2014 was a hell of a year. It was like a rollercoaster with many ups and downs. But we at Tief & Breit are looking forward to whatever 2015 will bring us. The Tief & Breit family has grown a bit and we’ll be trying to work that in with some changes to our content next year. We want to bring you more on our own projects while still bringing you the expected content of event reports. We’ll also be trying to squeeze in the occasional feature car or two. But enough of that – you’ll be seeing that stuff when we get to it.

2014 started with a visit to Belgium for this year’s Legend Boucles de Spa… which admittedly, I haven’t really shared any pictures of, except a few on our Facebook page. It was still a very cool event and think I might try to visit once again in 2015. At the same day as the event, I stumbled upon a Talbot collector by pure chance, which I wrote about here.

Show season proper was initiated by WNGN vs. DMPD, a joint car show held by the DMPD and WNGN guys for european and japanese cars. What was most memorable was that Andreas, who’s grown quite close to the Tief & Breit family over the year and has firmly secured himself a part in our circle of friends, had just fitted his new wheels to his car the evening before without a test drive and no fender mods yet… we decided to risk it, but along the way felt that the rubbing was too bad to continue and so had to do a emergency fender roll on the Autobahn. The honour of rolling the fenders fell to Georg, who’s the man behind our stickers and also the one who drives the Tief & Breit Miata.

Georg’s Miata has come a long way this year. He bought it for just a few hundred bucks and looking quite sorry for itself near the start of the year and got it ready for show season just in time, repainting it himself from red to white amongst other things. Naturally, over the course of the remaining year there were small changes made here and there. This picture was taken on the way back from the Camber BBQ.

Speaking of the Camber BBQ, here’s Andreas’ 190E 2.5 16v sitting next to another 190E, showing some Benz love. The Camber BBQ was a great event. Camber has evolved into a crew of gearheads from Germany (and some international members as well), all living the fitment oriented car lifestyle. The Tief & Breit family is proud to be a member of the Camber family as well and we’re thankful for the chance to make friends with a lot of these guys.

Another picture from the way home from the Camber BBQ is this one, showing Matze’s E36 Coupe. Matze has become a treasured member of the Tief & Breit family as well. But, if you know me, that you will know that, even though I love the chassis in itself, I have grown tired of looking at E36s by now, because it seems everyone is doing the same things over and over. Matze’s car, although it may not appear so at first glance, was always different. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but he managed that his E36 always had a certain personal touch, a certain character to it.

Probaby the biggest change to happen to the car was thanks to our very own Georg who painted it grey in early August. The color looked incredible on the car and the result was stunning for a low budget garage paintjob.

The day after Camber BBQ marked this year’s Eurosunday. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, these guys know how to put on a show! Every Eurosunday I’ve attended has been fabulous and I’m already looking forward to next year.

Three weeks later marked the time when I finally got the Tief & Breit Touring back on the road. I was so happy because I finally was able to drive my pride and joy again.

The day after was when Georg, Alex and I got together to shoot Alex’ Skyline for his feature. I’m proud to be able to call Alex part of the Tief & Breit family and have to say that he is one of the people who has influenced me most when it comes to my taste in car modifications in the last few years. Alex was the one who coined the inofficial Tief & Breit motto of ‘Hurt Feelings’, because we do what we want to our cars, we build them to our own visions – the outcry of purists be damned. We made up a few Hurt Feelings stickers and it has become a kind of badge of honor for the cars of the Tief & Breit family and we wear it with pride.

A few days later, it was time for Bimmerfest Europe. Although it was only the second time for the show, it’s quickly made a name for itself as one of the nicest BMW shows in Europe. Some of the Tief & Breit crew will be attending next year, of course. This show would also mark the only show that the Tief & Breit Touring attended this year…

Because just a week after Bimmerfest, at the start of June, the Tief & Breit Touring blew it’s engine. The car has been sitting in my shop ever since and has been waiting for me to get to work on it…

However, as I had just found a buyer for my daily, a E38 730i at the time, I desperately needed a car to drive as a daily… so I picked up this E39 523i Touring. This car by now has become my new project and I’m working hard to get it ready for the start of the season. Rest assured, it won’t look anything like this when I’m done.

The E39 would be put to the test in very short order as just 3 weeks after buying it, I set out to Norway for the Gatebil event alongside some friends. It was wonderful. Without exaggeration the very best car event I have ever attended. Simply a sensore overload. You can check out my coverage here and here.

At the Gatebil event I also shot David’s Benz, which you can read about here.

The E39 handled the 2800km trip (1400km each way) wonderfully… sadly, I did not and I fell asleep for a second on the way home. I made friends with a guardrail. On the bright side, this marked the beginning of turning the E39 into a project. A more in depth look at the build will follow soon.

A week later, Überfest followed. Alex actually won Best Import for his Skyline. Well deserved, I’d say. His name was called out, just as we was preparing to leave. I also just realized that I haven’t shared pictures of this event yet… I’ll get that taken care of, asap.

In July we hosted a small BBQ for the extended Tief & Breit family at the Tief & Breit workshop. We actually had some friends from Violent Clique from Sweden pop in for a visit as they were on vacation in Germany at the time. Good times.

At the end of July, I helped organize a BMW meet called ‘Clubed’ in Cologne. Pictured are the cars of a few friends of ours, Marco and Christian, who have managed to build a pair of very classy E36 Coupes.

At the end of August, another Camber BBQ happened. I still haven’t shared pictures of that yet – another mishap I need to correct ASAP! Pictured here is the car of the Camber founder, Marius. I work closely with Marius and help him organize the Camber community and I am proud to be able to say that I’m a part of such a close-knit community.

The next event was this year’s Youngtimer Show in Herten. I love this picture because of the car and it’s owners. We stumbled upon this 80ies-style widebody E30 sitting in a corner with this old couple next to it. They’ve owned the car since new, over 30 years now! Amazing. I later managed to catch them again when they were rolling through the rows of cars parked at the show.

In late September, the DMPD guys put on DMPD Finest in the nearly-abandoned town of Doel in Belgium. This is one of my favorite shots I took. By this time, I started snapping film shots at shows and I’m trying to now do this at every show I attend. See the other film shots here.

Of course, I also took quite a few digital shots which I will show you soon!

I took some more film shots at a visit to the Classic Remise in Düsseldorf. Check them out here.

The last event for this year was this year’s Essen Motor Show. Coverage will follow soon, but let me just say that just like last year, it did not disappoint. That just about was it for my personal retrospective this year but I still have a few words left.

I want to take the chance to thank our two main contributors this year. While I still provide most of the content for the blog on my own, I was lucky enough to get two great people to help me out this year. One of them is Scott Paterson, a super laid back Scotsman whom I originally met on the Stanceworks message boards. We finally met when we travelled to Gatebil together and if I have to say one thing about Scott, then it’s that he’s good people. Additionally, Scott is also very impressive behind the camera! Scott has recently taken up a new job as official Photographer of Drift Limits and I wish him all the best in the new year!

The other person I have to thank is Niclas Klietz. Niclas approached us someday, asking if he could help out. I knew Niclas from his photography site on Facebook and both us being members of Camber, and so I was eager to let him help. He did not disappoint and brought us a few enjoyable features from the east of Germany this year! Thank you, Niclas!

That was all I had to say for now. I hope you all enjoyed the new year’s festivities and wish you all a happy new year!