Hey all:
What a GREAT day!
The weather was perfect for our picnic. To be honest, I wasn't exactly sure how many E30 M3s were coming, but by 10:30am we had the parking lot jammed. At one point I counted about 30+ E30 M3s - what a site!
Some really stood out like Donna's *sour-dough yellow* club racer, an M3 with a totally trick custom leather interior (each specially designed recaro = $2,000!!), Tammi Hulls *323 sex* race machine complete with sperm decals, and an M3 with an ear melting sound system.
Bill Arnold took the prize for most cars. He arrived with a freshly painted blue E30 M3 club racer, a 1990 sterling silver E30 M3 and a custom E30 convertible rebuilt with all ///M parts complete with an s14 four banger.
Everyone had a chance to hang out and share their war stories. I like the one about the guy who said his Dinan badge attracted too much attention so now it adorns his washing machine - hehehe - how many loads can you do in an hour now?
The picnic food ruled. Steaks, vegetables, burgers, hot dogs and enough sausages to feed a small army........every one brought way way too much food again this year.
The raffle was the highlight of the picnic portion. The small kids got car paraphernalia and BMW matchbox cars and the big kids (all 50+ of us) got goodies too. We raffled off over 30 prizes......a bunch of subscriptions to BIMMER magazine, a stack of BIMMERWORLD gift certificates (thanks James), Dinan intake gaskets (thanks Bill Arnold), Sparco strut brace & GSP spark plug wires (thanks Dick Chang) , some t-shirts and misc. goodies and the Grand Prize was a very very cool BMW F-1 slot car racing game........the box was huge! (thanks Dave & Ken at Sonnen BMW).
Two guys re-donated the ///M license plate frames they won in last years raffle.........one guy won the same license plate frame again!! Too funny!
We celebrated the end of the raffle with some small caliber fireworks - really we did - then Bill Arnold surprised me and said he had one more prize. He pulled something very strange out of his bag. It was an E30 M3 ///M shifter mounted on a red base with a button on the side. He told me the prize was for me as the *Event Organizer* . As
I grabbed the shifter he pressed the button and yes - you all know what happen. The damn thing BUZZED like crazy. Bill told me in private that he stayed up till midnight making the thing out of spare BMW parts. No kidding - tape deck parts and god knows what else. Yes, folks, it's all genuine OEM stuff he engineered himself. I know
this is a copy-cat gift but wait till you see the photos!Next, we all drove a few miles away for a group photo. We had to reposition the cars several times because there were just too many cars - hard to believe but true.
The day ended with a run up the Marin Headlands with breathtaking views San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge. My girlfriend held a large checkered flag out of my sunroof as I led the pack winding around the mountainside. She was a real trooper! We all made a pit stop together just before getting back on the highway to go home. One guy in the pack drove his car, smoked a cigarette, and video taped the entire ride. I don't know how he did it with two hands. He played it back for us though and it was great! He even had jammin' music in the background - absolutely crazy!
Special thanks again to our supporters - BIMMER.com, BMW Golden GateChapter, BIMMERWORLD.com, Bill Arnold, Dick Chang, BIMMER Magazine, & Sonnen BMW. Last but not least, thank you to my girlfriend, Lynda, who helped me the entire weekend and never complained once! Lastly, a very special thanks to Brandon Wheaton & Donna Seeley who put the
photos of the event online for all to enjoy.Paul DaCruz - PaulDaCruz@aol.com
Whew it's over!