In mid-May each year, two BMW centric events are held in the Carolina’s; the opening of the new BMW Car Club of America Foundation Museum exhibit in Greer, South Carolina and “The Vintage” event celebrating pre-1990’s BMW’s in Hot Springs, North Carolina. Both events attract BMW fans and owners from across the country.
The BMW CCA Foundation is a 501(c) (3) non-profit tax-exempt charitable foundation formed by the club to promote the Street Survival Teen Driving Safety Program, establish a library, archive, and museum, and to facilitate the conservation and preservation of BMW history.
The foundation’s museum is the 2nd largest BMW museum in the world, only eclipsed by the BMW corporate museum in Munich, Germany. The foundation is located across the street from BMW Manufacturing’s plant in Greer. Opening in 1994, this is now the largest BMW manufacturing plant in the world, with over 7-million square feet under roof and 11,000 associates.
This year’s exhibit is called “Passion: 50 years of BMW Cars & Community,” 2019 marking the 50th anniversary since the club was founded. Representing the five decades since 1969, 22 cars were on display. Foundation Curator, Michael Mitchel, and his team have done a wonderful job in capturing a wide range of cars and memorabilia that reflect the passion for BMW.
The cars exhibited were selected to represent the models most likely to be bought by enthusiasts over the past 50 years. Many of these cars were single-owner examples of some well-loved BMWs.
There is an early 2002tii, a 2800 CS, an M5 Touring station wagon, an M1 and several versions of 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8-Series cars representing the decades of cars club members fell in love with. The event also hosted race cars and a resto-mod named ”Rusty Slammington,” an e28 5-Series that has been turned into a Series 5 race car and was featured on the TV Show, Top Gear. These cars are all owned by members who are willing to part with their cars for a year to support illustrating the history of the club.
Every car in the exhibit has a story, each told on signage in front of the car. The stories were also captured in a book, “Passion, 50 Years of BMW Cars & Community” by Jackie Jouret. This is Jackie’s second book for the club, following her 149-page, “The ICON, 50 years of the 2002” she created last year for the foundation. Jackie’s research into the creation and history of the BMW 2002 was exhaustive and this year’s book is equally detailed in both words and images.
Attending the opening day event was a memorable occasion where Jackie Jouret spoke, and owners were able to mingle and share stories. There were some wonderful stories about the history of these cars, their early days, restoration projects or trips and memories in the cars. Not all of the cars were concours quality, in fact many were daily drivers that were just well cared for over the many years of ownership.
Adding to the opening day presentations were three other speakers, Rob Mitchell, Carla Harman, and Ken Sparks. They were all involved in the early days of BMW North America selling cars in the US. Each had entertaining stories about the growing pains of BMW coming to the US market and the relationship the company had with the car club and stateside owners.
Besides the 23 wonderful cars, surrounding the exhibit are walls and walls of period BMW memorabilia from the 1960s through today. The club also has a very nice gift shop with apparel, posters, books, model cars, and other BMW items. The current exhibit will be in place through January 2020. More information on the museum can be found at www.bmwccafoundation.org.
The opening of the new BMW Foundation exhibit coincides with the annual “Vintage” event in Hot Springs, North Carolina. This one-of-a-kind classic BMW show was started by Scott Sturdy. Originally launched in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, this grass roots BMW junkie started this casual BMW get together on the streets of his town in 2004. Thanks to Facebook, BMW forums and a lot of hard work by Scott over the years, The Vintage has turned into a vintage BMW pilgrimage each year for many of the faithful, some hailing from Canada.
The current setting is near the Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina, with gorgeous mountain roads perfect for enjoying an “analog” manual transmission drive. Such is the point of The Vintage, to drive and enjoy these machines. Few carriage queens here. No judged events or arguments over what hose clamp is correct. You will see rust buckets and beautiful restorations. The enthusiasm is so rich, that an owner from Holland even shipped his 5-Series to the US just for this show.
It was interesting, the number of “20 somethings” and even teenagers that were at the show. Don’t believe what you read that Millennials and Gen X’ers are not passionate about cars! Older BMW’s offer a very good value to people looking for a solid European car that can be fun to drive and practical to own. Pre-digital models, built in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s are relatively easy to work on yourself.
They do give awards for things like, “A funny thing happened on the way to the Vintage,” and “The Bomber Award” for the biggest catastrophe on the way to the show. Watching the Facebook feeds from people caravanning from Texas or New England is hilarious. Scott calls The Vintage a “Dysfunctional Family Reunion.” Affordable, Fun and No Pressure.
This year, The Vintage will be held in Hot Springs, NC from May 16-24. Check out their website www.atthevintage.com for more details. They have a great 2-minute video that gives you the flavor for the event.
For More Information on the 2024 Event, check these sites:
