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Wednesday, 9 July 2025

2PJZ Debrief - Edition 12

Hey Reader,

Welcome to Edition 12 of 2PJZ Debrief.

This fortnight’s newsletter is forgoing the usual structure to dive into my biggest creative project yet – a short film commissioned by BMW Australia to celebrate 50 Years of the BMW 3 Series.

I began work on this project in March, and everything, from the initial concept to exporting the video, was entirely directed by me, made possible with the support of the incredibly talented Sam from @laag.media, who shot and edited the film.

There’s a lot to share about this project, so this newsletter is fully dedicated to the biggest milestone of my journey so far.

The film goes live tomorrow, Thursday 10 July at 8pm AEST. But today, here’s the story behind it.

What the project is — and why I made it

This year, BMW is celebrating 50 Years of the 3 Series, one of the most culturally significant cars of the last century.

If you’ve followed my journey for any amount of time, you’ll know BMW is one of my favourite car brands.

My story started with a Topaz Blue E46 325ci. Since then, I’ve owned an E30, an E34, two E36s and an M135i. And maybe a special one to come soon...

When I relaunched 2PJZ in May last year, I made it a goal to work with BMW professionally.

After test-driving the latest M cars between April and now — including the G80 M3 at Targa Classica — I wanted to do something special to celebrate the brand’s legacy.

That’s where this film came in.

And from the start, I knew I didn’t just want to focus on the M3. I wanted to feature the full 3 Series lineup, because this story goes way beyond track records.

Pictured in 2018, my first car - a manual E46 325ci in Topaz Blue.

The vision

This film was created to capture what the 3 Series means to real people.

Not just race wins.
But road trips. First cars. Daily commutes. Milestones.

Not only is it a car that’s captured the zeitgeist of every decade it's lived through, and been a staple of roads all over the world since the 70s, but the 3 Series has a deep importance for automotive culture.

I wanted to blend storytelling, visuals, and emotion, elevating my content to a new level by fusing everything I’ve learnt in journalism and content creation with my passion for automotive culture.

After many nights scripting, tossing out drafts, starting again and pulling my hair out, the script and shot list were complete.

Finding the cars

The first challenge was obvious:

“How the hell do we find every M3 and every generation of the 3 Series, and get them all in the same place at the same time?”

That’s where BMW Drivers Club Melbourne came in.

The annual BMW Nationals was being held over the ANZAC Day weekend in April. Luckily for me, it was in Melbourne for the first time in six years.

I reached out, and thanks to President Jo Mawson and Treasurer Lawrence Glynn, I got permission to film the non-M cars at Calder Park during the Saturday Show and Shine.

All was looking great.

And then... the weather turned. Hard. Classic Melbourne. The one day we needed it to be great, it turned to absolute shite.

We had no other day, so Sam and I just braved it.

If you notice the rain getting heavier throughout the film — that’s why. There’s your little Easter egg.

Then came the M3s

With the non-M cars done, next came the full M3 lineup.

We worked with BMW DCM to contact each owner and planned to film them on ANZAC Day, Friday 25 April, at Calder Park.

Everything was set.

Until the forecast showed torrential rain.

Thursday afternoon, I had seven owners, the club and Calder staff waiting for my call.

I had to make the crazily difficult call to postpone.

And in classic Melbourne fashion... it didn’t rain.

I was gutted. Absolutely shattered.
But if I gave up when things got hard, I wouldn’t be doing any of this.

We spent the next week rebuilding trust and reorganising. And thanks to Jo again, Calder Park let us back in for a shoot a couple of weeks later in May.

The shoot day

Seeing all of the M3s lined up on the Calder Park drag strip is something I’ll never forget.

My vision came to life. An insane feeling.

This photo is one I’ll keep for life.
Every M3 generation. One badge. One moment. I organised that. And that means the world to me.

If I could go back to the kid playing Xbox games and choosing M3s to race, or the one who spent everything he had on an E46 coupe, I know how proud he’d be.

But fuzzy feelings aside, this was by no means a walk in the park.

By the time everyone arrived and we got onto the track, we'd started late. Forced to shoot in the blaring sunlight in the middle of the day. Shot internal driving shots, rolling footage, hero angles, and piece-to-cameras.

Productions of this scale are usually done with a team of professionals. Multiple cameras, directors, producers, etc.

Our ‘crew’ was just Sam and I. One mic. One camera.

I hadn’t memorised my script as much as I wanted to because I'd been so busy with life, work and daily content.

I could barely get words out in the car because of how much the moment meant to me.

Driving every generation of M3 back to back is something I’ll probably never get to do again. And I'm grateful for every second of it.

I hope when you watch the film, you can feel that.

The people behind the cars

None of this would have happened without the owners.

These people didn’t just show up — they handed me the keys.
Most of them I’d never met before.

Their trust, passion and generosity made this possible.

Special thanks to:

Jo and Lawrence – BMW DCM
Jo and Graeme – E21
Burak – E30
Ian – E36
Oguz – E46
Bill – E90
Keat – F80
Kobe – G80

Why I really made it

This wasn’t just a film for BMW, or for me.

I made this for the kid who used to pick the M3 in every racing game.
For every person who got handed the keys to a 3 Series, or for the guy or girl who worked their butt off to get one.

And for anyone who remembers the first time they truly fell in love with driving.

Driving my ultimate M car - the E46 M3 CSL.

Watch the premiere tomorrow

The full film goes live Thursday 10 July at 8PM AEST on the 2PJZ YouTube channel.

It would mean a lot if you went over now and subscribed so you don't miss it.

When it drops, I’d love for you to like, comment, share and repost so it can get in front of BMW enthusiasts all over the world. It would mean the world to me.

This was a self-funded passion project, and every bit of support helps make it a success.

Please also show some love to @laag.media, who brought the whole thing to life behind the lens.