Wallpaper of the Week. #28

Image courtesy of AP at Bimmerfest East 2014. Full-Res.

Wallpaper of the Week. #27

Image courtesy of AP from Bimmerfest East 2014. Full-Res.

What to watch this Weekend (July 31st - Aug 6th)

• WRC. 2014 Rally action from Finland. Thursday @ 1:30pm - 2pm (MAVTV) live
• /Drive on NBC Sports. F1 at Silverstone. Thursday @ 11pm - 11:30pm (NBCSN(HD))
• WRC. 2014 Rally action from Finland. Saturday @ 1:30pm - 2:30pm (MAVTV) live
• IndyCar Series - Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. Race. Sunday @ 3pm - 6pm (NBCSN(HD)) live
• Top Gear (UK). Marathon of past episodes. Monday @ 4pm - 11pm (BBCAmerica(HD)) replays
• Motorweek. 2014 Fiesta ST. Tuesday @ 7:30pm - 8pm (VelocityHD)
• Wheeler Dealers - Trading Up. Season 2. Wednesday @ 9pm - 10pm (VelocityHD) new

Plenty of solid programming ahead. Also, Bimmerfest East is this Saturday at Ripken Stadium in Maryland. Enjoy your weekends.

Video courtesy of CarAndDriver.

Wallpaper of the week. #20

Image courtesy of AP from Bimmerfest East 2013.

Wallpaper of the Week. #19

Image courtesy of AP from Bimmerfest East 2013.

Wallpaper of the Week. #18

Image courtesy of AP from Bimmerfest East 2013.

Dope. #124

Image courtesy of AP from Bimmerfest East 12'.

Event Recap: Bimmerfest East 2012

The start of Bimmerfest's cross-country venture, that we call Bimmerfest East, was like the proverbial gift horse for those of us in the Mid-Atlantic area. For those of us in northern-Maryland, it was a no brainer regardless of whether it was good or not. Thankfully for all of us it was a good show, had a huge turn out (mainly due to the number of BMW fanatics in the part of the US) and was organized pretty well. There were a couple kinks that needed to be worked out to handle the numbers that frequented the vendors, as you may remember from my recap of Bimmerfest East 2011, but much to my delight the organizers fixed the kinks and brought a much improved product to the people.

Food on the left. Food on the right.

The line for food last year was incorporated with the t-shirt/merchandising lines and ran parallel with the Turner Motorsport and Bimmerworld display traffic. This year Bimmerfest East organizers moved the food lines to the front of Ripken Stadium's entrance. And there was not just one line, but two. The vendors for the show grew in 2012, and they extended them towards the show entrance in a very logical manner. Getting from one side of vendors to the other, which was roughly from the 'front' of the lot to the 'back', was a linear and painless process. One set of vendors new to Bimmerfest East was ROTL friends 8380Labs and Guten Parts. They tag teamed a large spot on the front side of the vendor area and provided a nice blend of cool apparel, suspension and adapters, as well as stock/upgrade BMW parts and accessories. While I was hanging out I picked up some E30 stuff from GP for the red coupe, as well as some car spares.

Now that the logistics have been addressed, lets talk about the cars. Much of what I said last year is still true, but that's less a reflection of the show itself and more about the kind of cars that are being built and showcased these days. The typical hammered E36s where there, plenty of E30s in all different flavors including a handful of well sorted E30M3s, and a wide variety of every other BMW model out there. In the back part of the lot there was a row of nothing but E38s (7series), a row of only E53 & E70 (X5s), and plenty of fully blown show-cars sprinkled here and there. While there were plenty of semi-beat driver cars, it was a bit easier to find the goods this year than last. I spent about 1.5hrs doing laps to see all that was there and ended up shooting less than I typically do...by design of course.

Kick me while I'm down, why don't ya.

Bimmerworld and Turner Motorsport brought out their 18 wheeler's, racecars and street tuners. The was also a lovely blend of legacy and brand new BMW models, including an Sakhir Orange F13M6 (behind him on the road in) and Monte Carlo Blue F10M5, a completely restored Diamond-Schwartz E30M3 (that was like a kick in the project motivation nutsack) and a few other cool driver-cars in the booths. BBS had their own booth at the show too, which was very cool to see. They had a couple F1 wheels along with their more popular road-car wheels on display.

The much dreaded rainy day spot aftermath on one of my favorite wheels.

One of our most enjoyed cars in attendance. Did I mention we liked E30M3's?

All in all it was a nice afternoon. The weather held out, I got to see some cool stuff and some of my friends and associates in the game, and aside from the lack of grouping for showcars, it was a tightly run ship with good management and security (ahem). Some of the young crowd figured out how many cops were actually there while trying to show off @ exit, much to our delight. The turnout was great and by all indications the show will continue into the foreseeable future. Unless the ancient Mayans are correct, we'll be there next year.

The pre-album is here.

Dope. #119

Image courtesy of AP.

Upcoming Show: Bimmerfest East 2012

The inaugural Bimmerfest East in 2011 was so successful that the organizers had to come back to Maryland for seconds. It's easy to understand why Bimmerfest has been such a successful event over the years, as the fans of BMW are not only into trick modifications, they're more importantly into the brand history of Bavaria's finest; this includes the unquestionable motorsport legacy that BMW has built over the last 60+ years. In football terms, BMW fans 'travel well' - plainly apparent after seeing the wide variety of unique models last year. From Alpina B7's to Euro E28's to mint 1600 & 2002ti's, just about all years, makes and models were represented. There were still some logistics that could be improved upon, so for all of us who went last year I hope they streamline the showcar parking operation and add a few more staff members (and lines) to speed up the concession stands.

This year will be bigger than ever, adding even more vendors including some of ROTL's friends and supportees. Racing/Tuner outfits like Turner Motorsport will not only be in full force once again, but will be sponsoring the entire event. Bimmerfest East 2012 will be held on August 25, 2012 at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, Maryland. Here are the details:

• Time: August 25, 2012 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. General Admission Gates open at 10:00 AM. 
• General Admission: $20 per car to park in the show -- $10 per person to walk in -- kids 12 and under are free.
• Register for Bimmerfest East 2012.
• See the current registration stats for Bimmerfest East 2012. 

Here are some of the highlights from last year:

Event Recap: Bimmerfest East 2011

For those of you familiar with the West Coast European car scene, the name Bimmerfest carries a good bit of weight. It's arguably the biggest show of it's kind in the country, with plenty of outstanding cars showcased in the southern California sun, every year. 2011 marked the 11th year of Bimmerfest being held in California, but in order to address the BMW enthusiast contingent from the East Coast, the 1st annual Bimmerfest East was thought up, researched and executed. Bimmerfest East took place on August 6th 2011, in Aberdeen Maryland at Ripken Stadium. With such a large (BMW) show taking place right around the corner from where I live, I made it a point to be there.

Bimmerfest east was organized and run in the large parking lot of Ripken Stadium, home of the Iron Birds Minor League Baseball team. I've been to Ripken Stadium previously, for multiple occasions, but most recently an Auto-X event on the very same parking lot. I was curious how they would arrange the vendors, but they did a pretty good job given the number of cars that came to be a part of this brand-new East Coast event. A week or so before the show, the pre-registration count online was around 1100. Five days before the show, the count reached 1900. I'm pleased to say regardless of numbers, there was no outrageous backup to get in (I arrived at 11am) and Bimmerfest faithfuls showed up in extremely large numbers as predicted.

The cars that showed up were decent, but predictable. I've been attending European specialty car shows for over a decade, so this could be my jaded viewpoint...but I don't think so. E46s made up the largest grouping of all attendees, but there was a good blend of old and new as well; E90/2s, F10s, E30s, E21s, E31s, a lovely handful of 2002s and 1600s, as well as a quite splendid couple of E9s. Bimmerworld and Turner Motorsport brought out the trailers and their Grand-Am prepped track cars as well as some project cars with some serious engineering work. VAC Motorsport brought out race engines and a couple track toys and there were plenty of clubs in attendance. The biggest failure in my opinion was the single tent for food and drinks; you had to stand in line for an hour just to get a single soda, sausage or snack, since the show wasn't setup to serve more than one or two people at once. Also, showing cars didn't park with other cars of their own make, so the judges wandered aimlessly just to see if cars had display cards on their dashes to be judged. While cars had plenty of room to park and move around, the organization of said cars left a lot to be desired. This was a first attempt, so hopefully they learn from this going forward. I seriously doubt the organizers expected this big a turnout.

The food and drink line was a 45 minute single-file affair.

If you needed a break, the stadium was open for a chat or a better place to eat/drink.

All said and done, I'll give this new show a B. While there were plenty of cars there, the show field had too many cars spread out to find the best gems of the show. Organizers instructing the show cars to 'find a place to park' is great to avoid parking lot mayhem, but doesn't help people/judges sort through a sea of yawns to get to the good stuff; or more importantly get to the BMW models of individual interest. Thankfully I ran into another event photographer that informed me of a few cars that I had missed; I made a quick run towards the end of the show to snap those extra diamonds in the rough that were nearly impossible to locate on foot. As I implied already, the average quality of cars on the 1500+ show field were semi-beat daily driver at best. Now I understand that some of these cars see a lot of miles and/or have poor college students behind the wheel, but there should have been a better line drawn in the field between these and the cars there to be seen (if the yawns weren't showcars that is). There were a few stunners, as well as a large quantity of daily and Sunday cars who had owners with their priorities straight, and as usual those cars were shot more than others. I was happy the major players in the BMW Tuning scene were present in full force and these vendors all had cool motorsport or project car pron to ogle over. There was an extremely wide selection of BMW's of varying vintage, from all over the US, and despite protesting BMW workers union members that made their presence known to some (by no fault of the show organizers) it was an enjoyable event. I look forward to next year and the growth of Bimmerfest East going forward.

The ROTL Bimmerfest East 2011 album can be found here.