track time + instruction might be overkill. There are two underlying "themes" that I seem to find here:
1) The gathering. A glitzy show of a sea of M5s gathering up along the coast of Santa Barbara, the biltmore, magazine photographers, etc.
2) Hard core driving. Track time, instruction, meeting m5 owners frmo all over the west coast (and houston), etc.
Developing an affair that is aprt of that migt be necessary.
As for a fee, even if we all put in $100, that would only be about $3k. Enough to cover, uhm, nothing? Maybe the gas. I'd imagine that a 3 day event, (without considering trakc fees) would run about 500 for hotels, another 200 for food, another 300 for gas, per person (my numbers could be way off base here).
So before we go calling sponsors and tracks and all of that, I think we need a definitive idea of what it is we want, and then we need to spread the word. I'm willing to bet that maybe 5% of the wes coast owners are on this board. publish it in roundel ro something of the like, and we could double that attendance wise.
Dan, hope to meet you next Sat. The way I see it: Track is cool because you can drive on a famous racetrack as fast or as slow as you want. You have a faster group for experienced drivers who want to haul *** and a slower group for people who are new or want to take it a little easier for whatever reason. If there are 45 people then you make it 3 groups, faster, medium, slower. Instructors are not only cool, they are a must. You cant put people alone out on a track for the first time with a fast car. There would be wrecked M5s and airbag bruises everywhere, and for that reason no track would allow it. Typically, after being shown the line along with danger spots by an instructor for awhile you get checked off to go alone. Myself, I want as much time with a good instructor as I can, even if I'm after just slow & smooth. This seems way better than high speed runs on public roads. When you put your own school together you get some latitude on how it should go, within the track's established rules of course. $500 per car per day is a good rough estimate. The glitz factor is there for the asking in Montery, Napa Valley or Las Vegas. My recent instructor @ Buttonwillow was racer, Rene Villenuve, I would take as much time with that guy as I could get. There is a whole bunch of cool insrtuctors who will do this when they aren't committed elsewhere. What do you think?
It appears that at least one full day at a track would be most desirable. You guys are making a few calls to see what and who might be available. If $500 is the cost per car for a one day event, than everyone who would like to participate needs to be prepared for that cost on top of the hotel, food and any other event type activities we might want to undertake.
Another great place to hold the event would be Carmel. Pretty close to Monterey, but more small town atmosphere. The ladies would love the shopping and alot of great photo opportunities. Napa would also be a great spot with Sears Point. Lots of wine and resturants to be had.
August 5th thru the 7th or 17th thru 19th are the dates at this point. We might be able to cut some of the costs if we can get some sponsors interested. At least some fun give aways would be nice.
41 interested M5's and I know there is at least that many more on this board in the California area that would probably want to go that have not responded. My best guess at this time is at least 60 M5's for the event! What fun it will be. If there are other venues for advertizing this event, then we should seek them out as well.
Very good input.
Mark
[This message has been edited by MAH (edited 25 January 2001).]
With this many people it will be impossible to do any sort of aggressive driving on the open roads as a group without getting into trouble. A track day or autocross in a parking lot might be better. That doesn't stop you from planning meeting points separated by nice roads - just go loose on the schedule and allow plenty of time for folks to go at their own pace.
At the same time this makes the traveling part a little nicer for bringing wives, etc. - therefore the event is social as well, making Monterey or Wine Country awfully nice.
One thing that we could do is arrange to stop by one or more private auto collections, and/or museums like Blackhawk. My uncle ran the Pebble Beach Concours for 25 years - you can't get much more connected than that. I know he knows of several private collections up in the wine country. He would PROBABLY be willing to go to bat for me. He has a couple of cars at "The Candy Store" - which is an all-brick, ex-auto-dealership building in Burlingame with about 50 amazing cars, including one-of-a-kind '20's Rolls, Hispano Suizas, Duesenbergs and other world-classic cars - and a bit of newer stuff. Last time I was there was 10 years ago, but at that time the fluorescent orange turbine Indy car was there, for example.
I finally convinced my dad to get the new '01 M5. We've had it for a month now, just hit 1200, and we're planning on doing the Carolina driving class when summer rolls around. We want in for this get together, it sounds like a lot of fun.
-Brandon
Los Angeles
Today I did a little research for the summer meet.
I called Keith Wollenberg, VP Pacific Region of BMWCCA. His comments are as follows:
1) Much easier to get track time mid-week vs weekend.
2) Have one or more instructors. Sometimes they will do this for free if we pay hotel and food costs. They also get some track time.
3) It needs to be classified as a "school". We can not promote this as "we want track time to meet and race". Insurance will be to expensive.
4) We need a full time ambulance while we are on the track.
5) He suggested that we contact these people for other coordination ideas:
Dan Tackett, Western Region Driving event coordinator. Tackman@adnc.com
Jim Grinstead at trackschools@ggc-bmw-cca.org
Carl Mcginn, he is highly recommended. Keith did not have his phone number however we can get it from the editor of the Los Angeles chapter newsletter. His email is leaf@2002ad.com.
My suggestion is that I contact Carl and get his ideas for our meet.
Just for discussion sake I will say we are interested in a two day, midweek event at one of the California tracks (Laguna, Buttonwillow, Sears Point, etc????)
I will fish around for information and report back to the group.
stevem
p.s. If anyone wants to talk with me, call me at work 714-708-7415. I'm there between 8am and 6pm pacific time.
[This message has been edited by stevem (edited 26 January 2001).]
Just a thought, if we could get 50 or so M5s together, we should try for an aerial shot of our cars spelling out M5. Maybe even a color coordinated ///M5.
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