Larry and I went down to the Bimmerfest in Santa Barbara, CA for our 5th time this year taking down the Cobalt Twins. We had great fun once we found some good roads in Northern California despite a slight mishap on Larry's part.
We left Wednesday last week and I made it back Tuesday morning, Larry made it back Monday and Steve/Darrin made it back last night.
Overall, it was a great trip. At the Bimmerfest, I was surprised at how much of a presence MFest.com had. It literally seemed like they were everywhere! I also ran into a couple of M5board folks from before such as Bob Hall, Chris, James, and a couple others. I'd forgotten how much I'd missed my friendship with the folks from M5board.com so here I am back again. I'll try to stick around a bit more.
At the start there were three
A little camera shy
We saw a lot of these along the way
Gassing up before crossing over to Oregon
Finally made it to the California coast
I was ecstatic
We had dinner at the Samoa Cookhouse with cheap and good eats
The real fun began on the 2nd day as we made our way to some twisties
Taking a break
After coming to the end, I just had to take a picture by my favorite sign
Steve took a rock chip in his windshield from Larry's fat tires so he got it fixed
The CHP in would always leave their radars blaring giving us plenty of warning
Lunchtime in Williams
This plane flew REALLY low!
More twisties
We stopped quite a few times because of construction
Larry following closely
We had all kinds of obstructions such as this concrete truck too
There were also beautiful scenery everywhere too
I had more fun following Larry than leading
At one point, Larry switched with me but not before this truck cut in front of him. He did a great job keeping up with me!
We finally made it to the Bay area where EVERYONE including a lady blabbing on the cell phone in a smart car was going faster than us and we were going 80! Yep, we're in California alright.
This was a really nice bug. Better than the ones I had all over my front end
I already could see some funny sights when we finally made it to Pleasanton.
That's deafboy aka Cole from Washington
Larry trying to show us what he looked like when driving hard
Some very colorful decoration
Our Cobalt twins at rest for the night
There were "For Lease" signs everywhere in this office complex. And oh yeah, a nice Viper too
We had dinner with the BayBimmerz here
Keith, the guy that always arranges the Norcal caravan
Not sure what we were doing here
Need I say more?
Yep, we got up that EARLY
Here we were at the meeting point for the Norcal caravan to Gilroy
Lots of interesting sights including this very yellow 8 series
Blue tape was again in presence
Even a Honda had to come too
Driver's meeting
Leaving the first point
At the Gilroy meeting point our Cobalt twins got a lot of attention
This was a very cool E92 M3 with 530 hp! I also saw this car at the SEMA last year before it was upgraded
Love this wheel and brake
Andy doing his best to pose for us
Somebody modeling too
BayBimmerz representing
One very serious piece of hardware
A pseudo model/owner posing for me
Part of the crowd
A very nice and pristine E30 M3
They'll think of everything for front wraps
Larry and the rest of us had an interesting chat with a CHP trooper
Demonstrating the LIDAR
We left the caravan and headed down HWY 1 along the coast for a nice slow scenic drive. Larry took point
We ran into a rider with an obviously well used bike
Taking a break at an overlook point
For some strange reason, we were always lucky that the cops would come only when we're either not speeding or stopped. I for one am not complaining!
Larry and the Cobalt twins
Darrin jumps for joy because we didn't get pulled over at all!
Can you read Larry's lips?
2005 was the first year I went to the Bimmerfest
Still relatively clean
We saw a lot of vintage cars along the way too
We finally made it to Santa Barbara and Larry spent a few hours talking to people
Here's that gorgeous M3 again
A proud owner and his car
A vintage Alpina
Blue tape was again used for a variety of messages
A popular mod was those angel eye headlights
Very colorful twins
Can you count the bugs on Steve's big 7 series?
I liked this mod
We took a little drive up in the mountains before going to the Bimmerfest
Richard came all the way from Canada in his E46 M3
Steve's all ready for the Bimmerfest
This is Keith's beautiful 540 which won second place at the Bimmerfest
An omen of things to come
The BIMMERFEST!
BMW introduced the new Z4 here
Lots of trophies
BMW of Germany hired a video team to make a documentary about the Bimmerfest this year
Larry tries out the new Z4
Darrin too
Even the Polizi M5 was here too
A popular mod was either a supercharger or a turbocharger
This too
Panoramic image from the grandstands! Look how many cars there were!
Still there was a long line for hours!
On the other side, they were playing polo
Lots of interesting sights not just car-wise
Lots of vintage BMWs too
I liked this M6, very well done
Check out those brakes on that M3
These brakes are over $20,000
Did you think I'd forget about those models?
Even the view from behind was nice too
Italian mafia in full force
Another popular mod was a huge stereo setup
I loved this blue
They were demonstrating the M3 for all of us to hear. It was surprisingly not very loud
Looks like a very nice "wrap"
She was beautiful and intelligent
Nice rear
I couldn't resist jumping with those kids too!
I liked this theme
More nice scenery..mmmm
This E46 M3 had a WIDE body!
Nice interior by Benchmark Motoring up here in Seattle
Even the calipers were color coordinated
Beautiful 2002
This 3002TTii was by far my favorite of all the cars here with a E46 turbocharged I-6 stuffed in!
Even the undersides looked deadly serious
More interesting sights
This is the first E34 M5 Touring wagon ever made with a VIN number ending in 001
Larry with a familiar face, Sal
Nice 7 series
A funky interior to go along with it too
More eyecandy
Even a R8 came to play too
People were standing on some of the cars too
Miss blonde taking a break behind a serious machine
Ready for the Gumball 3000
Another popular mod was hoods made of carbon fiber
Yummmmm...
M3 done up CSL style in Laguna Seca blue
Miss Falken
Me too!
She was beautiful inside and out
Some race machines came to play too
A few generations of M3s
More eye candies
Again with them on their cars, even while moving
Yellow haze
BMWs and Beer, a good combo
Good way to light things up
Creme 997, YUCK! And those headlights, double yuck!
Ladies and their "toy" dogs seemed to be everywhere
Bimmerfest banner
M colors!
Miss Falken again
Now that's a WIDE load
Afterwards, a few of us headed to State street in downtown Santa Barbara for some pre-dinner desserts
Heading to State street
Check this "bear" out. He knows our pain
And there's that R8 again
A funny sight of a lady picking her "toy" dog up
Yum yum
Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to pick up the others and head out to dinner. The following morning, Larry and I made our long trek back up North. Along the way, we picked up a few stragglers including this M5
Of course I had to eat lunch here too
We met up with a very fast vintage Mustang on I-505. I tried to keep him in my sights
But he managed to pass me a few times
Taking a break for a photo shoot
Time to go
The weather got really ugly as we headed North
This was a very fast BUG! Must've been heavily modified!
Even in the corners too!
We saw an unfortunate semi that went off the road in the Shasta area
We stayed the night in Redding that night but the following day it really started to get ugly with RAIN!
It was pretty much like this for the rest of the trip for me
Taking a break at a rest stop to rest my bleary eyes
And at the end there was one
Overall, it wasn't quite like the Gumball 3000, Player's Run, Gold Rush, etc...but it was still a fun trip for us boys. No casuality to report of any sort unlike that lost tailight I had last year.
All the rest of my pictures are here:
Bimmerfest Album
-Dreaming about the M5
Linear Mode
