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Montery (part 1)

Sorry this post comes so late but until recently I had not realized that it
did not get on the digest because of it's length.
So now I am going to try and post it in 2 parts.

Well it has been a  few weeks now and I am finaly recovering from the
atomotive sensory overload at the Montery Historic races.Since I attended
almost every single event (and thus got little sleep) I thougt I would try
and give the digest a complete summary of the weekend from my perspective. 

Wed:
I left Orange County at about 10:30 with a carvan of 3 other BMWs. We agreed
among us to cruise at a leasurely 75mph but that lasted for about a half an
hour. We arrived in Montery at about 5pm and headed for the registration and
reception at MY BMW. Driving from the 101 into Montery exotic cars were
already apparent foreshadowing the weekend to come. Their were probably
already 30 BMWs the parking lot, not including the cars on the dealer's lot.
We registered and picked up our bags of godies (brochures, very tasteful
black Tshirts,and a nice hardback Motorsport book). The show room of My BMW
was open and a large buffet table was well stocked. The night was spent
meeting with other BMW enthusiasts and getting reaquainted with old friends.

Thurs:
The Driving Tour: I arrived at the starting point for the driving tour by
7:30am and meet up with my tour partner Eric Sharp. I decided to navigate in
his Dinan stroker 325 instead of driving so I could keep the M3 clean for the
Clean Car contest. I had done this tour three years ago before OktoberFest
and it was just as I remembered it. It starts off inocently enough. Ken
Robertson gave the standard disclaimer "we don't condone breaking any laws"
etc. But the fact that the organizers had sent out a highly modifided
 Porsche 944 to "clear the route" should have been warning to the
unsuspecting. An hour later Eric would comment "110mph now that's not
breaking any laws." For those of you that have never been on this tour it has
some of the twistiest, most chalenging and senic roads you will ever
encounter. Their are also many blind and unpredictable (dangerous) corners.
Non the less it is lots of fun. We started the tour amongst several vintage
BMWs. Behind us was a 2000CS, in front a couple in a beautiful 3.0CS and
farther in front a couple in a (1930s) 328. It was great seeing the vintage
328 in action, actually beeing driven. Highlights of the first part of the
tour included an unmaked (except for skid marks) hapin turn that the 2000CS
behind us almost didn't make. I can still remember the sound of the the
2000CS squeling tires as it locked up the breaks into the corner and narowly
avoided oncoming trafic on the other side of the road. The 3.0CS also almost
lost it one another turn. We were driving along on a relatively straight
(fast) streach of road when crested a hill to find a cattle grate in the
middle of a sharp off camber left hand turn. Now metal catle grates don't
provide the same kind of traction as pavement and the demolished fence post
on the outside of the turn can testify to that. Fortunately nobody on our
tour met with that fence but the 3.0CS sure got squirly trying to avoid it.
Later in the tour after a rest stop we found ourselves in the faster company
of M3s and M5s. As we headed throuht grape vinyards we saw a replay of an
incident I wittnessed 3 years ago. A bright red E36 M3 went into a turn too
fast which had water at the Apex. He went spining off the road and into the
vinyards. Luckly the car only recieved a dust bath and suffered no damage.
Had it not come to a rest where it did it might have ended up shiny side down
in an irrigation ditch. Fortunately that was the only incident. We continued
over the mountains toward the coast. When you emerge on the western side of
the mountoain ridge you are treated to an amazing view of the ocean bellow.
The narow road winds it's way down to Highway 1 and at times the combination
of drop off and curves makes it appear as though you are going to drive
straight off the mountain into the sea. The tour ended anticlimacticly with a
drive up hiway 1 into montery. Hiway 1 seemed straight compared withthe first
part of the tour.

Car Cleaning: After the tour it was back to My BMW to wash up the cars. All I
can say is avoid washing you car in the Montery area. The water is so hard it
will leave terible water spots in a short time.

Preview party at Laguna Seca: At 4:00pm the party started. The cars that BMW
brought were amazing. At first I wandered into the Pit area and tent set up
by BMW Mobile Tradition. Inside the tent I found the 1986 Benetton BMW
powered F1 car, a BMW powered F2 car, the "BMW Original Parts Car" 635 (one
of my favorites), Nelson Piquets M1 Procar, a CSL, an E30 M3 Touring Car, and
Johny Ceccotto's1995 318 Touring Car adorned in the Motorsport flag paint
job. Outside the tent their where many more equally impressive cars. Their
were aproximately 5-7 CSL race cars, among them was the famous bright green
Grosser Beer sponsored, Alpina prepared CSL. Several other M1 procars, an
IMSA car, aprox. 5-7 vintage 328s, a 319, several 320 Turbos from the late
'70s with huge flairs and spoilers, a couple 1800TISAs and 2000Ti touring
cars. I have to say that the BMW staff and the Mechanics and engineers form
Motorsport and Mobile tradition were very helpful and adaptable. They did not
mind all the onlookers in their work area and they were all too happy to let
us take pictures and open up and see the cars all weekend. In adjacent areas
of the pits their were more privately owned BMWs like the Bretch 1600s and
the Cunningham 2002s. I am probably forgetting some but as you can tell thier
was a very impressive show of BMWs and that was just in the pits.
I next walked over to BMWs diplay tent where their were some even more
impressive cars. The atmosphere was very pleasant. BMW was serving a buffet
of various treats including oysters, german sauge and drinks (and this event
was free to BMW club members). Along one side of the tent were the four BMW
art race cars: the beautifully restored Calder CSL, the Stella CSL, the
Lichtenstien 320 turbo,and the Warhol MI Procar. Along the back wall was a
display of some of BMWs very important early cars:1940 Mile Miglia 328 with
the streamlined body, a 507 and several other early cars whose model
designations I can't recall. A platform in the middle of the tent displayed a
red Z1 and the new MZ3.  The MZ3 was slightly different than the previosly
displayed car in that it had two roll hoops.  Another  corner was occupied by
more recent BMW racing macines; Nelson Piquets championship F1 car, and an
incredible race prepared McLaren F1 that was driven in this years Le Mans by
Steve Soper,Nelson Piquet,and Danny Sulivan. An other highlight was the
designer of the 507 singing atographs on neat brochures BMW provided and even
on the dash of a 507. An adjacent long tent had about 10-15 more BMWs.
Overall the display was quite incredible. Had I encountered any one of the
number of cars their, by itself under normal circumstances I could have spent
an hour studying it . So many neat cars and so little time. I had not even
got a chance to look at the rest of the Non BMWs in the paddock before it was
time to go ( In my case back to the hotel to work on those pesky water
spots). 


Friday:
Concourse Italiana/BMW clean car contest. I arrived early (6:40am) to do some
last minute detailing on the M3. At about 9:00 I looked up for the first time
(previously I had been so occupied with last minute details and oblivious to
what was going on around me). The morning air was crisp and I was surounded
by hundreds of BMWs on the gulf clubs green. The BMW judging started around
10:00. Unfortunately the contest was a complete joke. The organizers had
underestimated the turnout and had too few judges. As a result the judging
teams were split up and not all the cars in the same categories were judged
by the same judges. Also some cars were forgoten and not judged at all. I for
one asked for my score sheet (which was incomplete) after the trophies were
awarded and the head judge admitted that the scores on my sheet did not match
my car. Besides my car some other really clean cars got overlooked. The said
it was supposed ot be a casual event but I think many people were under the
impression it was more serious,including several people who brought in BMWs
form very far away just for the show. Sorry for the complaining but that has
been bothering me for a while.
Anyways the turn out of BMWS was impressive. Their were some unique cars
including a Dinan Twin Turbo 850, a supercharged M3, a Z3 with an E30 M3
motor, a incredible Alpina CSL recently featured in European Car. The Alpina
CSL was even cleaner than in the mag pictures (those of you that looked in
the engine compartment or the underside know what I mean). 
Oh yeah and thier was too much neat Italian stuff to even mention. My
favorites include a 1953 Ferrari F1 car, a black Daytona Coupe with paint
that looked 10 feet deep, and the new F50 with paint so thin you can see the
carbon fiber. 


Part 2 follows...