[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

BMW CCA O'Fest Summary

As I understand, this year's O'Fest was not quite as wonderful as last 
year's Breckenridge O'Fest (which, of course, I missed). This was 
probably due to a) BMW being the marque for this year's Monterey 
Historics, and b) the scenary just ain't the Rockies. Of course, I missed 
last year's event by one week...

Quite a few Internetter's were on hand, along with 500 or so entrants and 
more beautiful BMW's than any of us hope to own in a lifetime. Highlights 
included the Valvoline (Milner) IMSA GTS car and Phil Marx's beautiful 
1600ti convertible and 700 convertible. Anyone not knowing this was an 
BMW CCA O'Fest would have guessed the event to be an M3 reunion. There 
were so many stock and modified E30 and E36 M3's that one could just go 
ga-ga.

Meeting people I've spoken with for years (on the Internet) but never met 
in person was certainly the highlight of my week. Here's who I saw and 
some tidbits of their weeks:

Steve Bernstein:
	Shows up with his 5'er from New York. Absolutely great guy. It 
was a pleasure meeting him and having a few beers. Of course, I thanked 
him for the E28 web page.
	HIGHLIGHTS: Steve organized the Wednesday night Internetters get
		together. We had fun, but not all showed up.
	LOWLIGHTS: Steve's acquired and impromptu rally partner whose 
		stomach did not agree with Steve's TSD driving style.
		At the first major rest stop, Steve's team bought 20 minutes
		as his navigator went to hurl some Buicks.
	PREDICTION FOR NEXT YEAR'S O'FEST: Steve shows up with a girlfriend.

Matt Brumwell:
	Drove a very nice E30 M3 to O'Fest. As has become typical for Matt,
he ran every event possible, did well overall, and scored his third 
overall championship.
	HIGHLIGHTS: Once a year, Matt takes his BMW RC (radio control) car
		out, charges the batteries and goes hunting for little
		kids in the RC race. Once again, with little practise, he
		did well.
	LOWLIGHTS: In the Gymkhana, Matt's team suffered an NFO. For those
		of you not familiar, this stands for Navigator Fell Out.
		Steve had the good graces not to run the guy over, and was
		quite amazed when he looked over and saw half his team 
		missing from the car.
	PREDICTION FOR NEXT YEAR'S O'FEST: Matt's wife shows up with the '02?

Ben Thongsai:
	Ah yes, Mr. '02. Ben and I have had a long Internet friendship. It
	was a pleasure meeting him and getting to spend the week chatting and
	playing with the Bimmers.
	HIGHLIGHTS: Ben and Filippo screw up and sign up for the TSD 
		Intermediate class (we were Novices), but place 3rd in 
		Intermediate (would have been first in Novice) with Ben's
		Verona Red 2002tii.
	LOWLIGHTS: Ben was seen in front of the Zymol tent using Q-tips
		to clean his car.
	O'FEST Quote: "My car sat outside for a year after Breckenridge. I
		spent two hours washing and waxing it, and it outscored your
		car in the concours (which had 3 days of paint prep)"
	PREDICTIONS FOR NEXT YEAR'S O'FEST: Ben and Filippo show up in 
		"Rad Dog", a yet to be built 2002 or 3.0cs which will be
		a) a rust bucket and b) specifically modified for all O'Fest
		events without regard to damage to the car.

Pete Read:
	Ahhh, "Mr. How to Make Your E28 M5 Handle". Meeting Pete was great fun, 
as I have closely read many of his articles. Like myself, Pete was local 
and didn't have to trek far to make O'Fest.
	HIGHLIGHTS: Was man enough to take a 300hp M5 on the race track
		after much rain.
	LOWLIGHTS: "Fascinated" himself by spinning his M5 at a good clip
		at the Summit Point bridge. Fortunately, Pete was ok and the
		car suffered minor damage, given the nature of the incident.
	PREDICTIONS FOR NEXT YEAR'S O'FEST: Pete goes coil-overs and guts
		the car for pure track use ;-)

Jim Moran:
	Another M owner (M6). Jim was great help by providing Tech 
	support at O'Fest. His car was quite nice, and we spoke for some
	time about all the "what-ifs" we wanted to do to our cars. Jim
	also made me aware of several upcoming local chapter tech sessions.

Evan Evans:
	Got a quick chance to meet and speak with Evan. Unfortunately my
	wife showed up right after we met, so I didn't get to geek out too
	much. We'll carry our discussion back to e-mail.

Filippo Morelli:
	Yes, my first O'Fest. My wife and I have already planned to make
	New Hampshire O'Fest next year. I had a blast.
	HIGHLIGHTS: Meeting everyone @ O'Fest and being up until 3am every
			night (and closing the bar).
	LOWLIGHTS: Spent 4 days detailing the hell out of my E28 M5. Never
		drove it, except to the Concour - Won't do that again.
	PREDICTIONS FOR NEXT YEAR'S O'FEST:
		1. Will replace the E28 M5 with an E30 M3, either sporting
			the 2.5 EVO upgrade or a supercharger.
		2. Probably fly to Illinois a week early to help put "Rad
			Dog" together...

Cheers,

Filippo Morelli
E28 M5 (reluctantly for sale)
looking for an E30 M3