National Capital Chapter BMW Car Club of America

Drivers' School/Demo Rides: What a
blast! Very well organized by The White
Mountain Chapter at New Hampshire
International Speedway, it went off with nary a
hitch and no one trashed their cars other than a
few making a light kiss on the tire wall in turn 3-
Even the supposedly rabid M3 pilots on Rls (like
myself) kept the cars off the walls. NHIS is a fun
track to drive, with two "blind" hills that transition
into left turns to keep things lively - there's
no place to rest on the course and it reminds me
of a larger version of the Jefferson Circuit at
Summit Point. BMW NA and Erik
Wensberg (BMWNAM Brands
Manager) were there with
the LeMans McLaren and
the # 6 Valvoline
Championship M3.
T.C. Kline brought out
a newly acquired
Touring car to run with
them on the demonstration
runs.
car) for demo rides with the factory drivers. All
you had to get a ride in this was to sit on the
wall on pit road and "smile pretty" with your
helmet ready. Mike Gayle and I went for a ride
in the back seat...it was inspiring to say the
least. These guys really DO extract 10/10s out
of the car every foot of the race track - every
lap. I highly recommend a ride like this when
you think you're getting good enough to
become a real race car driver. It's humbling.
I grinned for at least an hour afterwards.
TSD Rally: Beautiful country with the route
taking us through all the highlights of the
White Mountains over a five-hour period and
ending at NHIS Speedway in time for the second
Club Race. There were a lot of participants with
the top three finishers in the Novice Class finishing
in under 1 minute (and they are novices??).
The course was awfully slow because of the
many 30 mph speed limits and such. In the
mountains, everyone was driving 45 mph to
50 mph on the two lane roads and
my M3 was getting "pushed"
by a bevy of Dodge
Caravans and Ford
Explorers who were
impatient at my
maintaining the speed
limit. The last segment
was too much for
us (60 mph average over
30 miles on a 65 mph
Nicely restored, don'/ com[r f interstate) so we stopped at
The McLaren is awesome. It sounds you ^^p Dunkin' Donuts for a bit easily made
very much like a bevy of Grand Prix^ ^ ^ ^ ^ j the time up on the leg at 90 + to
Motorcycles running in concert with
more of a "ripping" noise than a throaty roar.
The BMW factory driver spun and stalled the
car in turn 11 while on the demo ride - it went
silent around the track momentarily as the turn
was not visible. This car alone must account for
a third of the world's carbon fiber production.
Six rides were given in the Championship M3
car with a BMW factory driver at the wheel.
These were drawn by lottery among the "A"
class Driving School participants. I recall one
of those lucky enough to snag a ride wandered
around in the paddock aimlessly afterwards
mumbling "Awesome...Just Awesome" afterwards.
Erik Wensberg also brought along a factory
prepared LTW M3 (painted to look like the # 6
September/October
average out. Precise it was not, but a
lot more fun.
Club Race: We arrived at the Club Race at
NHIS in time to see the second race of the series.
Ray Korman just flat ran away from everyone
in his race prepped 325is which was normally
aspirated, including a bevy of M3 LTWs chasing
him. This car was prepped! Will 1\irner was
in hot pursuit and maintained 2nd place in
his E30 but later told me he was simply outhorsepowered
and could not catch up. Ray
Korman says his race philosophy is to pretend
the walls are made of Styrofoam.
Concours: Quite a turnout! Rafael Garces
took a 3rd place trophy in Super Clean class and
der Bayerische
O K T O B E R F E S T ' 9 7
Gary Lin won the Zymol Wax - off contest with
his team. Lots of pretty cars, but I took off to
do the tourist thing on the Cog Railway up
Mt. Washington, where it was 42 degrees at the
summit at 1p.m. on July 25th.
BMW Banquet Awards & Dinner: Vic
Doolan and Erik Wensberg from BMW NA were
there and spoke at length on new developments
coming from BMW NA, many that you know of
already. The Touring series will be here as 528
and 540 models in both automatic and stick
versions, early 1998. The M3 Convertible will be
here by spring and price will be under $50K
according to Eric. The Z3 Roadster, M version is
a definite for mid-1998. They brought a Euro
model in for static display and it's quite a
machine to look at. Mr. Doolan committed to
giving a one of these to BMW CCA to raffle off in
appreciation of the Car Club support of the
brand (a most welcome first!). Best news of all,
the M5 was officially announced at the dinner
for North America. Expect over 400 hp with a
price tag hovering around $75K and it should be
here for the late '98 model year.
All the raffle cars were given away via drawing -
no winners from our area.
It was over too soon, as most vacations are.
One thing to pass on to those who have never
been to an O'Fest is the great tire prices you can
get on-site on Rls, Yokos and MXX3s from the
factory trucks. There is no charge to mount,
balance and shave tires (optional) resulting in
considerable savings.
Hey, Terry Luxford, whaddaya think?
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