Posted by Beamher Bob on October 17, 2000 at 19:58:45:
Dear First-Five Friends, Was just reflecting on the wonderful weekend Ryan Bryan and I had at O'FEST 2000. First I want to tell everyone what a help( and Buddy) Ryan was. I entered my '81 528i in the Concours and because the body shop ran late getting it finished, it threw me late getting all the details finished. Ryan left work for two days, and helped me get her ready! THANKS RYAN BRYAN!! I was really hoping to meet some of you guys there. I did tell several guys about the First-Five board and I'll bet we hear from them before to long. Saturday they had a PETIT LeMANS atROAD ATLANTA,the '99 LeMANS winning BMW V-12 LMR raced the Audi 8R8 and a number of M3's ran against Porsches. Sunday was CLUB RACE Day, again at ROAD ATLANTA. Up to your elbows in BMW's! Club racing is guys like us at our best. Monday we had Driving Schools going on,Tech. inspections( we can't drive unsafe cars), Autocross at the BMW Performance Center( what a nice track!) Factory tours ( you can eat of the floor it's so clean), Tech. sessions,and that night the vendor had a reception( good food-free!) The start of the PHOTO Contest and the model car exhibit. Tues. more of the same and another dinner( included in the cost of registration). Wedsday the GYMKHANA started, you got to take a new X5 over an "off-road" course with a tennis ball in a saucer attached to the hood. If the ball falls out, your pardner has ti get out ,put the ball back in and take off again. It is a "timed" event. Second part you have to balance the X5 on a teeder-todder, you've got 45 sec. overall and you have to balance for 5 sec.All in all a lot of FUN!!MOTORSPORT had an exhibit at the Performance Center, you just could not believe all the special race cars there!The Red Lobster M1 was the one I wanted to drive. MOTORSPORT had a special dinner that evening and gave a rundown of its history and announced the NEW M3. The FUN RALLY and the RADIO CONTROLLED AUTOCROSS was also going on weds. Vendors had boxes set up and you could drop one of your 10 tickets into their box and win something! Several people won sets of tires, gift certificates etc. Thursday was the TSD Rally. (Time- Speed-Distance) You drove over a set course, maintaining a set speed over a set distance and you have to pass checkpoints at the exact time. Points off if your too early or too late. If you go down a dead-end, you lose!This is the day Ryan put up with me while we prepared my car for the CONCOURS. This is what made my day, Chuck Bennett, head honcho for ZYMOL came to see everyone preparing for Concours, I asked him to look at my paint job as it was 1 month old and I wanted to know the best way to protect it. He looked at it and said it was the best re-paint he had seen in twenty years! Now coming from someone like him( who knows paint) it just about made me pop a strap on my overhalls! We worked from 8am to almost 12 midnight. Chuck also paid for pizza for everyone getting ready. He gave me wax, dust brush, waxing rag, lots of car wash and other stuff! Friday comes and at8 am we take our cars over to the ZENTRUM lawn where we show. 10 am its "RAGS DOWN" and the judging begins. It's so cool to see all those wonderful BMWs everywhere.All in one place at one time. Ryan wasn't too happy with the judging, I got 17 out of 20 points on the paint job and he felt that wasn't right because of the comments of the ZYMOL man the night before! (ZYMOL sponcered that event), I also got 8 of 12 points on my bumpers(They were BRAND NEW,how could they be any better!) Well the whole idea was to be there and have a good time. Later that night was dinner at the plant and the AWARDS Banquet. They gave away 19 NEW BMWs to club members in a drawing!!Now thats a good reason to be a BMW club member. It was a week of good clean fun and you got to meet a lot of really neat people with the same feelings about their car as you have for yours. I encourgage all of you to join BMWCCA and do O'FEST at least once in your life! Thanks for your time and THANK YOU Ryan Bryan for all your help!! BOB