The Ultimate Driver
LSU–Clemson Draws Record Media and Celebrity Presence to Tiger Stadium
- The i3 Touring
- Tsunami, then Jason Carter
- Tudor Black Bay 58
- X5, X3, X7
- Oil, 10%, brakes
September in Baton Rouge is a negotiation. The heat still owns the afternoon, but the evenings start giving ground — a few honest minutes of dark on the back end of every drive. Here’s what’s news.
On the Road
i3 Touring prototype · Nürburgring · Carscoops / Baldauf
The wagon nobody was supposed to build
Somewhere at the Nürburgring last month, a silver estate went out for laps under a thin coat of camouflage, and the shutter caught it. Carscoops ran the photos on 19 August. Credit to them and to Baldauf.
What he caught is the i3 Touring — the long-roof version of BMW’s Neue Klasse i3 sedan. A driver’s-shape electric wagon, which is not a phrase the market has heard in a long time. The prototype doing the work is the dual-motor 50 xDrive: 463 horsepower, a 108.7 kWh battery, roughly 550 miles on the European cycle, and 400 kW charging that turns a stop into a coffee. Munich already started building the sedan this month.
Two corrections before anyone gets ahead of it. It is not a hybrid. And a car turning laps in Germany is proof that engineers are busy, not that a Baton Rouge delivery date exists. Nobody has promised us this car. A long-roof that charges and actually corners is the argument against the idea that every good answer has to be a taller SUV.
Photos: Carscoops / Baldauf · The scoop
On Saturday
LSU–Clemson Draws Record Media and Celebrity Presence to Tiger Stadium
Tiger Stadium · Baton Rouge
On Saturday
LSU–Clemson Draws Record Media and Celebrity Presence to Tiger Stadium
LSU officials say Saturday will be the most media- and celebrity-credentialed game in Tiger Stadium history. That is a large claim for a building that has heard a few of them, but the credentials back it up. ESPN’s College GameDay is in Baton Rouge for its 500th road show and its 15th trip here, the first since 2024, with Baskin’s own Lainey Wilson on the desk as guest picker from eight to eleven. LSU opens its 102nd season under the lights against Clemson — No. 11 in the country, 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC — and the cameras arrived early because they were told the room would be worth it.
What keeps the week local rather than merely loud is the paperwork. A Baton Rouge judge, William Jorden, granted an injunction clearing certain former pro players to return, among them Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris, both of whom followed the new coach over from Oxford. Then the SEC went to federal court and sued LSU itself — the school, its board, president Wade Rousse, athletic director Verge Ausberry, and Lane Kiffin — over the intent to put those players on the field. The eligibility fight has its own docket now.
Set the filings aside for three hours and it is just football, which is the part that travels well past Saturday. The schedule does not wait. Louisiana Tech comes to Baton Rouge on the 12th, Ole Miss waits in Oxford on the 19th, and Texas A&M is here on the 26th.
Photo: WClarke / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Reporting: TigerDroppings, 2 September 2026; ESPN / Dan Murphy, Mark Schlabach, 3 September 2026.
On the Table
Tsunami Downtown · Shaw Center rooftop · Photos: Tsunami
Eat up high, then take the stairs
Six floors over the Mississippi, on the roof of the Shaw Center, there’s a 4,000-square-foot terrace that spends most of the year too hot to bother with. September is when it pays off. Eat up here, then walk downstairs to Manship. Same building. No parking twice.
Start with the yuzu albacore — thin sashimi, a hit of citrus. Then the rolls: the Big Easy (crawfish, snow crab, fried shrimp, soy wrap, panko-fried, $18), the Black & Gold (crunchy shrimp, Kani, crawfish, baked spicy mayo, $18), the Hung Lo (panko shrimp, seared tuna, snow crab, $20). Two people. The last of the daylight.
Closed Sunday and Monday. Tuesday through Thursday, 11 to 9. If you’re headed downstairs at 7:30, book the earlier seating and mean it.
On the Town
Jason Carter Band · Manship Theatre · 24 September · Photo: Michael Weintrob
Jason Carter Band, September 24
Downstairs from that rooftop, Jason Carter spent years as the right hand of the Del McCoury Band and is out front now, singing lead on a forthcoming solo record, Lowdown Hoedown. Manship Theatre, 7:30 to 9:30, from $38. Modern, muscular Americana — Asleep at the Wheel, Steve Earle, Ricky Skaggs in the family tree. Fast when it needs to be, quiet when it means it.
Buy from the theatre. Every patron needs a ticket. Third-party sellers are a tax you don’t have to pay.
September
LASM · Reflections: The Art of George Rodrigue
- Sun 6 · First Free Sunday Reflections: The Art of George Rodrigue at LASM. Through January 24, 2027. No admission that Sunday. Exhibition
- Tue 8 · Band of Heathens Manship, 7:30. From $72.24. Austin roots-rock, twenty years in. Show
- Sun 13 · Concert Kitchen Live Chef Kevin Belton and John Papa Gros, Manship, 2 p.m. From $35. Show
- Wed 16 · BoDeans Manship, 7:30. The catalog, midweek. Show
- Sun 20 · The Wild Pour BREC’s Baton Rouge Zoo, 2:30–5:30. 21+. Wine and cocktails on zoo grounds. Tickets
On the Wrist
Black Bay 58 · ref. 7939A1A0NU · Hodinkee / Tudor
Tudor fixed the one thing
The Black Bay 58 was already the smart dive watch — 39 mm, the right size. This spring at Watches & Wonders, Tudor updated it. The number that matters: 11.7 mm thick, down from 11.9. Still 200 meters. Still a proper unidirectional 60-minute bezel. Black matte dial, gently domed, text trimmed to two lines, hands drawn slimmer. Grade A Super-LumiNova.
Under the caseback: Caliber MT5400-U, silicon hairspring, 65-hour reserve, COSC and METAS. Master Chronometer. Zero to plus-five seconds a day. The one to want is the black dial on the new five-link bracelet with the T-fit clasp: $5,350. Three-link $5,225, rubber $4,975. Available now. Not a lottery.
On the Lot
X5 · Brian Harris BMW
The X5
MY26 X5 xDrive40i. The car the rest of the lineup orbits.
Finance
0.9% APR
60 mo · $1,000 APR credit
Lease
$869/mo
39 mo · $809 w/ loyalty
Expires September 30, 2026. With approved credit. Some exclusions apply. See dealer for details. Delivery by September 30 required.
X3 · Brian Harris BMW
The X3
MY26 X3 30 xDrive. The one that fits every driveway and still drives like a BMW.
Finance
0.9% APR
60 mo · 30 xDrive
Lease
$569/mo
39 mo · $539 w/ loyalty
Expires September 30, 2026. With approved credit. Some exclusions apply. See dealer for details. Delivery by September 30 required.
X7 · Brian Harris BMW
The X7
MY27 X7 xDrive40i. Three rows. Short-term lease if you want flexibility into next year.
Finance
0.9% APR
60 mo
Lease
$1,249/mo
15 mo · or $1,049 / 39 mo
Expires September 30, 2026. With approved credit. Some exclusions apply. See dealer for details. Delivery by September 30 required.
On the Workbench
Oil, 10% off, brakes
BMW Value Service oil change is $119.99 — premium synthetic, factory filter, parts and labor, for Value Service Program models.
Expires 9/28. Some exclusions apply. See dealer for details.
Ten percent off BMW service for the visit that’s more than an oil change. Cannot combine. Excludes Value Service and tires.
Expires 9/28. Some exclusions apply. See dealer for details.
Brake Value Service. Pricing depends on the car; other models and repairs run higher. The desk gives you the number before anything is touched.
Expires 9/28. Some exclusions apply. See dealer for details.