Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic: How Fixing Broken BMWs Helped Make Me Whole

Adventuring on the Printed Page

The New York Times- June 2, 2013
Review by Dana Jennings

Click here to read the New York Times excerpt from Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic - Chapter 36: Alpha Male Behavior Among Car Guys.

"Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic" reminds me of summertime Saturdays when I was a boy and Dad and his buddies would park their rides - Mercs, Caddys, Chevys - in our broad dirt dooryard and make out with them. It was a wrench-twisting ardor full of grunts, cursing and the sizzle of beer bottles bursting open.

Rob Siegel, a writer with permanent grease under his nails, would've totally been into it. And this funny, frisky book tells why.

Mr. Siegel is a geophysicist who for more than 25 years has written a column called "The Hack Mechanic" for Roundel, the BMW Car Club of America's magazine. And he confesses that he's all about "lusting after, chasing, buying, nurturing, driving, keeping (to the maximum extent that I have money and space), and occasionally selling cars..."

Ahab had his great white whale, and Mr. Siegel has his BMWs, mostly from the early 1970s. In parsing his obsession, Mr. Siegel ranges from the lure of older cars to the alpha male behavior of a lot of car guys. But he leavens his memoir with "actual useful stuff" (his phrase): tools to own, what to do when the damned car won't start, how to get a smoother ride.

And "Hack Mechanic" is flecked throughout with nuts and bolts of wisdom: "Neither men nor cars are really all that complicated." You're not "a real mechanic until you've drawn blood." "Parts cars are the equivalent of organ donors."

At over 400 pages, though, the book could have been chopped and channeled a bit for better literary aerodynamics. Even so, "Hack Mechanic" zips along nicely, and there's no question that Mr. Siegel would've fit right in with Dad and his pals. But they might have been a bit skeptical of his breadbox BMWs.

Article from and courtesy of http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/automobiles/adventuring-on-the-printed-page.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&hpw&pagewanted=all&

Autoweek - February 3, 2014

WANT//BOOKS

Rob Siegel is a man with whom we could get along. In "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic: How Fixing Broken BMWs Helped Make Me Whole," we learn how he juggles an old car collection while raising kids, remaining married and staying financially solvent. Spoiler alert: He works on his own cars. Siegel's passion is BMW 2002s (the book grew out of his column in Roundel, the BMW CCA magazine), but his advice applies to beaters and classics alike.

Siegel's writing sometimes gets to clever for its own good, but "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic" is a fun, thoughtful read. It resonates with enthusiasts on a budget. If Siegel can't convince you the math works, then you're stronger than we are.

Review from and courtesy of Autoweek - February 3, 2014

http://www.autoweek.com/

Petrolicious - November 10, 2015

7 BOOKS WE FELL IN LOVE WITH THIS WEEK

Author Rob Siegel should be well-known to BMW enthusiasts through his long-running monthly column in Roundel, the official magazine of the BMW Car Club of America, and more recently, a weekly online column in Roundel Online. While the word "hack" traditionally means, "to cut irregularly or inexpertly," other extensions of the word-hack job, hack writer, and so on-often carry connotations of sub-par quality or amateurishness. However, when it comes to the title the writer has given to himself, it's a bit of a misnomer.

The subtitle of the book states that this is, "a memoir with actual useful stuff". While there is a prodigious amount of "actual useful stuff", it is through the author's attempts to keep his expanding menagerie of vehicles in operational order, find more garage space, and anecdotal stories that keep you turning the pages. Most importantly, the often humorously presented do-it-yourself advice from Siegel delivers insight into what it means to be a modern enthusiast.

Review from and courtesy of Petrolicious - November 10, 2015

http://www.petrolicious.com/7-books-we-fell-in-love-with-this-month

Daily Turismo - October 2, 2015

"Just be sure to read up here first for maintenance/life advice."

Review from and courtesy of Daily Turismo - October 2, 2015

Hooniverse - September 26, 2014

Hooniverse Bookshelf: Memoirs Of A Hack Mechanic

I just finished reading this book, and I can tell you, dear reader, that this book belongs on your bookshelf. Don't dawdle, get a copy today, this afternoon, right now! When I read, I don't often pick up a memoir, as I tend to find the stories of other people's lives somewhat unexciting. This time, though, the book came highly recommended from a friend who's opinion I trust greatly. I was in Ohio to attend this friend's wedding as a member of the wedding party, and as thanks for showing up, the book was thrust into my hands. I'd finished my previous book on the plane ride from west to east anyhow, and needed something to read on the way back to Nevada. Why not give it a shot? This friend of mine is a BMW fanatic of the first degree, and while I have great respect for the brand, I've never owned one, and don't really aspire to (exempting a few models; E30 M3, E28 M5, E9 3.0 CSL, 2002 Turbo, M1, and surprisingly the new i8). As such, I was expecting a book that panders to Bimmerphiles and I might not relate to as closely. Boy was I ever wrong.

After consuming all 410 pages of the book, the thing that sticks out to me is "this guy gets it". He's a real hoon, and one of the most die-hard car guys I've ever even heard about. His fixation is BMWs, more specifically vintage, more specifically BMW 2002s, more specifically BMW 2002s with round tail lights, more specifically BMW 2002s with round tail lights and fuel injection. That said, he remains a relatable generic car guy with an interest in old Volkswagens, a specific Porsche 911 Targa, problematic Brit cars, and even the occasional domestic car. His memoirs read like the familiar story of many of our lives. There's the treachery of youth tales that make us all think "How did I survive adolescence?", there are the coming of age tales that inspire, there are the garage tales that we know all to well, there are busted knuckles, rusty cars, lengthy (and costly) restorations, and there are plenty of driving tales. More important than any of that, though, is the connection that Mr. Siegel makes to people THROUGH cars. We've all done that, and we continue to do that. The cars are really just an interesting conduit to meet even more interesting people.

The writing style of this memoir is fantastically colloquial, making it seem like you're just sitting around the garage with Rob, swapping car tales and drinking a cold Sam Adams or two. The stories are entertaining, the cars keep your interest, and there's even some "actual useful stuff" in there like tool buying guides, car buying guides, a guide to getting a non-starter running again, unsticking "the stuckness", an introduction to A/C repair, and a bit about tracking down rattly bits and clunky chunks. For the most part, hoons who have been wrenching for years will be pretty familiar with a lot of the concepts held within, but the reality of it is that there might be something we don't know, and if we do know it, we could always use some reassurance from a fellow car guy that we're right. You can learn the difference between a bad kludge and a sensible one. You can read *several* examples of why it's best to not work on other people's cars. You can learn the joys of 'Siegel's seven car rule'. Any way you look at it, this book is entertaining, touches on a lot of the major aspects of life as a car guy, and might help you (or a loved one) understand your car desires just a little more. The underlying theme of the book is "Why do car guys love cars?", and while I'm not convinced Siegel came up with a definitive answer, he did come up with about 30 different possibilities.

In the end, this is a book that I really relate to. Siegel's tribulations with his earliest car, a Triumph GT6+ revive in me memories of the first car I paid money for, a particularly stupid purchase, a 1976 Triumph TR-7. His stories of packing up everything into a Volkswagen Van and striking out from the East Coast to temporarily settle down in Texas remind me quite closely of my struggles moving from Michigan to Atlanta, GA in a rusty Ford Aspire with no 4th gear and no back window (I really need to tell that story some day). Hack Mechanic, while nominally about cars, is really more about life in general. While I don't have the years of experience that Siegel has, his book allows me to sort of look back on my life through perhaps wiser eyes. Hmmm, maybe I need to get started on a memoir...

To paraphrase Mr. Siegel, that's enough couch time for now.

The major takeaway here is that you need to pick up a copy of this book, and it deserves a permanent place on your shelf. It's kept my attention for two solid weeks, and if I'm honest, put me behind on a lot of writing work I needed to get done. It was just too entertaining to put down. I really enjoy reading, personally, but it has been a LONG time since I've been this enthralled by a non-fiction book. There was one point, late in the book, where the connection between father and son, through the mutually shared experience of a car, actually brought tears to my eyes. This may or may not have been a direct result of the adult beverages I'd been consuming at the time, but I digress...

An interesting footnote, Bentley Publishing has now released my two personal favorite books, with the other being Mark Donohue's "The Unfair Advantage".

Second footnote, the Rob Siegel discussed here is a long-time writer for the BMW club's Roundel magazine, not the Robert Siegel that co-hosts NPR's All Things Considered with Audie Cornish.

Second footnote, the Rob Siegel discussed here is a long-time writer for the BMW club's Roundel magazine, not the Robert Siegel that co-hosts NPR's All Things Considered with Audie Cornish.

Review from and courtesy of Hooniverse - September 26, 2014

http://www.hooniverse.com/2014/09/26/hooniverse-bookshelf-memoirs-of-a-hack-mechanic/

Porsche Club of America E-Brake News - December 16, 2013

Last-Minute Gift Ideas

Roundel columnist Rob Siegel has turned out a great book for all car lovers-and there's even some Porsche content thanks to his years with a 911 SC. From bits on Snap-On vs. Harbor Freight and family garage etiquette to VW camper engine builds in the kitchen and why repainting a car costs so darn much, Siegel covers a lot of ground in a humorous and intelligent-yet very approachable-way. Like Robert M. Pirsig (Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance), he strives to do more than fix BMWs in his writings-he strives to fix Siegel along the way. That's probably why his paperback became the best-selling automotive repair book on amazon.com, and broke into the online retailer's top 1,000 books.

Review from and courtesy of Porsche Club of America E-Brake News - December 16, 2013

http://multibriefs.com/briefs/pca/

Quincy Patriot-Ledger - November 18, 2013

Silvio Calabi: New automotive entertainment

Rob Siegel is "The Hack Mechanic" columnist in the BMW Car Club of America magazine. For many years, he's been repairing, restoring, buying, selling, maintaining and driving dozens of old high-mileage BMWs and writing about it - while working a real job (geophysicist), staying with the same spouse (Maire Anne) and raising three boys. Obviously, he knows something we don't.

In Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic, Siegel finally tells all, including "how fixing broken BMWs helped make me whole." Part of it seems simple: Retiring to the garage to twirl wrenches and drill out rusted bolts is great stress relief and makes us think we have some control over the world. And in showing how cars have helped build personal connections in his life, Siegel hints that, beyond our greasy fingernails, gearheads can, in fact, be warm and caring humans.

Women like throw pillows, men like cars; women tell all on Facebook, men have to drink beer just to talk with each other; women build nests, men are looking for sensations - and an affordable torque wrench. Siegel explains this, but he also instructs us on the distinctions between jackstands and drive-on ramps, why paint jobs are so expensive, how to garage five cars in a heavily zoned neighborhood, and other actual, useful stuff. It isn't all BMWs, either; there are VW, Porsche, Triumph, Miata and even Firebird adventures.

If Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance left you blinking in disbelief, then Hack Mechanic may be your book. It was mine.

Review from and courtesy of Quincy Patriot-Ledger - November 18, 2013

http://www.patriotledger.com/news/x2132757388/Silvio-Calabi-New-automotive-entertainment

Author shares Bimmer love

Glens Falls Post-Star - October 11, 2013

Rob Siegel is a used-car buff's BFF.

The author will read and sign copies Sunday of "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic: How Fixing Broken BMWs Helped Make Me Whole" as part of the fourth annual Vintage of Saratoga classic BMW car show at Saratoga Automobile Museum.

The book, which Siegel calls a "memoir with actual useful stuff," is an entertaining take into the mind of a car enthusiast and how he balances that passion with the demands of family life.

Do-it-yourselfers will find the technical information useful, while others will enjoy his story as a self-described "out of control hobbyist."

"I currently own eight cars - five BMWs, a Lotus Europa, my wife's Honda Fit and a Suburban with about 200,000 miles on it," Siegel said. "What I do is really what a lot of members of the (Saratoga Auto Museum) audience do."

Siegel said he tries to be a car nut "within boundaries." He may own eight cars but all of his "Bimmers" have more than 100,000 miles on them, and his daily driver, a 12-year-old 3-series wagon, is worth about $4,500.

Servicing and maintaining the cars himself lets him indulge his passion without going broke.

"You don't have to risk the kids' tuition money. That is an overarching theme," he said.

Siegel owned an AMC Rambler at one point, but clearly he has a love affair with BMWs that started when he was 13 years old. A college student who lived with his family used to ferry him around town in a BMW 2002. Siegel was so impressed with how the German sports sedan performed that in 32 years he has owned more than two dozen 2002 models and 50 Bimmers total.

And because none of the cars are mint-condition classics, Siegel said he doesn't feel like he has to treat them like museum pieces.

"The enjoyment I get out of my cars is in using, not just having," Siegel said.

IF YOU GO

Rob Siegel will read from his new book, "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic," from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. and sign books from 1 to 2 p.m. Sunday at Saratoga Automobile Museum as part of the fourth annual BMW Vintage at Saratoga. For more information visit saratogaautomuseum.org/bmw-vintage-at-saratoga.

Article from and courtesy of Glens Falls Post-Star - http://poststar.com/lifestyles/author-shares-bimmer-love/article_cbbf9d40-31cb-11e3-8f4b-001a4bcf887a.html

Third Quarter General Meeting At BMW Gallery Norwell featuring Hack Mechanic Rob Siegel

Boston Bimmer - October / November 2013

The third quarter general meeting on September 11th kicked off with Avery Trumbo general manager welcoming us with some interesting news about a new & larger BMW Dealership and a MINI Dealership in the area owned by the Gallery Group.

During the meeting, Steve Powers the BMW parts manager generously offered a 20% discount for that day only on BMW Parts which kept the parts department busy with purchasers lined up at the parts counter all evening. The dealership also raffled off two $50 valued gift certificates, and the lucky winners were Colin Davis and John Sullivan. The Dealership's Manager of Pre-Owned (CPO) Alan Zaidan also made copies of the current inventory of CPO cars available at BMW Gallery-Norwell.

The Speaker for the evening was Rob Siegel a columnist for the BMW CCA's monthly magazine the Roundel. Rob uses the pseudonym "Hack Mechanic" in his column, and he spoke to us about his new book Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic, in which he relates the trials & tribulations involved in working on his stable of cars. He shared some very scientific and not so scientific means he used to get his "collection" of cars repaired. His book will have you nodding in agreement at some of his methods. The book is a great compilation of insight into the mysterious ways to address different repairs. There are some fine tutorials throughout the book on the proper tools to obtain for certain repair jobs. Rob is an engineer by trade and has a great feel for mechanical work!

Rob's book was published by Bentley Publishers which offers many repair mauals for BMWs and other automotive brands. The Bentley team was well represented at the meeting to help with the book signing after the presentation. Team members in attendance, included: Michael Bentley, president, Maurice Iglesias, director of marketing, and senior editors Charlie Burke and Janet Barnes.

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

Book Review: Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic by Rob Siegel

Bimmer - November 2013

Rob Siegel had a tale to tell, and tell it he did in Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic (a memoir with actual useful stuff). In fact, I think he tells every story of his life with cars that does not include actual sex in cars-though one gets the sense that such tales would have been included in an unexpurgated edition. It is a frank and revealing look at a unique life, one many of us view with envy: Siegel has owned 50 BMWs!

But that's all beside the point. Here's why you should buy his book and read all 432 witty yet textbook-like pages: If you are holding Bimmer-and you are-in Siegel's book you will find yourself. Not on every page, mind you, but reading it is nonetheless like peeling back layer upon layer of the Personality of a Gearhead. It's a fascinating realization to become sentient of the You in this book. If you're interested in knowing, it will tell you why you are the way you are. It may even open a window on You for your significant other.

Siegel doesn't withhold the ground truth. Chapters like 1. How Cars Imprint on You Like Bodysnatchers, 3. So Why Do Men Love Cars Anyway? and 47. I Don't Get to Date 18-Year-Olds just plain lay it on the line for the whole damn world to see. Meanwhile, have a man tissue (aka beer) ready for the chapter about Yale Rachlin, the late editor emeritus of Roundel magazine. Yale discovered Rob and made him into the writer he is today. (Yale did the same for me.)

The book's parenthetical subtitle should not be construed to mean that no other memoirs contain useful information-quite a few reveal why you don't really want to be president, for example. Siegel's book includes eight chapters on Actual Useful Stuff (capitalization in original), meaning technical information from his life with cars that you may, in fact, find useful. Topics include tools, what causes no-starts, making old cars dependable, cars to buy and cars to avoid and fixing air conditioning. (Siegel finds A/C worth the hassle in vintage Bimmers; I do not.)

A chapter covering restoration (and "why it makes no freaking sense") is entirely pragmatic and truthful about the costs involved and how they can be contained by starting with a rust-free car. Here's where Siegel and I sort of disagree. Financially speaking, he's entirely correct, of course. Yet I become attached to "old friend cars" that need me the most, to my eternal financial detriment. At press time, he owned eight cars, seven of which were sojourning on their way to their next caretakers. I have three BMWs. I had three BMWs in 1995. I'll have the same three BMWs when they plant me in the ground. Two were rusted to oblivion before restoration; I saved them. It helped that I was a bachelor. Saving cars that aren't rusty to begin with, as Siegel did, can go a long way toward marital harmony.

In that regard, Siegel's book further distinguishes itself with forthright tales of his wife and three sons and how his "car thing" has grown within a stable, loving and supportive household. Heart-warming? Yes, it is. A surprising number of my readers confide that their spouse does not know they own a certain car, and for good reason.

In short, you'll find everything you need to know-and more-about why you're a gearhead in Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic. Can you handle the truth? It's not a bad truth: We're just different from normal people. You might want to find out how and why, which might just save you from writing your own darn memoirs. - Mike Miller

Article from and courtesy of Bimmer - http://www.bimmer-mag.com/issues/118

Bookdwarf - A blog about books and food - September 11, 2013

What a Hack

If you want to really understand Rob Siegel, start with something like his opposite: the Singer Porsche 911. As this GQ article explains, it involves buying an early-1990s Porsche ($20k or so), then dumping an additional three hundred thousand dollars into it, transforming it into a high-tech carbon-fiber supercar that looks like a 1960s supercar.

Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic is about the reasons you might want an old car for its own sake, and how it might bring you joy as it is, without crushing you financially. It's the garage version of a cookbook for the ambitious home chef, really. You might not do all this car maintenance stuff yourself, but someone with a garage and a spare weekend could. Our buddy Patrick, who is in fact an ambitious home mechanic in the way that Bookdwarf is an ambitious home chef, thinks it's great. And he should know: thanks at least in part to Siegel's advice, he reports that his early-1990s BMW just passed inspection on the first try.

Review from and courtesy of www.bookdwarf.com - September 11, 2013

http://www.bookdwarf.com/?p=3178

Car Talk from a 'Hack Mechanic'

Publishers Weekly - August 9, 2013

A geophysical engineer by trade, who develops technology to find unexploded shells, Rob Siegel is also a car guy, who has written a monthly "Hack Mechanic" column for Roundel, the magazine of the BMW Car Club of America, for the past 27 years. In his first book, Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic, Siegel writes about his life interspersed with "useful stuff"-like what to do if your car won't start or how to make your car more dependable. Since its June publication by Bentley Publishing, the book has been moving up the Amazon ranks and doing well at selected bookstores.

"As a rule, we don't publicize our print runs," says Maurice Iglesias, sales and marketing manager at Bentley Publishing. "But suffice [it] to say, the book has vastly exceeded our expectations, especially considering that this is the first genuinely 'funny' book we've ever published." Although Iglesias said that it's too early to tell if it's poised to become Bentley's bestselling book, he calls it "our most high-profile title" of the year.

In part that's because Bentley, which is known in automotive circles for its high-end reference manuals, has been garnering reviews for Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic in mainstream media like The New York Times and the Boston Globe. The book launched at Newtonville Books in Newtonville, Mass., near Siegel's home. And Bentley has tagged onto Siegel's car appearances at events like the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix with book signings at nearby bookstores, in this case the Barnes & Noble in Homestead, Pa. In mid-August, he'll be at the BMW Oktoberfest in Monterey, Calif., and will sign at Capitola Book Cafe in Capitola. Siegel has also helped with promotion in other ways, like linking his Web site on which he promotes both car stuff and his music-he's also an accomplished folk musician-to Bentley's where readers can visit an online appendix to the book and find out about upcoming events.

Although Siegel's voice is distinctly his own, Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic fits into the literary tradition pioneered by John Muir in his 1969 classic, How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, followed five years later by Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. More recently philosopher/mechanic Matthew B. Crawford added to the conversation with Shop Craft As Soulcraft. Some might argue that Siegel's emphasis on family, cars, and the humor present in both is reminiscent of "Car Talk," a radio program on WGBH-FM that began airing at about the same time he launched his column.

Despite the attention the book's been getting, Siegel told PW that he might never have made the transition from columnist to author without the intervention of New York literary agent Liv Blumer, who approached him about writing a book about what makes a car guy tick. "It can't be just a loosely connected series of your articles. It has to have a plot," she told him. Although Siegel says that he "sulked" when she dropped the project after nine months, he adds, "in the end the manuscript was so much better for her pushing me to write more guy, less car." Blumer also suggested that Siegel find a "boy," or male editor. Instead, when he brought the project to Bentley where he had had a book contract for a repair manual 20 years earlier-a book he never delivered-Janet Barnes took over. With her help, Siegel found a way to add back more of the car element and weave the book's two strands together, car and guy.

For now, Siegel is enjoying simply being the car guy he writes about in his book. "I'm a believer in the benefit of unintended consequences," says Siegel. "The response to the book has been wonderful. I receive e-mails on a daily basis." Plus he's accumulating material for either more Roundel columns or possibly another book.

Article from and courtesy of Publishers Weekly - http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/58496-car-talk-from-a-hack-mechanic.html

'Hack Mechanic' Comes to Capitola Book Cafe

Gearhead turned marriage guru Rob Siegel believes cars and relationships can co-exist

Santa Cruz Weekly - August 14, 2013

What do cars and healthy marriages have in common? For writer and car addict Rob Siegel, everything. And, I suppose he should know. He's just a regular guy who's owned 50 BMWs over the last three decades-plus 25 other cars, from "family haulers" to zippy Italian exotics, and most recently, a sexy little '74 Lotus Europa.

Siegel's love affair with expensive European cars-chasing them down, spending unquantifiable hours in the garage alone with them and finally letting them go, only to fill the void with a new object of desire-could have easily curdled the matrimonial waters. Especially when his idea of a "sane limit" to the number of cars spilling out of his garage at any given time is a loose and generous seven. So what's this car guy's secret, besides being married to an angel?

In a very Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance sort of a way, Siegel, who describes his age as "55 going on 13" reveals all, in the laugh-inducing pages of his new book, Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic (a Memoir With Actual Useful Stuff). His wisdom comes from years of getting himself into and out of BMW trouble, and not without a generous spattering of hard-earned mistakes. Blood will be drawn, wrenches will be thrown and the door of a friend's car will be accidently ripped off. Speigel spares no details at his expense, which is perhaps what makes him so likeable. He comes to Capitola Book Cafe on Tuesday, Aug. 20.

"Hack," of course, refers not to shoddy repairs, but to the tech term for a quick, creative way around a problem (Siegel's a software engineer outside of the garage). And since one of his secrets to preserving a marriage along with a full-blown car addiction is to keep the kids' tuition money absolutely off limits, he keeps his approach to buying, fixing and selling cool cars as economical as possible.

But while the 421-page book is rich in "actual useful stuff"-tips and solutions for the DIY-er mechanic, marked with a wrench, and advice on raising kids with his Asteroid Theory of Parenting ("any course corrections you make with your children had better occur early on")-it's equally rich in the philosophical grease that lubricates the gearhead mind. His humorous, Bill Bryson-esque observations on his own car-obsessed mind will be understood by all car guys (and gals), though they're rarely articulated so well in writing.

While Siegel is somewhat of a celebrity among BMW lovers-for the past 27 years he's written "The Hack Mechanic" column in Roundel, the BMW Car Club of America's monthly publication-he's only now crossed the threshold into a more mainstream readership, and his book could just as easily fit, oil-stained and well worn, on the windowsill of a garage as it could on the coffee table of the wife or sister of a car guy.

As early as the third chapter, Siegel delves into the ineffable enigma, "Why do men love cars, anyway?" And, well aware of the slippery slope he's traversing, he admits that there's something about the process that "really is quite sexual, very much like chasing women.

"Cars are useful to men as objects of passion in a way that's difficult for women to understand," continues Siegel, on a recent phone conversation from Boston. "But it's also healthy and constructive in terms of long-term relationships. It's maintaining passion within a sane set of boundaries."

Recently, Siegel attended the Grand Prix Vintage Car expo in Pittsburgh, Penn., where the concerned wife of a senior car nut (who had just finished building a 10-car garage) asked him, "Will this ever go away?" No, he answered, it won't.

"The takeaway message is that if you support him in this, he'll be faithful to you and he'll love you forever," says Siegel.

But it's not just midlife urges for youth and sexual satisfaction that keep Siegel in endless pursuit of the next great fixer-upper. There is something much more tender about the male brain on cars, coming through first in his attempt to demystify the lure of older cars-"Because owning and driving them is like having lunch with an old friend, quirks and all."

It's also the mental zen his garage promises. With his sleeves rolled up and elbows deep in an engine, the analytical left side of his brain can move over and let the right brain take the wheel, he says.

"It's not only working on cars that provides people with this sense of completion and satisfaction," says Siegel. "I think that people who love to cook in fact experience a similar thing. In addition to diagnosing and solving a problem from start to finish, you come out of the process with a better running car, and having saved money. The net benefit of all of these things can be pretty powerful stuff."

Rob Siegel appears at the Capitola Book Cafe on August 20, at 7:30 p.m.

Article from and courtesy of the Santa Cruz Weekly - http://www.santacruz.com/ae/articles/2013/08/13/hack_mechanic_comes_to_capitola_book_cafe

'Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic' Book Review

FlatSixes.com - August 11, 2013

Rob Siegel, author of "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic", might be best known for his love and affinity of BMW (he's written a monthly column called "The Hack Mechanic" for the BMW Car Club of America's magazine for the last 25 years) but that doesn't mean he's not a Porsche fan or owner. In fact, he drops a metaphoric Porsche "bomb" right up front and sets the tone for what's to come...

"So. You're a car guy. Now you need to establish your dominance in the pack. How do you do it?

The classic thing to do is to procure some American iron. A muscle car. Something big, nasty, and brutish, with fat tires, a loud exhaust, and lots of swagger. Maybe a '69 Camaro with glass packs. Vin Diesel on wheels. Or you could go expensive and metrosexual, maybe a late-model Porsche. Forget the image of Porsche guys with gold chains and slicked-back hair; it's the money that does the talking, baby, and nothing says money like dropping "the Porsche" into a sentence. Especially when it's mispronounced using the popular but incorrect single-syllabic form, rhyming it with "porch" (it's actually pronounced "Por-sha," and don't get it wrong if you wish to be taken seriously in the car world).

(The alert reader will notice that, before the end of this book, I, in fact, will have dropped the P-bomb multiple times, but the Porsche that I own is an '82 911SC, worth less than ten grand, and I pronounce it correctly, so we're good.)"

This is Not a Book About Cars

Surprisingly, Siegel's book is not what you think. Yes, there's plenty of trivia and minutia for even the most die-hard car fanatic (a decent bit of it Porsche related), but I don't think that's the point of his book. Instead, Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic explores the obsession passion of a car collector (or any hobby for that matter) and the inter-personal relationships that grow out of it.

Extremely well written, funny and engaging this is a book that even a non "car guy" can enjoy. In fact, if you find yourself constantly trying to defend your Porsche obsession to your family or significant other. Give them a copy of this book. More importantly, you read it and see how you can engage them in your passion.

Article from and courtesy of FlatSixes.com - http://flatsixes.com/porsche-products/porsche-books/memoirs-of-a-hack-mechanic-book-review/

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

Scenes from a "car guy" marriage

...or "I went to Rob Siegel's book reading and why I actually enjoyed it."

Boston Bimmer - August/September 2013

Last weekend, I let my car-crazy husband drag me with him to our local bookstore to attend a reading and book signing featuring Rob Siegel and his new book, "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic." Well, when I say "dragged" me, I exaggerate. I may mock Neil, but in reality, I think his love of cars and driving is pretty cool. Part of what I marvel about is the sheer competence it takes to muck about with cars. And while I may feign complete disinterest, I have absorbed quite a lot of random and useful information (and attended a safety school) along the way.

It's always a good thing to be curious about your partner's passions--at least enough to encourage and talk about them. And that curiosity pushed me to pick up Rob' s book and read the first few chapters. What I read made me eager to hear him talk about his life's hobby playing under the hood.

When Rob talks about his cars, I hear the same enthusiasm (and sometimes exasperation) I hear in Neil's voice when he talks about a driving event or a Lemon's race. Like Rob's wife, Maire Anne, I'm not what you'd call a car geek, but also similar to her, I've learned that the way to make relationships work is to support what your partner loves, even if you don't understand its particular magic. It was amusing looking around the bookstore at the (mostly) men, hanging on every word - especially the technical bits - and the (mostly) women chuckling or shaking their heads in the universal solidarity of the car / track / golf / etc. spouse.

Based on Rob's remarks and the few chapters I have read, this memoir is as much a how-to manual on respecting the obsessions of the people in your life as it is on actual car repairs. And perhaps that is as it should be: we are the sum of our relationships, our work, and our passions. I think Rob weIl understands the delicate balance that exists between them.

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

Advice for Rebuilding a 2002 and Your Marriage

A Review of Rob Siegel's "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic"

The Profile Newsletter of the White Mountain Chapter of the BMW CCA - August/September 2013

Since you are reading the Profile, you must read the Roundel. If you read the Roundel, you should know the Hack Mechanic articles penned by Rob Siegel. Currently the local boy has a book simply titled, Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic.

The idea of this book has been brewing for a long time with Rob. Think of his 25 years of Roundel articles as Mount Saint Helens before the great volcanic eruption. They were the little plumes of activity coming to the surface in predictable and constant waves for years and years. Now the 410 page book arrives like the eruption that sent an ash plume 12 miles into the sky.

The official kick off for the book was held in June by Bentley Publishers in Cambridge, MA. Bentley is a well known publisher to many BMW gearheads. Mr. Bentley and his team pride themselves for creating what must be the top technical manuals on earth for the DIY car guy. I consider them indispensable for working on the best offerings of German cars.

Having been familiar with Bentley Publishers tech manuals, I was a little surprised when the announcement for MHM arrived. I seldom look on the Bentley site for additions to my Summer book selections. Regardless, this book went to the top of my wish list even though my advance notice in April meant I would have to wait two months for the release.

Finally on launch day I scored my signed copy of MHM and was thrilled to meet the author. Turns out Rob is more animated in person and in 3D than he is in print. Had you arrived early you could have mistaken him for the hired help. I found him setting up his own sound system and DJing the music for the first hour of the event. He was willing to chat while he multi-tasked and mingled with the crowd which included his mother and wife, the two great inspirations in his life. The BMW CCA was also in attendance with representatives from MA, ME and NH. All enjoyed Rob's readings from select chapters.

The readings highlighted the fact that MHM is about life, passion, and pursuit of cars. Rob comes across as part Rube Goldberg and part Dr. Phil. You can use this book to help rebuild a 2002 or your marriage. Just keep in mind this book is PG-13 with words like shit, reefer, and sex. All used appropriately and in context (the swearing usually involves old BMWs acting like old BMWs). And of course, there are morals to the stories such as, torque wrenches are good and wheels leaving your car are bad.

So if you are looking for a book that gets your inner Hack Mechanic excited, this is for you. You can find MHM at Amazon or directly from Bentley Publishing at www.bentleypublishers.com.

Article from and courtesy of The Profile, the Newsletter of the White Mountain Chapter of the BMW CCA - http://www.wmc-bmwcca.org/

What to do This Weekend: Author puts it in park for Vintage Grand Prix

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - July 20, 2013

To earn a living, geophysicist Rob Siegel thinks of ways to improve the technology that detects unexploded ordnance on shuttered military bases.

To maintain his abiding passion for cars, the author of "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic" recently bought a brown 1974 Lotus Europa that hasn't run since 1979.

"There's not a lot of risk in buying a car with low mileage and a seized engine because the value is really in the condition of the car and the low mileage," Mr. Siegel said during a telephone interview from his home in Newton, Mass., where he has lived with his wife and three sons since 1991.

The 55-year-old writer will read from his book and sign copies of it Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble bookstore located in The Waterfront, a retail and movie theater complex in Homestead.

Mr. Siegel spent part of his boyhood on Long Island. At age 13, he worked for a guy who owned a red Lotus Europa. Now, he's thrilled to be taking one apart.

"The roof line is 42 inches off the road. It's like a little race car. It's like a go-cart. They are not that expensive. They are starting to become collectible," he said.

So far, he has managed to unseize the Lotus's engine.

"Now I am in the process of rebuilding the engine. It's my first repair on an unfamiliar car. I should probably have my head examined for this."

He likes to do what he calls "rolling rejuvenations," not complete restorations.

"I fix what it needs while not taking it completely apart down to metal. It's just too long a road to hoe. I don't have that attention span, that level of commitment. I get enjoyment out of fixing things. I'm not a guy who seeks perfection."

Besides offering useful advice on what to do when your car won't start, Mr. Siegel explains why men are drawn to smokin' hot cars:

"To a man, a cool car provides a whole range of sensations on demand. It's a very uncomplicated relationship. Friends with benefits. And the car never asks you to come shopping at Ikea. In some ways, it is like that notorious 1998 SNL sketch "Mercury Mistress," except that they got the car completely wrong. It should have been a curvaceous Italian exotic. Who the hell would want to make love to a Grand Marquis?"

Nor is he a fan of overspending to fix a car.

"The overwhelming population of 'car guys' try to keep their cars running without risking the tuition money, without risking the nest egg," he insisted.

For 27 years, Mr. Siegel has written a column for Roundel, a magazine for the BMW Car Club of America. He owns a 1973 BMW 3, a 2002 BMW and a 1999 BMW z3 coupe, which, he says, is "by far, the nicest, quickest and sexiest" of the three. His daily driver is a 2001 BMW 325 xi all wheel drive wagon. His wife drives a 2008 Honda and they vacation in a 2000 Chevy Suburban that has 180,000 miles on it.

While none of his sons share his passion for fixing cars, Mr. Siegel said, they saw their father passionately engaged in several pursuits, including geophysics, auto mechanics and playing guitar in several bands.

"I would like to think that that is a gift," he said.

During Saturday and Sunday's Vintage Grand Prix in Schenley Park, Mr. Siegel will be at the BMW Corral, located on the main golf course past the Shop N' Save hospitality tent.

The BMW Corral is closest to the intersection of Frew Street and Schenley Drive, but because roads are blocked off, the best way to reach it is to enter the park at Schenley Drive and Darlington Road. Free shuttle buses are available to take spectators to the race course and the exhibition of vintage cars. On Saturday, practice starts at 9 a.m. and continues until 5 p.m. On Sunday, practice begins at 9 a.m., followed by a parade lap of cars at 11 a.m. The official race starts at noon and concludes at 5 p.m.

Article from and courtesy of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sectionfront/local/what-to-do-this-weekend-author-puts-it-in-park-for-vintage-grand-prix-696073/

2013 PVGP Begins July 12 & Don't Miss "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic" Rob Siegel at Schenley Park July 20

TalkHotRods.com - July 12, 2013

The first racing weekend of the 2013 Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix is this weekend (July 12-14) at Pitt Race in Wampum, PA which includes the Flashlight Drags on Saturday at 5:00pm.

Next weekend (July 20 and 21), Rob Siegel, author of the acclaimed new book "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic" will be at the BMW Corral in Schenley Park. In addition to appearing at the race, he?ll also be signing copies of his book at the Barnes & Noble in Homestead on Saturday, July 20th. (He?ll also return to the BMW Corral at the PVGP on Sunday). His book is so well done - I've only read several chapters and I love it! I'm hoping I get to interview him.

Article from and courtesy of TalkHotRods.com - http://talkhotrods.com/2013/07/2013-pvgp-begins-july-12-dont-miss-memoirs-of-a-hack-mechanic-rob-siegel-at-schenley-park-july-20/

NEWTON RESIDENT PENS AUTO MEMOIR

ILoveNewton.com - July 8, 2013

Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic is by the longtime Newton resident Rob Siegel. It's a pretty funny book about being a car guy and how best to balance that with being a dad, a husband, a guy that's got to contribute to household chores and expenses.

Rob is the longtime columnist for BMW Roundel magazine. His first book has already received terrific reviews in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Autoblog.

p.s. My husband is reading the book right now and he really likes it. We are hoping to bump into Rob in Newton for more details!

Article from and courtesy of ILoveNewton.com - http://ilovenewton.com/newton-resident-pens-auto-memoir/

Boston-area to do list

Boston Globe - June 30, 2013

Boy toys Too bad Father's Day has come and gone, but for the next occasion in your guy's life, how about a copy of "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic." Rob Siegel writes a monthly column for the BMW Car Club of America's Roundel magazine, and his book will clue you in on how to purchase, fix, and drive very cool cars without going broke or getting divorced.

Article from and courtesy of The Boston Globe - http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/2013/06/28/boston-area-list/Qwx3AJJhSym2crO3QYb9yJ/story.html - June 30, 2013

The Hack Mechanic Fine Tunes 25 Years of Wrenching Tales

The Boston Globe- June 2, 2013

Rob Siegel, a Newton resident, has produced one of the best auto memoirs I've read in a long time. It's called "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic," or "How Fixing Broken BMWs Helped Make Me Whole."

Siegel is well known in BMW circles. For more than 25 years, he's written "The Hack Mechanic" column in Roundel, the BMW Car Club of America's monthly publication. Last weekend, he was touting his book at the Vintage at the Vineyards gathering in Winston-Salem, NC, an annual Memorial Day Weekend meet-up of classic BMW enthusiasts.

He describes it as an instant reunion with like-minded obsessives, although he's the only one who pounds out "1,100 words a month about it."

Though the cars in his driveway and garage are subject to change on short notice, Siegel started 2013 with five BMWs - his classic 1972 2002tii, a 1973 2002, a 1973 3.0CSi, a 1999 Z3 M coupe, and a 2001 325XiT (his daily driver) plus a 2008 Honda Fit (his wife's daily drive), and a "very high mileage 2000 Chevrolet Suburban."

If your dad happens to be a car guy, Siegel's memoir would be a great Father's Day present. The book is an autobiography, starting when Siegel's mom bribed him with a car so he would cancel plans to bicycle across the country before starting college.

That car, a classic-but-unreliable Triumph GT6+, took him off to college and in many ways charted his life's course.

"Since its last act was taking me on my first date with she who would become my wife, I owe the car a big debt of gratitude," writes Siegel. "Maire Anne and the GT6+ are wistfully intertwined in my mind by this single encounter. The car that went, the girl who stayed."

Their marriage, and a string of vintage BMWs, are two of the many threads that tie 60-plus chapters together. However, this is a book that you can open to any chapter and read as a complete experience, much like viewing an episode of a beloved TV series.

Siegel writes that his life has revolved around computers, guitars, and cars. "It is said you're not a real musician until you've had an instrument stolen, a real software engineer until you've lost three days of code, or a real mechanic until you've drawn blood."

He's all three, plus a writer, combining humor, do-it-yourself advice, a touch of philosophy, and guidelines for buying and maintaining classic and contemporary vehicles.

Among the many other threads in his writing:

1. Why I don't repair cars for other people (five chapters of different stories). He finds that whenever he fixes someone else's car, even for free, he always feels the job wasn't complete. "Once again, the outcome of doing a favor was this feeling in my gut that I had done something wrong ... "

2. Actual useful stuff: "Besides a flat, the things that are most likely to cause a car to die and leave you stranded on the side of the road are pretty mundane and fairly predictable: battery and alternator, cooling system, beIts, fuel supply, ignition-related issues, and ball joints. "He then segues into a primer on how to deal with them prophylactically.

3. His view on classic cars. "I don't restore cars, I prefer rolling rejuvenations, meaning that the car is still drivable as much of the time as possible (this is the equivalent of living in your house while you're renovating it.)"

4. Siegel's answer to the oft-asked, why do men love cars? "For the love of God, beg, borrow, or steal something Italian and drive it. Hard. Maybe you'll hear the aria."

5. Why does he do the messy job of changing his own oil? "I'm greasy ... might as well crawl all the way under and have a good look. It allows me to see other problems before they become more serious. It's like the car's well-visit to the doctor."

6. Siegel's seven car rule: "There's Mom's family hauler, Dad's daily driver, the convertible, the oversized four-wheel-drive, beach-snow attack vehicle, the track car with the stiff suspension, the pampered classic, and the current project car." Of course, then there's the chapter entitled, "The Car Count Hits Double Digits."

7. On safety: "When I'm tempted to do something questionable, I try to remember what I've said for years as a joke, but it's really not all that funny. If I died in the garage, Maire Anne would kill me."

Instead of a farewell, there's a sense of "To be Continued" in this work.

Article from and courtesy of The Boston Globe

Book Review - Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic

Autoblog.com, June 13, 2013

UPDATE - June 26, 2013: Autoblog's Dan Roth interviewed Rob Siegel for a podcast segment on the writing of his acclaimed new book. What was initially planned as a brief chat turned into much more. Check it out here.

When you self-identify as a hack, that means you're proud of it, and Rob Siegel is proud of being a hack. He even has rules for what makes "a good kludge," which he delineates in his book, Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic. Rob Siegel, you see, isn't just a backyard wrench-twirler. His column, The Hack Mechanic, has been a fixture in the BMW Car Club of America's official magazine, Roundel, for decades. Now, Bentley Publishers has given Siegel a wider platform for musing about cars, while really not talking as much about cars as you'd think.

Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic bills itself as "a memoir with actual useful stuff" - an apt description. It's not a how-to manual for fixing your car, and it may be more helpful keeping your life in balance than it is with carburetor balancing. That's no bad thing, and Siegel himself explains how classic manuals like John Muir's How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive and books like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Shop Class as Soulcraft serve more like manuals for self-discovery than fix-it books.

The tone and Zen-seeking flavor of those books makes Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic an easy read that often makes you chuckle (because you've been there) or marvel at the clever solution to a potential landmine of a repair ("cascading failure" is Siegel's apt descriptor). Talking about the process of auto repair not from the "put-tab-B-into-slot-A" perspective, but from the "stand back and look at the big picture" point of view that the book takes is due, in part, to the author's day job as an engineer. It's good advice, and it's why the book has appeal beyond fans of Neue Klasse Roundies.

The actual useful stuff is exactly that, especially the section that covers tools and shop procedures. Knowing the right kind of equipment to buy, where to spend the money, and where you can find bargains is key to getting the job done in an at least somewhat enjoyable fashion, and that's all well-covered by the book. Another nugget of gold is a detailed section of repairing air conditioning systems, because without AC, your summer enjoyment season with a car lasts about five weeks until it's too sweltering to use, forcing you back to your Corolla. And nobody wants that.

Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic is a book that will feel right at home next to your spiral-bound How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, and it's written with a breezy, conversational tone that lets you get to know the author even if you haven't been reading Roundel for 25 years. It's less a car manual than it is a how-to guide for living with this particular addiction, from buying to keeping to selling cars that entertain you, and that's why it's a worthwhile addition to your library.

Article from and courtesy of www.autoblog.com/2013/06/13/memoirs-of-a-hack-mechanic-book-review/ - June 13, 2013

A quick review of a new book about working on older cars

FlashDriveFilms video book review- June 23, 2013

We're going to try something a little bit different this time: it's a book review. And I want to say up front that this is a book that I bought myself, and did not receive a review copy or any kind of payment for my endorsement. That said, it's exactly the kind of book that if you subscribe to my YouTube channel and you're interested in repairing old cars I think you'll really enjoy this one.

It's called "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic" and it's by Rob Siegel and it just came out in 2013. One thing that's kind of interesting is that it's actually published by Bentley Publishers. Now this isn't Bentley the people who build cars, this is Bentley the people who print car service manuals.

Even though it's a fairly thick book, it's got about 410 pages, he's got about 60 chapters in there. Each chapter is fairly short, they're only a few pages so it's easy to just dive in and read through a couple of chapters at a time or you can read it cover to cover if you'd like. The other thing that's neat is that some of the sections are called "actual useful stuff", they'll have a little wrench and a gray bar on the side. Then he talks about things that are specific about selecting tools or your work environment in your garage.

There are some photos in the center, in black and white, of adventures he's had over the years and of course, a picture in the back of that beautiful 3.0 CS that he's restored over the years.

Now there's a recurring chapter theme in here that's called "Why I Don't Work On Other People's Cars" and there's a part one, a part two, a part three and he gives examples and various stories and anecdotes of times that he did work on other cars and it's something I can certainly identify with. I've generally found that there's the people that work on cars for money and people that work on their own cars for the love of it and I'm not saying that one is better or worse than the other but there is sort of a dividing line and he explores some of that in the book.

Now the subtitle is "How Fixing Broken BMW's Helped Make Me Whole" and there's a sort of narrative thread throughout the whole book of him imagining that he's at a therapist and he's talking about his addictions and obsessions with older cars and trying to explain them in the context of his whole life.

So if you've read and enjoyed books like "Shop Class As Soulcraft" or certainly one of my favorites, "How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive" or "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", these are all books that Rob mentions in his. These are more about the philosophy of working on cars, not just about tightening bolts or checking point gaps or things, it's sort of what motivation and understanding that goes into working on older cars and doing those repairs yourself.

So there it is: "Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic: How Fixing Broken BMW's Helped Make Me Whole". It's going to set you back a little bit more than an Andrew Jackson any place you buy books online or in the store. I'd like to give this five stars but I'm going to have to bring one of those stars back and that is because throughout the book he does drop the F-bomb regularly and I realize that adds authenticity to the tale; however I know in my own experience when I was about fifteen years old and trying to absorb everything I could read about cars, if I'd asked my parents for this book they would have banned it, they would have said absolutely not. And so that would deprived me of reading a really excellent narrative about cars and sort of the philosophy behind working on older cars. So instead of five stars, I gotta give it four only because he diminished his audience that might be part of the most appreciative.

So there's our book review. I hope you enjoyed it and perhaps we'll do some book reviews about car books in the future. Catch you next time.

Book review and transcript from and courtesy of FlashDriveFilms - http://youtu.be/W8HJOoiI0TQ

Book Review by Tom Miller

Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene - May 29, 2013

Someone said, "Hey Tom. You're a car guy. This book is being released soon and it's right up your alley, why don't you give it a review?" I said OK and the publisher Fed Ex'ed a copy to me. I dove into it knowing that the release was scheduled within the next couple of weeks and I set myself a deadline to get the book read and the review written as quickly as possible. But as I set about the task at hand, I found that each time I picked up the book I had this sense of resentment. Odd.

It took me a session or two before I realized that what I resented was the fact that I was under a deadline and that I needed to rush. This is not a book to rush through. Not if you are a car guy. If you are a car guy this is a book to stroll through. I don't know how to define exactly what a car guy is, but I know that I am one. And I know that all car guys know what the term means - and their loved ones probably know as well. You know, you recognize the smell of brake fluid and old grease that lingers like cologne when you enter a room. You have barked knuckles and a screw driver in your back pocket. You think about shock absorbers and tune ups and stuff like that.

Anyway, this book is written by a car guy for car guys about car guy experiences. It is part autobiography, part encyclopedia, and part advice column. It is chocked full of useful hints about everything from acquiring a car, repairing a car and even when the sad event is necessary, disposing of a car. It is a lifetime of experience hard won and passed on gladly.

Now I will forgive Rob for focusing on his passion - BMWs - since I am a died in the wool Detroit iron fan of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, (...and newer, ...or older, if a neat car pops up), but as all car guys know, experience generalizes and sound advice is sound advice. And this book is full of sound advice. Rob has written a column for the BMW Car Club of America's magazine Roundel for over twenty-five years, no mean feat in itself. To have accomplished that kind of longevity with what surely must be a group of BMW purists speaks volumes.

Included in the book are some amusing anecdotes as well as some self incurred foibles that get told, all of which adds to its entertainment value. And there are some really neat photos of his passions and his rather unique five car garage - one bay of which is under the deck (why not? Car guys know how to do that kind of stuff).

This is a book that I will lend out but only grudgingly and to friends who have demonstrated that they are responsible enough to be trusted to not abscond with it. I also will buy copies of it to give to other car guys for birthdays and I most definitely would recommend it for the upcoming Fathers Day. Especially if...your Dad is a car guy!

Article from and courtesy of Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene - http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2013/05/memoirs-of-hack-mechanic-by-rob-siegel.html

Rob Siegel's Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic rings poignant and true

Roundel book review - June 2013

After a long courtship with renowned Bentley Publishers, Rob Siegel, our hometown Roundel hero, has finally done it, distilling years of the insight shown in his columns and adding thoughtful commentary to create Memoirs Of A Hack Mechanic. It's the ideal collaboration: A quick tour of www.bentleypublishers.com, the Bentley website, reveals a wondrous world of brilliant coffee-table literature for the diehard car geek, as weil as real nuts-and-bolts technical reference books-induding some of the best BMW repair manuals on the planet. It seems a natural place for Siegel to set up camp.

A brief observation regarding Car Guys: Although we're not personal friends-to this day, he won't return my calls-I admire Jay Leno's approach to collecting, driving, and occasionally restoring some truly significant automobiles. I like his sense of whimsy and humor, even when he's discussing a priceless mechanical masterpiece. I like the persona Leno puts out to the media as "a car guy's car guy," but it's not really fair; most car guys don't have a full-time crew of professionals constantly maintaining a fleet of hyper-expensive one-of-a-kind iron, or a 3-D digital printer capable of manufacturing any part they need on a moment's notice.

And most car guys stress out-bad. Have you ever seen Jay Leno stressed out over a car-or, really, over anything?

My favorite car guys are those preserving what they have, often on a tight budget of time and money, balancing real-life needs with a desire and passion for tinkering and improving their often humble rides. Guys like Rob Siegel.

Siegel would have you believe that there's nothing terribly extraordinary about his own life or character, but don't you fall for it. His take on all things automotive is one to be admired, perhaps even emulated. His approach to cars-in this particular case, BMWs-is much like his approach toward life in general; in all things, Siegel seems to invest due diligence.

What makes his first book, Memoirs Of A Hack Mechanic., so appealing? Siegel has a perfect life. He has a thoroughly patient and understanding wife, creative and intelligent kids, a bunch of neat old BMWs, and a moderate income that allows him to pursue his automotive hobby with a passion many of us share. Is there anything here that doesn't sound appealing?

More and more apparent as I read his book was the earnest effort Siegel puts forth to maintain healthy relationships with people as weil as his stable of cars. What saves this book-and it's a hefty one, mind you-from oozing its way into some gooey gag-inducing treatise on Zen and Automotive Well-Being is that it's filled with real-life conundrums, a tasteful sprinkling of foul language, and some very useful automotive diagnostic advice.

Meeting Siegel last summer, I quickly discovered that he truly is as sincere and kind as he seems in his Hack Mechanic columns, so I was understandably fearful that this book would somehow get all its warm-and-fuzzy germs on the rest of my tough-guy automotive library. Imagine how relieved I was to hear that Siegel, too, has hurled a wrench or two in his day. "Take THAT, Buddha!" Sure, he's a bit of a hippie-but he's my kind of hippie.

Like some of the Eastern philosophical texts I read in my youth-pick a Sutra, any Sutra-I note that Siegel often expresses repeated lessons to his readers, couched in different allegories. These lessons are important-like not sweating the small stuff. Enjoying the visceral. Using the things life gives you-without using them up-and using your senses before passing judgment.

And sometimes knowing when to give up and walk away.

Don't worry, car guys; Memoirs Of A Hack Mechanic. is 100% about cars ... mostly. The book is packed with wonderful yet humble tales of irresponsibility, danger, frozen iguanas, friendships, and phrases that include the words "reefer" and "sex." Siegel's writing shines a light beam chock-full of positive energy, along with an exposure to our collective hobby-one that non-car folk will appreciate and even enjoy.

While Siegel revels in the kinships we form through our shared interest in BMWs and cars in general, and explains why working on our cars brings us so much satisfaction-no easy task, that!-he also reminds us that we need not be bad or antisocial people while we pursue these passions. The many tech tips are just icing on the proverbial cake-and there's a pile of icing on this cake, I assure you!

As much as I try to avoid the comparison, I keep coming back to the Erma Bombeck quotes I heard when I was a kid. In the 1970s and 1980s, Bombeck was a hero who brought light, truth, and humor to a host of women who felt that their lives held little value to the general public, or somehow couldn't be understood by those who worked outside the horne. Siegel might be the car guy's Erma Bombeck: He has now let this car-guy business out of the closet, cracking it wide open to the rest of the world, exposing our secret selves.

We're sensitive. We're caring. We're nurturing. We love our families. We're a little nuts-but we're good inside. If you give us some space, we can be trusted to do the right thing.

Rob has done just that, through the publication of this heartfelt and illuminating new book.

Article from and courtesy of Roundel Magazine - June 2013

Classic Motoring (UK) book review - June 2013

Inspired by John Muir's VW 'Idiot Book' (aren't we all), Rob Siegel spins a fab mix of Zen and 20w50; engine rebuilds in the kitchen, a hated GT6, an obsession with BMW's 2002 (he owned 25!), song-writing, guitars and the meaning of life via a greasy tool kit. The wealth of advice and humorous stories will strike a chord with any classic car nut.

Article from and courtesy of Classic Motoring

Scene & Heard: Westbend Vineyard hosts national gathering of BMWs

Vintage at the Vineyard: The Winston-Salem Journal, June 2, 2013

Westbend Vineyard had hundreds of BMWs dotting its landscape last Saturday for the 10th anniversary of The Vintage, described by organizers as a "national gathering of vintage BMWs." However, the description might soon be revised, since there were several international license plates among the mix.

Scott Sturdy is the man who makes the Vintage happen every year. He and his wife, Patti Sturdy, were busy welcoming participants and their beloved automobiles at the Lewisville venue, as well as pointing out a few of the must sees.

"We have more than 300 cars here this year," Scott said. "And you have to see the silver race car under the tent - it's a million-dollar car."

Author Rob Siegel from Roundel magazine came to the Vintage with his 1973 3.0CSi. Siegel signed copies of his new book, Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic, and talked about parts of the book that might surprise people.

"I have a chapter in the book titled 'Why Men Love Cars,' and it offers insight into the mind of a car guy," Siegel said. "Cars are useful to men as objects of passion in a way that's difficult for women to understand. But it's also healthy and constructive in terms of long-term relationships. It's maintaining passion within a sane set of boundaries.

A lot of women brought their Bimmer babies to the Vintage.

"I've been to this event every year," said Melissa Rickman, who brought her 325i E30 and attended with Jedediah Bowers. "I spend my vacation going to car shows."

Marva Richardson and Calvin Henderson came from Raleigh and Atlanta, and Paul, Claire, Sihua and Jade Pan drove their 2002 from New York.

"He just bought it and is restoring it," Sihua said.

Amy Lester has a 1972 3.0CS.

"My husband and I restored it," Lester said. "He's a former British car enthusiast."

Billy Reavis of Motorsport Connections was on site, along with his kids and employees, Katie and Kasey . Reavis is the go-to guy for many local BMW owners, and many drive a long way to have him work on their "babies."

"There are things worse than drugs, and one of them is called racing," Reavis joked, explaining how he started his company. "I used to work at night on other people"s cars to make spare money for my racing habit and finally decided to open my own shop. It's been uphill ever since, and we have folks that come to us from all over the East Coast."

Susan Marshall came from Virginia with Tom Schmit.

"I came the first year of the show," Marshall said. "I like showing my car, and it's so fun to drive your car when you have one of these."

Article from and courtesy of Winston-Salem Journal - June 2, 2013

Speedreaders.info book review - April 21, 2013

Regular readers of Roundel, the publication of the BMW Car Club of America, will need no introduction to the author of this book. For the rest of us, Rob Siegel might need a bit of explaining. Siegel is, among other things, a musician, a geophysicist whose vocation is locating UXB (unexploded bombs or ordnance), husband, father, and certified car nut. It is the latter sterling quality that should lead readers to this book.

Before I go any further, Siegel lives in Newton, Massachusetts, which is but the proverbial stone's throw from Cambridge - Our Fair City, Massachusetts, abode of Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, otherwise known as Tom and Ray Magliozzi, of Car Talk. A question crossed my mind for which there seems to be no easy answer: what is it about that area that creates such people? Tom, Ray, and Rob all seem cut from the same cloth, which is a rather scary proposition in some ways. . . .

Rob Siegel writes observations on the Life Automotive that are centered on both his personal quest towards Wholeness by fixing broken BMWs, telling the world (at least those readers of Roundel) about his journey towards this goal, tossing in what he accurately calls "actual useful stuff" along the way, and comes across as the sort of person who you pray will sit at your table at a dinner because you KNOW you will have a good time. Yes, he is funny in the way that those who never quite grasp the notion that life is supposed to be an A to Z proposition are, and, therefore, approach life on their own terms. Siegel is also possessed of a sense of humor tinged with a huge dose of passion for life in general, family and friends, and boxy BMWs.

Siegel is fortunate in that his wife, Maire Anne, is a zoologist who keeps bugs (Insects Of Unusual Size) in a room in their house, which makes Siegel having a lift in the garage perfectly normal. Along with owning about seven or so vehicles at any given time. Oh, it should be mentioned that Siegel rebuilt the engine of Maire Anne?s VW bus in the kitchen of their house. Certainly a match made in heaven.

Among the useful information that Siegel provides are suggestions for what tools to have in your toolbox, guidance as to how to deal with various vehicle maladies or quirks, cars to consider or avoid, and tricks that work which would never cross your mind. Piled on top of all that is voice of experience that can only come from years of dealing with making vehicles whole again. As Siegel often suggests, do as he says not as he did in some cases: and, he tells you why.

Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic is a witty, informative, funny, and delightful read. It is good to know if you are a car nut that you are not alone. With Rob Siegel, you are in good company.

Article from and courtesy of http://speedreaders.info/11322-memoirs-hack-mechanic-fixing-broken-bmws-helped-make

jwarthog.com The website of Jeremy Walton, Motoring Writer - April 10, 2013

Near genius! Useful & funny

This is a tough book to describe as it covers over 35 years of practical labour on more than 50 BMWs that the author has sold or kept, besides tackling another dimension: domestic life with a car nut.

With typically American bravado Rob Siegel lays out his family life alongside 60 essays containing fascinating tales of classic bargain basement 2002 and E9 Coupe buys, plus many more - BMW and otherwise. All fixed within limited suburban garage resources, but it's worth remembering that this multi-talented author is a qualified geophysicist with a day job that often entails looking for explosives that have yet to self-destruct.

As a 635CSi owner with limited practical skills, I have read Rob's columns in Roundel, the American BMW CCA club magazine, for more than 10 years, but we have never met. I think it was the clarity and humour that kept me reading.

My former publishers at Robert Bentley obviously agreed that such humorous, yet hard-headed, advice was unmissable. The Bostonians dragged a 432-page softback book out of Siegel over an eventful three-year pregnancy.

For me the highlights are centred on Siegel's purchase of a crashed but (miraculously) rust-free E9 coupe in 1985 for $1,700 - under £1,200 today -and it came with a stack of parts! Like me Siegel had always wanted one of these bodily fragile beauties. Unlike me he had the skills to resurrect what must have been a very sad sight after amateur crash repairs.

If you are a 2002 person, then there is enough fodder to feed your appetite as Rob had 25 of the iconic sports saloons. The first cost just $1000 in 1982, and came complete with dents in every panel and a missing front bumper. That Colorado orange machine from 1971 began a trail of 02s and the occasional foray into Porsche and VW that has lasted to date.

The workshop texts, from tools and equipment to tackling those maddening moments like snapped studs and recalcitrant nuts, tell you Siegel served his time. Right out there in the DIY world, from triumph through despair and back to the smug 'I did it my way' factor that only kicks in when you get a job right.

To get an idea of who Rob is today he lists his seven current cars and I was glad to see the red 3.0 CSi has remained 'a keeper.' Also in the Siegel collection: 2002s from 1972 and '73,1999 Z3M Coupe, a 2001 Touring 325 with the 4x4 transmission that is widely available in USA.

A Porsche 911SC from 1982 heads other choices beyond BMW, including a Honda and a mega-miles example of the mammoth Chevrolet Suburban. For potential buyers, the rundown on 911's significant mechanical history and practical advice on actually buying a cheap 911SC - in this case a Targa for less than $10,000 - was an outstanding lesson in factually absorbing clarity. 10/10.

Siegel humour surfaces when he had the 3.0 CSi running and painted (a Mercedes Signal Red! Really Rob?!) after three years rolling restoration labour.

American personal registrations are lenient and, as a practising (Star)Trekky, Siegel's plate reads WARP9. This was justified as the fastest speed ordered for the Starship Enterprise.

Inevitably with this flashy colour scheme, and the 'if you've got it-flaunt it' registration, Mr. Siegel was pulled over by the police.

Apparently the most embarrassing part was explaining the plate's geeky significance: the cop had a sense of humour, cautioning Rob to: 'Fly your spaceship a little lower to the ground.'

More seriously, the hard-earned mechanical knowledge shared is worth triple the price of the book, especially that on painting a car and degrees of rust. I think that's summed up best by this observation: "I think I can safely say that one has ever taken a car in for restoration and been told, 'You know, that rust isn't nearly as bad as we thought.' ".

Siegel's expletive-undeleted sense of humour and intelligence rule and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yet this Hack Mechanic memoir may not be to every British taste, especially as our sports cars and Lucas electrics get their usual US-bashing.

Grin and bear it, even the most knowledgeable will learn something and get a laugh or three on the way.

Article from and courtesy of http://www.jwarthog.com/hack-mechanic.html