the Dempster, but that's awesome that you made it with no problems. Looking forward to the next M-Coupe or NSX trip report.

Jason

 

[96Delica]

"Yukon Ho!"
I hope thats a C&H reference! Awesome trip!

 

[haven]

Thanks for sharing your story. Did you keep track of how many miles of gravel road you drove on the Dempster? Did you see much gravel anywhere else?

 

[FishermanIvan]

Thanks for sharing your story. Did you keep track of how many miles of gravel road you drove on the Dempster? Did you see much gravel anywhere else?

The Dempster is 737 kms long... so double that, since we did the whole thing there and back.

There was no gravel anywhere else.

 

[upcruiser]

Love this! Been dreaming of driving my 944 up to James Bay, this is good inspiration. I came across an M Coupe camped this summer in the UP. Had a mountain bike and a sea kayak on it and looked well used with dents and mud all over it. Looked sexy. Good stuff. I love seeing people use their cars and not pamper them.

 

[WagoneerSX4]

Awesome that you did that in a M coupe! Definitely my fav BMW. Was that missing rear diffuser fin damage from the trip?

18mpg is pretty brutal though. 50L tank is pretty small for that engine though. I thought my 40L tank was small but my car gets over 30mpg on the highway I'm sure the jerry cans were definitely needed the further north you went.

 

[Herbie]

Wow, awesome trip!

I still miss my Clownshoe! (3.0i coupe' - best car I've ever owned) I sold it when the kiddo came along, need to find another and take her for a Daddy/Daughter roadtrip of epic scale...

 

[CYK]

Living in SoCal I def miss the grandeur of the north and the cold, crispy weather. I prefer it to the desert dust. Many thanks for sharing.

 

[DarioCarrera]

Awesome trip! thanks for sharing.

 

[hankincolorado]

Now, that is truly an adventure! Well done...

 

[Topgun514]

How many days did this take you?

 

[FishermanIvan]

How many days did this take you?

We took eleven days for the trip.

 

[Mad Matt]

Freakin Amazing! S54 in that bad boy? If so you are my new hero :Wow1: