Harms booked the 335d on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen MV Manon, voyage CQ002-MAN, which left Bremerhaven today heading for Göteborg, Sweden.

The MV Manon is a PCTC (Pure Car and Truck Carrier) built by Daewoo Heavy Industry in 1999. (MV stands for Merchant Vessel.) It was elongated in 2005 by 28 meters, resulting in a 20% increase in capacity, which now stands at 7200 cars or 3700 cars and 600 trucks.  The vessel carries a basic complement of 15 persons.  The deck area capacity is 63,124 m2.  It is a sister ship to the Boheme, Elektra, Undine, and Mignon.

The Manon is owned by Wallenius Lines AB, Sweden and operated by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics and flies under the Swedish flag.

All cabins are located on the upper deck and the vessel is equipped with a dining room, TV room/library, gym, sauna, and outdoor swimming pool.  It has a permanent CO2 fire extinguishing system and a number of portable CO2 and foam fire extinguishers.  It has a freefalling lifeboat with a capacity of 30 people, an MOB (Man Overboard) boat, and four life rafts with a capacity of 16 people each.

After leaving Bremerhaven, it set sail for Göteborg (Gothenburg), where it is scheduled to arrive on the 15th.  It will continue on to Zeebrugge, Belgium (January 17), and Southampton, U.K. (January 18) to pick up more cars.  It then starts its trans-Atlantic crossing and will continue across the 50th parallel until reaching the coast of North America.

The Manon should arrive in Halifax, Nova Scotia on January 25.  From there, it is scheduled to arrive at the Port of New York on January 27, at which time the 335d will be offloaded at BMW’s Vehicle Distribution Center (VDC).

My 335d’s production started on 2 December with a coil of steel that was unraveled

Press Shop

and cut into plates that were then pressed into the right shape.  The Press Shop handles 600 metric tons of steel plates each and every day and the steel is specifically selected for individual parts in order to meet BMW’s high standards.

Depending on the part, four to six production steps are required.

The parts formed for the 335d were then assembled in the Body Shop starting on 8 December until the car body was completed later that day.

The Mobi-Cell with handling and welding robots.

Large panels simultaneously converge into a central spot for spot and laser welding as well as other joining techniques such as gluing. Robots seem to magically  create the chassis by turning and rotating different parts.  The robots in the Mobi-Cell perform spot welding with exacting precision.

The remarkable “Mobi Cell” Body Shell Concept is a BMW manufacturing innovation.  Mobi Cell stands for “Mobile Standard Fertigungszelle” (mobile standard production booth). It makes it possible it to shift production stations within the body shop  quickly and economically. The individual station can be combined with and connected to larger and more complex manufacturing stations, thereby  improving the factory’s flexibility and ability to cope with changes in demand.

Paint Shop.

The next step in production is the Paint Shop. The 335d’s chassis was cleaned, dipped into a phosphate solution that serves as a foundation for additional layers of paint, and then four layers of color were applied in separate passes. First the primer was applied in the cathodic rotation dip, then filler, base, and clear coat were applied by robots and painting machines.

The cleaning stage was very thorough, using a blow cleaner with high speed airflow and rotating ostrich feathers. The 335d’s  finish could easily have been ruined by the tiniest piece of dust so BMW uses ostrich feathers, which are very efficient at gathering dust, before sending the car to the primer booth.  Click here to continue to page 2.

Its Baroque and Rococo architecture and stunning parks captivate visitors of all ages and it is home to some of Europe’s finest museums. It is a city where the modern constantly bumps into the old. A recent addition to the city’s attractions is the BMW Welt “experience and delivery center,” which opened in October 2007 and already attracts half a million visitors per year.

Leaving Graz in the 335d, the drive to Munich took a little over four hours, covering a distance of 435 km. Except at the beginning and very end, the entire route was via Austrian and German Autobahnen.

From the Grand Hotel Wiesler on the Grieskai, it took about 15 minutes to drive through the city itself (including a few kilometers on the B67 Bundesstraße) to get to the Pyhrn-Autobahn A9, which we followed in the direction of Salzburg.

On the A9 we passed through 11 tunnels, two with tolls, the Gleinalmtunnel (€7.50) and the Bosrucktunnel (€4.50). The tunnels typically have speed limits of 100 km/h although several had 80 km/h limits due to construction (the speed limit for most Autobahnen in Austria is 130 km/h).

Several of the tunnels were long enough that one could enter the tunnel where all is wintry grey and snow covered and exit into sunshine and lots of green.

183 km from Graz we took the exit for the Autobahn A8 towards Passau and Wels, crossing the border from the province of Steiermark (Styria) to Oberösterreich (Upper Austria).  After 76 kilometers, we crossed the border into Germany.  There were only two tunnels along this part of the route, the Steinhaus-Taxlberg and the Noitzmühle.

Having crossed the border into Germany, we took the A3 for 66 kilometers in the direction of Deggendorf and München and later München/Landshut/A92. Traffic is light so we are able to cruise along at 200 km/h and occasionally reach 240 km/h (the 335d can go faster but 240 km/h is the limit with winter tires mounted).

After 66 km we reach the A92 and continue in the direction of München/Landshut. After 108 km, we were at the exit for Flughafen (Airport) München-Franz Josef Strauß and the Kempinski Airport Hotel München was just a few minutes away.

Join us on this breathtaking drive.

A World Cultural Heritage Site, Graz is Austria’s second largest city and is the capital and largest city in the province of Steiermark (Styria), a heavily forested region.  Graz was the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2003.

Leaving Roßfeld, the drive to Graz takes ca. 3 hours and is reached via a mix of Autobahnen, Bundesstraßen, and Landstraßen.  Only 150 km of the trip are via an Autobahn.

The route takes the 335d from the B999 (Roßfeldstraße) through Gmerk, where we cross the Austrian border and take the Dürrnberg Landesstraße through Hallein and continuing along the Salzachtal-Bundesstraße (B159) and then the Europastraße until reaching the Tauern-Autobahn (A10), which we take in the direction of Graz and Villach.

In the course of a 47-kilometer stretch on the Tauern-Autobahn, we go through five tunnels (Ofenauer Tunnel, Hiefler Tunnel, Brentenberg Tunnel, Zetzenberg Tunnel, and the Helbersberg Tunnel).

We continue on the E651 (which is first the B99 and then the B320) through Liezen, for ca. 75 km and join the Pyhrn-Autobahn (A9), which we take for the remaining 105 km to Graz.  The A9 takes us through the Gleinalmtunnel, with a toll of 7.50 EUR.

Exiting the A9, we reach the city center and the Grand Hotel Wiesler in just a few minutes.

Join us here for the drive.

The Diesel Driver’s editor, Jonathan Spira, took delivery of a brand new BMW 335d today at the BMW Welt (Spira, incidentally, was also the first customer to take delivery of a car at the Welt back in 2007 when the Welt opened).  He visited the BMW Welt the night before to check up on things and returned the following day with several friends.  Here is a quick look at those 24 hours; a more detailed look at the Welt, the BMW European Delivery program, and the delivery itself will follow.

Enjoy the show.