BMW Car Club of America November/December 2012
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Magazine of the National Capital Chapter BMW Car Club of America November/December 2012 Charmed. Again. Passport BMW One of the East Coast’s Largest State-of-The-Art Service Facilities State-of-the-Art Service Facility Make your appointment online Fast-Lane at www.passportbmw.com. Service With 53 Service Bays, We’ll Take You Today! Saturday Full Service Available on at Our State-of- The-Art Service Service Hours Facility. Modern, Spacious, Showroom Service Loaner You Will Receive a Service Loaner for Life With Every For Life New Passport BMW % BMW CCA Members Will Comfortable Customer Lounge Receive a 15% Discount on 15 Off Parts All Parts from Passport BMW Inquire Within for Discounted Dinan Pricing AUTHORIZED DEALER BMW Boutique passport bmw Passport BMW 4730 Auth Place • Marlow Heights, MD 20746 - - - | 1 866 813 6848 PassportBMW.com bmwusa.com 1- 8 0 0 - 3 3 4 - 4 B MW November | December 2012 Magazine of the National Capital Chapter BMW Car Club of America Cover: Pitstop for the Auberlen & J. Müller M3 during the Baltimore Grand Prix. See story on page 10. Photo: Steve Tenney VOLUME 42 | NUMBER 6 8 Breaking a Few Eggs with NCC’s Newest Membe rs 2 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE BY JIM LAFEMINA 8 3 FROM THE EDITOR 10 The Baltimore Grand Prix 2012 BY STEVE TENNEY 4 CALENDAR OF EVENTS 16 The VIR 240 10 BY STEVE TENNEY 5 COMING EVENTS 20 Go North and South in 2013 BY BILL WILLIAMS 20 TRADITIONS 16 22 September DIY at Curry’s Autoservice in Alexandia 28 CLASSIFIEDS BY MARC CADEN 20 28 ADVERTISERS INDEX 24 Test Your Metal, and Your Mettle at a Driving School BY PATRICK B. PEXTON 24 President’s Message National Capital Chapter BMW Car Club of America Wow, our last dB of the year. 2012 went by so fast! It's the time of year for holidays, and, Chapter Officers (Please call 7:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m.) of course, cold weather. While it is starting to get chilly, that doesn't mean our chapter is President shutting its doors for the year. We still have a busy calendar for the fall and winter. Along Paul Seto . [email protected] 301.908.1928 with a few driving events, we'll continue our popular socials, most at brand new locations. Vice President For those who haven't attended, it's a great way to meet other chapter members. All we Algie Livingston . [email protected] 703.455.4717 Treasurer do is hang out, eat, and drink; strict requirements right? We get a nice cross-section of Dave Miller . [email protected] 703.304.7950 members that participate in various programs, from autocross to do-it-yourself sessions, Secretary so we always get some interesting conversation going and some great cars to drool over. Zach Pullins . [email protected] I encourage everyone to come on out, we should have one fairly close to you. Membership Chair James Laws . [email protected] 240.424.5380 One of the fun things I get to do as president is recruiting and meeting new members. Social Chair We are very fortunate to live in an area where there are plenty of BMW enthusiasts. In fact, Paul Seto . [email protected] 301.908.1928 we are the world's largest CCA chapter and there are still plenty of BMW owners who do Driving School Coordinator not even know we exist. We recently had two of the largest BMW events in our backyard, Matt Oleksiak . [email protected] Concours Chair Bimmerfest and MPact. Enthusiasts from across the country converged in Maryland, many John McWilliams . concours [email protected] coming from several states away. With several thousand in attendance, you could see the Webmaster passion people have for their BMWs. Both vintage and new models were everywhere, Steven Schlossman . [email protected] many modified with carbon fiber, colorful rims, and tons of go-fast parts. Seemed like no Autocross Committee Jonathan Thayer . [email protected] two cars were the same and it was great to see. We were also able to recruit more than 50 Baltimore Activities new members to CCA and with the current membership drive we have going on, someone Bob Stern . [email protected] 410.602.0175 could easily win a free ///M school weekend! Club Council Representative Pete Lem . [email protected] Let me also mention one of our most successful events we've ever put together, this year's Baltimore Grand Prix Car Corral. Needless to say, no one thought that the race itself der Bayerische Staff was even going to happen. After last year's fantastic race weekend, we were anxious to pull Editor together another car corral. And, after many unsuccessful attempts, we were finally given Jim LaFemina. .. [email protected] Production/Layout the OK to plan this year's party, even though we only had a few weeks to pull it off. Raine Mantysalo . [email protected] 301.318.9949 The planning committee of Kelsy Hill-Polifka, Doug Verner, Gordon Kimpel, and Steve Lim, Advertising Manager was able to outshine last year's highly acclaimed corral (you guys were outstanding!) Steve Lim . [email protected] 240.888.8943 While overcoming so many things in a short amount of time, this was perhaps the best Contributing Writers Marc Caden, John McWilliams, Patrick B. Pexton, Steve Tenney event I've been a part of. We had a great tent setup, awesome catering, and established a Club Address great relationship with the Rahal Letterman Lanigan BMW team. They spent a significant NCC BMW CCA, P.O. Box 685, Arlington, VA 22216 amount of time talking to us, showing us their race cars/paddock, and signing autographs. National Membership Toll-Free Number For the second year in a row, Baltimore showed the biggest support for the BMW team, and 800.878.9292 the team appeared extremely grateful for it. Hopefully with stability in the new promoter, der Bayerische is the official publication of the National Capital Chapter we will plan an even bigger event next year. Thank you to all those who bought tickets this of the BMW Car Club of America, Inc., and is not in any way connected with year despite all the uncertainty, hopefully you had great fun. I certainly did, as the smiles the Bayerische Motoren Werke AG or BMW of North America, Inc. It is from all our members made all the planning worth the effort. provided by and for the Club membership only. The Club assumes no liability for any of the information, opinions or suggestions contained here - Finally, let us all congratulate fellow NCC member, Raine Mantysalo, for being the in. No factory approval is implied unless specifically stated. Modifications Grand Prize winner in this year's CCA raffle. For those who may not know, Raine is our within the warranty period of a vehicle may void the warranty. Deadline for production manager, designing der Bayerische every other month and I can't think of all material is the 21st of odd-numbered months. All articles are subject to editing and must be received by the Editor. Send all photos to the anyone else more deserving of a brand new M5! Also, another NCC member, Justin Shirk, Production Manager. For placement of commercial advertisements contact won one of the other main prizes, a new 335i; two winners from our chapter! Congrats to the Advertising Manager. See Classified Ads for information on member the both of you and hopefully we'll see those new cars sometime soon. advertisement submission. Contents may not be reproduced without permission in writing except by the BMW CCA and its Chapters. © 2012 NCC BMW CCA Bimmerfest East 2011. Frank Quintanilla 2 der Bayerische From The Editor As somebody who enjoys driving for thrill of the curve. Has the pendulum somebody opens a door and says harder to come by, but for the price the simple pleasure of the act itself, of technology and driver-assistance “here you go, is this what you’ve of a 2- or 3-year-old sedan of almost I consider myself the polar opposite gadgetry reached its apex? Is there been looking for?” That’s the any make, I can buy a nicely restored, of those for whom a car is nothing a saturation beauty of a free- mechanically reliable car that practi - more than a means to an end, an point with market society. cally begs to be driven. After nearly efficient way to get from point A to respect to Meanwhile, as fifty years on this earth I have come point B. I really don’t understand technological we who wanted to accept the fact that I am not a people like that, but there’s a lot of advancement? nothing more majority – that my beliefs, whatever things I don’t understand, so I’ll just Will any auto than an actual the topic, are simply my beliefs. Not add this to the list. Now, within the maker in the 2002 in 2002 better, not worse – just mine. Look at community of folks like me – and I’m 21st century continue wait - these two cars. Each can be had for counting a fair amount of our readers ever embrace ing for the water roughly the same amount of money, as citizens of that community – I have the maxim of to level and but only one of them will ever make recently been wondering something. less is more? Sadly, I feel the answer the technology pendulum to swing me smile at the thought of simply Here in the land of daily tracking to each of those may be no.