Roundel Weekly: My Turn

Anyone reading this knows that 2016 is BMW’s Centennial year. The company started the celebrations on March 7, the official birthdate of the company. The big finale in Munich will be in September at the Olympic grounds, across the street from the BMW Group headquarters. In between will be celebrations all over the world as BMW enthusiasts celebrate 100 years of the vehicles we love.

The Puget Sound Region Chapter didn’t want to miss this chance to celebrate. So, we decided to throw a party on May 15. It turned out to be the largest chapter event ever. We had 400 vehicles and over 800 people in attendance! 

The site was America’s Car Museum (ACM) in Tacoma, Washington—also known as the LeMay Museum. Adjacent to the Museum is a large grass show field that had seen as many as 250 cars for one show in the past. We’ve set a new record that is unlikely to be exceeded unless somebody can gather a really big group of microcars.

We had several big draws that helped us attract such a crowd. ACM has a spectacular show on BMW products going on inside the Museum. The exhibit includes a beautiful red 328, a 327/28, a 507, two M1s (including the Peter Gregg M1 painted by Frank Stella), two 3.0CSL batmobiles, a 2002 tii, and an adorable Isetta. Newer BMWs included an E39 M5, an i3 and i8, and an X6. So many people took a break from the show outdoors to visit the show indoors. The Museum provided us with discount tickets and I think they were astonished when we sold 594 of them! The exhibit will continue for the rest of the year.

Other draws included some epic swag including an event ball cap, tote bag, fridge magnet, poster, and window cling. Or maybe it was the BMW roundel cakes, enough to serve 400 people. We ate it all!

But the biggest draw was, of course, like-minded BMW friends both old and new. Those in attendance walked up and down the row after row of BMWs representing everything from the New Class sedans of the early 1960s to the latest from Munich. The comradery we share is real. The club is about the people as much as about the cars. 

The event was such a screaming success that it seems a shame to wait another hundred years to do it again. So we’re conspiring to find an excuse to do something like this again next year.