Der Maisbauer Winter 2012
Inside...
2nd Annual Flat Out Classic - Chet Dawes
President’s Corner...2 The Road Chaser...3 Preventive Maintenance and Preparation ...6 Election Ballot...7 Annual Events Planning Meeting...8 Trivia...8 Calendar...9
Back by popular demand, your Great Plains chapter is teaming up again with the St. Louis, Sunbelt and Kansas City chapters of the BMW CCA to offer another spectacular driving event you shouldn’t miss! The 2013 Flat Out Classic will again be held at Heartland Park Topeka, our region’s closest professional level road course facility, but will move to a date earlier in the driving season – April 26th-28th, 2013. The earlier date should allow for a little cooler weather and not interfere with a packed summer schedule of driving events and family fun. The Flat Out Classic event will again feature an Auto-X, Car Show and High Performance Driving School similar to last season’s inaugural event and we are planning for an even larger compliment of social fun too. A great time was had by all in 2012 and 2013 promises to be a great event as well. Please mark your calendar and plan to attend! If you have questions between now and then, please check the website http://www.flatoutdrivingschool.com/ or contact our driving events coordinator – Chet Dawes: driving@gpcbmwclub.com. Registration will open soon, just in time for a Christmas gift for that special someone. Check out the early bird registration special!
Save the Date: Annual Dinner
- Lori Dawes When: Where:
6 PM, Saturday, March 2, 2013 Sage Bistro Metropolitan Community College Pegler Center for the Institute for the Culinary Arts 32nd & Sorensen Parkway Omaha, NE 68111
Please join us for new and unique dining experience at the Sage Bistro on the Metro Community College Fort Omaha Campus. Gathering begins at 6pm with a cash only bar and appetizers, followed by Chef Inspired dinner entrees and dessert. Cost is $40 per person. Look for more details in our upcoming mailings and on our website when you RSVP at: http://annualdinner.gpcbmwclub.com
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President’s Corner
Der Maisbauer: Winter 2012
By D. Jeff Gomon The Holiday Season is upon us and your chapter leaders are hard at work planning for a great 2013. Most all of the well attended events will be back as well as some new offerings. That said, look to the calendar for the Annual Planning Meeting where you will have a chance to suggest events and activities you would like to see in the coming year. We always look forward to hearing from our fellow members at anytime during the year if they have an event suggestion or want to volunteer. All right, by now the winter wheels and tires should be installed, oil changed, washer fluid topped off, new wiper blades installed, emergency kit inventoried, and mindset switched toward winter driving. Being prepared is the best defense against whatever the winter months can throw our way. That said, be safe out there!! Chapter elections are upon us again this year and several positions are open. Please look for the information in this edition of Der Maisbauer and vote! Further to that, we are always looking for new people that are interested in guiding the club into the future. Take it from me, helping the club is both rewarding and fun without an overwhelming amount of time required. If you have a desire, or have questions about any of the positions, please connect with any of the chapter leaders or volunteers and we will he happy to help. I wanted to end the year by thanking our sponsors and advertisers. Big thanks to BMW of Lincoln/Husker Auto Group for advertising in the newsletter, providing members with an incredible 25% off discount on all parts, accessories and apparel. Further, BMW of Lincoln was the
Premier sponsor for the first annual Flat Out Classic Driving Event. With their generous support, the FOC, as it is known, was a complete success and was featured in an article in Roundel. Also want to thank Bavarian Autosport for their support for the past 5-6 years through advertising and generous door prize offerings for the annual dinner. Want to thank Ben Kerwood at European Auto Tech and recognize them as our newest advertiser and supporter. Should you have a need for parts, service, apparel, accessories or advice, please look to one of the advertisers above and support them as they support your chapter. On a more personal note, I want to thank my fellow board members, officers and volunteers for making my job easy. It is truly an honor to work with such passionate, talented and generous people. I am blessed to call you my friends and look forward to a great 2013 !!!
The Missouri Valley Chapter, BMW CCA Newsletter
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The Road Chaser By Dave Gannon
BMW won’t sell me a car. I am not kidding about this. BMW simply refuses to sell me a car! This is not a recent development or something that just happened. It has been going on for years, and the corporate executives in the “Four Cylinder Building” show no signs of changing their minds. I have owned a total of four BMWs in my life. I bought my first BMW, a 1985 325e, new from BMW in 1985. Apparently the embargo on Dave buying a new BMW was not in effect then. But at some point after that a corporate prohibition was established, and from that point forward I was no longer allowed to buy new BMWs. To be clear, I have tried. But the embargo is firmly in place. My 325e was a happy experience for me. The purchasing experience was incredibly easy, and the ownership experience was stellar. I owned that car for 21 years, put 200,000 miles on it, and it performed flawlessly throughout that time. At a more visceral level, it was a thrill to drive that car every time that I got into it. To say that my 325e and I bonded would be an understatement. That car turned me into an E30 nerd…er…I mean, enthusiast. To be totally honest, I reached the pinnacle of my carowning life in the mid-1990s when I owned three cars, all of them E30s (mid-1980s to early-1990s Three Series BMWs). I had my 1985 325e, a 1988 325iX, and a 1988 M3. My friends referred to my garage as “the beginnings of the world’s largest E30 collection”. I referred to it as “my everyday driving choices”. Although owning three E30s and no other vehicles might seem narrow in scope and redundant in functionality to some people, they actually spanned my entire breadth of car needs. The 325e was the best all-around car…ever—it was the perfect commuting car, a wonderful
long-distance road car, an excellent winter car (even in northern Vermont…with studded Nokian Hakkapeliitta tires, of course), and a credible track car (this was the first car that I drove at BMW CCA High-Performance Driving Events…and it was fun!). The E30 M3 was something altogether different—it is also a great longdistance road car, but it is absolutely the best track car ever (nothing handles like an E30 M3…nothing!). The 325iX, with the Ferguson four-wheel-drive system (limited slip transfer case, limited slip differentials front and back), is the best winter car ever made—imagine roads covered with newly fallen snow, approaching a corner with too much speed, applying the brakes and getting understeer that sets up a trajectory that will put you into a snow bank… and then turning the wheel, adding more throttle, and having the front wheels pull the front of the car toward where you want to go, the rear wheels push the back end out to make the nose of the car point even more toward where you want to go, and all four wheels churning and throwing snow as the car defies physics and makes the turn just as cleanly as if you were on dry pavement. Three cars with three completely different uses. Others viewed them as mostly the same. I viewed them as the complete spectrum of vehicles that anyone would ever need. My car ownership experience
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4 was “complete” at that point, and I was happy with my cars. Unfortunately, cars do not last forever. That is especially true in the northeast where rust conquers all (northeasterners feed road salt to the tin worms so they will grow larger and more aggressive). My 325e and iX were each eventually deemed “uninspectable” (with everything working, and no obvious rust) in the state-run scam known as “Mandatory Annual Vehicle Inspection”, and each of them had to be removed from the road when their time came (each was taken to a place where they could donate parts to cars that are not located in the northeast or not driven in the winter). As the time inevitably approached when my 325e and iX would be culled from the herd, I realized that I would need to replace them with a car that I could drive year-round. It was 2007, and I was down to my last BMW—my 1988 BMW M3—but my M3 is a “keeper”, so driving my M3 in the winter is simply out of the question. I would need to buy another car. It was at this point that I was given my first inkling that I was in trouble with BMW A.G. The solution to filling the unwelcome gap in my car ownership seemed completely obvious and straightforward to me—buy another BMW 325e, the best all-around car ever! A 1985 or 1986 2-door model, the ones that had the awesome sport seats, would be ideal. Unfortunately, buying a used 325e was not an option. Many club members who did not own 325e cars maligned the 325e because it had characteristics that were different than other BMWs at that time (the eta engine was a lowrevving, high-torque engine that was not understood by 2002 and 320i owners who had high-revving, higher-power, low-torque engines), but the simple fact was this: 325e owners almost never sold their cars. They knew that they had discovered the “mother load” of great cars, and they weren’t about to sell their car and try to find another car that might be almost as good. These cars almost
Der Maisbauer: Winter 2012 never came up for sale. Another factor was that the 325e was not a “collector car”. People who bought them drove them, and they kept them forever and drove them until they couldn’t be driven any more. There were no 325e cars within 1000 miles of where I lived that were “inspectable” in my state. Besides, despite the fact that I have bought used cars in order to obtain certain specific technologies (S14 engine in the E30 M3, Ferguson drive system in the E30 iX), I am basically a “new car buyer” who likes to buy cars new and keep them forever. I am just not comfortable buying a used car that may or may not have been maintained well by the previous owner. There was only one solution to my problem: BMW A.G. needed to put the 1985 325e 2-door or the 1986 325es 2-door back into production again. How hard could it be? They have the plans! Unbelievably, BMW A.G. has stubbornly refused to put the 325e back into production. (As a side note, there seems to be something wrong at BMW headquarters. Not only do the executives there fail to understand the obvious logic of putting a 30-year-old car design back into production, but their internal mail system has now gone awry and they are no longer receiving my letters—I can tell because they have stopped answering my 10-page letters explaining the logic of why they should start producing 325e cars again.) Okay, I get it…it’s 2012 and the 325e has been out of production for over 20 years. But it’s bigger than that. BMW won’t even sell me cars they make! In the mid-1990’s, I considered buying an E36 M3. I thought at the time that it might make a good summer road-trip car and track car, and my E30 325e would continue to be a great year-round daily driver and long-haul road trip car. I was beginning to warm up to the idea when BMW started offering as options on this car some of the rare M-Technic parts that had never been offered before in the U.S. One of the options was the completely unique and totally cool M-Technic interior that included M-Technic seats with bolsters covered with
The Great Plains Chapter, BMW CCA Newsletter alcantara and flat parts covered with cloth woven in Motorsport colors. That made up my mind, so off to the local dealer I went to order the car. It was at this point that I discovered that I was also in trouble with BMW N.A. The people at the BMW dealer were very nice, and everything seemed to be going well…until I brought up the idea of ordering the M-Technic interior and seats. They told me that I could not get that option in the U.S. This was in direct contradiction to what I had heard from reliable sources, but I could not convince them. Eventually, I called BMW N.A. headquarters in New Jersey, and the Chief Engineer for the Motorsport Division at BMW N.A. returned my call. “Now I’m getting somewhere,” I thought. Here is how the conversation went. Dave: “I had heard that we could order the M-Technic seats on the E36 M3, but when I went to my local BMW dealer and tried to order a new E36 M3 with M-Technic seats they said I could not order that option.” Motorsport Chief Engineer: “That’s not true. You can order the M-Technic interior package and seats.” Dave: “The people at my dealer were adamant that I could not get these seats.” Motorsport Chief Engineer: “That’s true. They are not available in the U.S.” Dave: “I thought you said that I could order them.” Motorsport Chief Engineer: “You CAN order them, they are just Not Available.” Dave: “So I can order them, but I can’t get them?” Motorsport Chief Engineer: “Yes.” Well that little bit of German logic soured the deal. After rethinking things I decided that I might be better off looking for a used E30 M3. It took a year and a half, but I finally found a low-mileage E30 M3 in good condition. That was a great decision, and I still own that car. Well refusing to sell me a car that has long been out of production is one thing, but
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refusing to sell me a car that is currently being made is quite another. I was starting to feel paranoid. Ten years later I would find out that my paranoia was not a delusion. Flash forward to 2007 again. My iX was gone, and the two cars that I owned, an E30 BMW M3 and a Honda S2000, were definitely not suited for winter driving in the snow and ice of northern New England. I needed a yearround car. Fortunately, I had already identified the car that I wanted. It was at this point that I found out that BMW’s corporate ban on Dave buying a new BMW was complete and permanent. In the early 2000s, I was very excited to hear about the upcoming BMW One Series that was being planned for production. Everything I heard about the car resonated with me—it was to be a small car (I much prefer small cars to bigger cars, and I have an anaphylactic reaction to SUVs), and it would be available as a hatchback (this would make it incredibly useful as a daily driver). I decided early on that this would be the ideal year-round car for me. Imagine my horror when, in the months leading up to the beginning of production, BMW announced that they would not be bringing the One Series to the U.S. “They always release new designs in Europe first, and then bring them to the U.S. later,” I consoled myself. Alas, it was not to be. BMW did indeed relent and bring the One Series to the U.S. after a few years, but they refused to bring the hatchback version to the U.S. In 2007, when I really needed to buy a car, BMW continued being as stubborn as ever about not bringing the One Series hatchback to the U.S. I wound up buying a Honda Fit. At the time I figured that BMW would probably bring the second iteration of the One Series to the U.S. (something they have done with other cars) and I just needed a car to tide me over. Well, my Honda Fit filled the bill as a wonderfully versatile and utilitarian car that got me through two moves, but last year two things came into play at about the same time: the front-wheel
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Der Maisbauer: WInter 2012
Preventive Maintenance and Preparation By Sheridan White Some of you might not know this but I’m a preventative maintenance junkie, PM OCD if you will. I hate break downs! I’ve had a saying for quite some time “I LOVE working on cars but I hate HAVING to work on cars”. What’s the difference? I find enjoyment on tinkering with my cars on MY time but I hate having to work on a car on the side of the road or to get to get it running so I can go to work in the morning. I am so over the top with maintenance I pretty much know the life cycle of the wear-ntear items so I replace them before they fail or if I don’t know, I’ll replace them prematurely just in case. Yes, I remove perfectly good parts and throw them away. Think about it, what life does a belt with 50k miles have? Or a used coolant hose? Water pump? Maybe I could get another 10k or 25k miles…or maybe not. I not only rely on my cars for a source of transportation but they provide me with entertainment not to mention when I’m on track I need a solid 100% car. Not a car that’s 99.9%. Yet think about the speeds we all travel when on the interstate? Give me that 100% car every day. So, I would much rather replace coolant items, suspension bushings etc at home in my heated/cooled garage where I have a rather large assortment of tools than on the side of the road with barely a tire jack and hand tools (that’s if you are driving a older BMW). Or worse, a failure at speed. I’ve had such great success that with 150k miles (which include about 200 track weekends) that I’ve only had two failures that prevented me from making it home w/o a tow. One was the Chinese bearings as part of the idler pulleys from the supercharger kit (which I eventually replaced with factory BMW parts) and the small factory “open” diff that grenaded while on track. That was replaced with a limited slip unit and eventually a larger race quality unit. I also attribute some of this to my short cycling the oil service. While the motor oil has a filter the power steering, manual transmission
and differential do not. Even though the oil may still be good any minute shavings will simply act like a aggregate on the gears and bearings. Changing the oil will keep fresh CLEAN gear oil in all of the expensive parts. I even do this with the so called Lifetime fluid that BMW uses. Oil is much cheaper than a new gearbox. Last newsletter I wrote about my trip to Mid-Ohio and VIR race tracks. This was a two week long trip covering nearly 3,500 miles. As you can imagine, the last thing I wanted was a break down. A failure on the road trip would ruin my track event(s) or a breakdown on the track would affect my road trip. Preventative maintenance was my top priority. As I said earlier, I’m a little over the top and I replaced all hoses and belts. While this might seem a bit excessive, but that cost is minimal compared to lost registration fees, failed commitments (instructing) and the dream I’ve had for a long time to drive those two wonderful tracks. Knowing that the water pump had over 100k I replaced that as well. New brake parts, recent steering rack and the wheel bearings all “felt” good but I went a step further by using a stethoscope to listen to each bearing just because. All of the wheel bearings had been replaced since the car was new with the oldest having about 60k miles on them. But under severe scrutiny I noticed the driver’s rear had a little noise to it. Hum, could I make a 3,500 mile trip? Sure. Do I want to chance a once in a lifetime trip at two tracks on that bearing? Heck no. $70 for the bearing and I have the tools to replace it. A no brainer. So, I head off on my trip with minimalist tools on hand and only a few spare parts. The tools consist of the most basic hand tools and only a few specialty tools like an idler pulley socket and brake bleeder. Spare parts would include a couple of belts and hoses (remember those old belts and hoses I removed), a spare idler or two, throttle cable (when you drive a slow car on the track you
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The Great Plains Chapter, BMW CCA Newsletter
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Club Election Ballot Dear Great Plains Chapter BMW Club Member, It is time for us to hold our chapter’s annual elections to fill those Board of Director positions that are up for election in this cycle. Nominations for elected officer positions have been submitted according to the instructions printed in your last newsletter and compiled to create the voting ballot that you see below. All nominated persons have maintained their membership in good standing for at least the past 12 months as a requirement to run for office. Please fill out the ballot and return it in a sealed envelope to the address listed below. You must return your completed ballot by mail so that it is received on or before January 10th. Results will be announced at our Annual Dinner (please visit the chapter website for details related to the annual dinner and this newsletter). Ballots not received on or before January 10th will not be counted so please submit yours as soon as possible. Sincerely, Dave Gannon – Vice President, Great Plains Chapter Member Name:
__________________________________
BMW CCA Member #: __________________________________
For the office of President:
Jeff Gomon
_____________________________ (write-in space)
For the office of Secretary:
Chet Dawes
_____________________________ (write-in space)
For the office of Director At Large:
John Campbell
_____________________________ (write-in space)
Please remit ballot to: Great Plains Chapter, BMW CCA Attention: Dave Gannon, Chapter Vice President 4806 Lakeside Circle Omaha, NE 68133
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Der Maisbauer: WInter 2012 The Road Chaser (cont. from page 5)
drive of the Fit was annoying and finally drove me crazy, and BMW announced that they were not going to bring the hatchback version of the second iteration of the One Series to the U.S. Apparently BMW has banned for sale in the U.S. any BMW that I would want. Fortunately, right around that same time Volkswagen announced the new Golf R, and said that that they would import to the U.S. a limited number of these cars, all with manual transmissions only. Eureka! I waited months before the Golf R was even “orderable”, and many more months until the car arrived. The Honda Fit is gone, replaced by the “hot hatch” I have been waiting for. It has taken years for me to get my One Series hatchback. It may have VW emblems front and back, and an “R” logo on the grill, hatch, and door sills, but to me it is my long-awaited One Series hatchback. Just don’t tell anyone at BMW A.G. or N.A.! See you on the road…and keep those cards and e-mails coming.
Annual Event Planning Meeting Saturday, Jan. 19th 2013 Parker’s Smokehouse 16880 Hwy 6 Ashland, NE 68003 402.944.2040 Have an idea for an event you would like to see your local BMW club host this year Come share your ideas at our annual events planning meeting. Bring your ideas and calendars and join us for a great BBQ lunch! It’s your club.
Come help us make it a terrific year!
BMW Trivia Here is the BMW Trivia question for this issue! Each newsletter will feature a trivia question. The correct answer will run in the following newsletter. The first person to email the editor with the correct answer will be mentioned in the following newsletter. Email the editor at publications@gpcbmwclub.com. Here’s this newsletter’s trivia question: –– The 2002 turbo was not exported to the U.S. because: 1. It emitted more pollutants than the 2002tii and could not pass the strict emissions requirements. 2. The factory did not run an emissions certification test on the model 3. This model was created strictly for Germany’s autobahns The correct answer for the last newsletter’s trivia question was that the oil embargo of 1973 resulted in the Bonn government imposing highway speed limits and banning Sunday driving
The Great Plains Chapter, BMW CCA Newsletter
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’13 Calendar
19 Jan 13 ........... Annual Events Planning Meeting, Parker’s Smokehouse, Ashland, NE...details on page 8** 2 Mar 13 ............ Annual Dinner, Sage Bistro, Omaha, NE...page 1with additional details to follow** 26-28 Apr 13 ..... Flat Out Classic Driving Event, Heartland Park, Topeka, KS...page 1with additional details to follow** **Chapter sponsored event
Preventive Maintenance and Preparation (continued from page 6) have a tendency to wear out the throttle cable), lug nuts and the usual duct tape and bailing wire (I’m not kidding, I’ve loaned them both out quite often actually). Fast forward to the night of the third day into my two week long trip and the motor is making a noise. Damn it, after all of this prep and the motor is going to fail me now. It was too dark at the hotel to see anything and it sounded like valvetrain noise. I decided to gingerly drive the car to the track in the morning where I had what tools and spare parts I brought as well as the support from a whole paddock of car guys and gals. All that night I lie awake brainstorming what it could be and how I’d get home if it really was the motor. One thought was the automatic chain tensioner. Oh man, I though…I’ve recently replaced the one on the e30 but I don’t ever recall replacing the one on the ti. Could that be what is rattling? Once the sun rose and I made it safely to the track there was one other thing that I’ve encountered that entered my mind. Back when the supercharger was new (ish) the drive pulley spun on the input shaft which not only damaged the pulley but the input shaft to the supercharger as well. Although that time it was a knocking sound versus the rattling which I had this time. In a matter of the seconds that it took to loosen the serpentine belt I confirmed my worst fear as well as giving me a huge sigh
of relief. My motor probably wasn’t blown but I’m 900 miles from home and only three days into my trip with a busted supercharger. The belt that drives the supercharger is the same belt that runs the water pump and alternator. Next to being a preventive maintenance junkie a close second is being prepared. I walked back to my trailer and grabbed one of those spare belts. You see, 12 years ago when this happened for the first time I realized I could use a shorter belt and simply bypass the supercharger to drive all of the other accessories. In my little bag of goodies I still had this belt. This one belt I’ve been saving for 12 years and hauled around 100k+ miles saved my bacon. Sure the car is now, way down on power because it has to suck air in through a non-functioning supercharger but I can now drive home. But, if you recall…I was able to finish my trip. While I wasn’t able to drive the last track with the ideal setup for this car I was still able to enjoy my vacation and safely drive home. Even my most rigorous attempt at preventive maintenance didn’t catch everything, but being prepared is a very close second and a great backup plan. Considering the duty I expect from my 318ti I can say it’s been very reliable. I attribute that to staying on top of preventive maintenance, knowing the history of the car and planning for any event.
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Der Maisbauer: WInter 2012
Der Maisbauer A publication of the Great Plains Chapter, Inc. of the BMW Car Club of America The Great Plains Chapter, Inc. of the BMW CCA welcomes submissions of articles, letters and artwork to “Der Maisbauer.” The staff, however, reserves the right to edit any of the submitted material. Please send all correspondence to: Der Maisbauer 3130 Jasper Court Lincoln, NE 68516 publications@gpcbmwclub.com Advertising Rates: Full Color (5”x8.25”) ............ $900 per year Full B&W (5”x8.25”) ............$600 per year Half Horiz. (5”x3.75”) ........... $400 per year Half Vert. (2.25”x7.25”) ......... $400 per year Qtr. Horiz. (2.25”x3.75”) ....... $250 per year Qtr. Vert. (2.25” x 3.75”) ........ $250 per year To advertise, please contact our Chapter Advertising Coordinator, Kathy Gomon, at advertising@gpcbmwclub.com. “Der Maisbauer” does not represent any commercial interest, nor does it endorse or approve any product, service or advice. The Great Plains Chapter, Inc. assumes no liability for any of the information contained herein and, unless otherwise indicated, none of the information bears the status of “Factory Approved.” The ideas, opinions and suggestions expressed herein are those of the authors and no authentication is implied. The right to use text from this publication is hereby given, provided it is not used in connection with any commercial publication. Modifications within the warranty period may void your BMW warranty.
Great Plains Chapter, Inc © 2012
Chapter Officers President: D. Jeffrey Gomon 402.421.8299 president@gpcbmwclub.com Vice President: Dave Gannon vicepresident@gpcbmwclub.com Treasurer: Lynn Kost Virant treasurer@gpcbmwclub.com Secretary: Chet Dawes secretary@gpcbmwclub.com Director-At-Large: John Campbell director@gpcbmwclub.com Newsletter Editor: Conrad Privateer publications@gpcbmwclub.com Information Technology Coordinator: Tarun Kundhi technology@gpcbmwclub.com Membership Coordinator: Molly Kliment membership@gpcbmwclub.com Advertising/Sponsorship Coordinator Kathy Gomon advertising@gpcbmwclub.com MINI Columnist Jim Peterson mini@gpcbmwclub.com Driving Events Coordinator: Chet Dawes driving@gpcbmwclub.com Social Events/Meeting Coordinator: Lori Dawes social@gpcbmwclub.com Nameplate photo: The Original M3 on Track
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