Larry and I went down to the Bimmerfest in Santa Barbara, CA for our 5th time this year taking down the Cobalt Twins. We had great fun once we found some good roads in Northern California despite a slight mishap on Larry's part. I'll let him chime in on that later.

We left Wednesday last week and I made it back Tuesday morning, Larry made it back Monday and Steve/Darrin made it back last night.

At the start there were three


A little camera shy


We saw a lot of these along the way


Gassing up before crossing over to Oregon


Finally made it to the California coast


I was ecstatic


We had dinner at the Samoa Cookhouse with cheap and good eats


The real fun began on the 2nd day as we made our way to some twisties


Taking a break


After coming to the end, I just had to take a picture by my favorite sign




Steve took a rock chip in his windshield from Larry's fat tires so he got it fixed


The CHP in would always leave their radars blaring giving us plenty of warning


Lunchtime in Williams


This plane flew REALLY low!


More twisties


We stopped quite a few times because of construction


Larry following closely


We had all kinds of obstructions such as this concrete truck too


There were also beautiful scenery everywhere too

 

I had more fun following Larry than leading


At one point, Larry switched with me but not before this truck cut in front of him. He did a great job keeping up with me!


We finally made it to the Bay area where EVERYONE including a lady blabbing on the cell phone in a smart car was going faster than us and we were going 80! Yep, we're in California alright.


This was a really nice bug. Better than the ones I had all over my front end


I already could see some funny sights when we finally made it to Pleasanton.


That's deafboy aka Cole from Washington


Larry trying to show us what he looked like when driving hard


Some very colorful decoration


Our Cobalt twins at rest for the night


There were "For Lease" signs everywhere in this office complex. And oh yeah, a nice Viper too


We had dinner with the BayBimmerz here


Keith, the guy that always arranges the Norcal caravan


Not sure what we were doing here




Need I say more?


Yep, we got up that EARLY


Here we were at the meeting point for the Norcal caravan to Gilroy


Lots of interesting sights including this very yellow 8 series


Blue tape was again in presence


Even a Honda had to come too

 

Driver's meeting


Leaving the first point


At the Gilroy meeting point our Cobalt twins got a lot of attention


This was a very cool E92 M3 with 530 hp! I also saw this car at the SEMA last year before it was upgraded


Love this wheel and brake


Andy doing his best to pose for us


Somebody modeling too


BayBimmerz representing


One very serious piece of hardware


A pseudo model/owner posing for me


Part of the crowd


A very nice and pristine E30 M3


They'll think of everything for front wraps


Larry and the rest of us had an interesting chat with a CHP trooper


Demonstrating the LIDAR


We left the caravan and headed down HWY 1 along the coast for a nice slow scenic drive. Larry took point




We ran into a rider with an obviously well used bike


Taking a break at an overlook point


For some strange reason, we were always lucky that the cops would come only when we're either not speeding or stopped. I for one am not complaining!

 

Larry and the Cobalt twins


Darrin jumps for joy because we didn't get pulled over at all!


Can you read Larry's lips?


2005 was the first year I went to the Bimmerfest


Still relatively clean


We saw a lot of vintage cars along the way too


We finally made it to Santa Barbara and Larry spent a few hours talking to people


Here's that gorgeous M3 again


A proud owner and his car


A vintage Alpina


Blue tape was again used for a variety of messages


A popular mod was those angel eye headlights


Very colorful twins


Can you count the bugs on Steve's big 7 series?


I liked this mod


We took a little drive up in the mountains before going to the Bimmerfest


Richard came all the way from Canada in his E46 M3


Steve's all ready for the Bimmerfest


This is Keith's beautiful 540 which won second place at the Bimmerfest


An omen of things to come

 

The BIMMERFEST!


BMW introduced the new Z4 here


Lots of trophies


BMW of Germany hired a video team to make a documentary about the Bimmerfest this year


Larry tries out the new Z4


Darrin too


Even the Polizi M5 was here too


A popular mod was either a supercharger or a turbocharger


This too


Panoramic image from the grandstands! Look how many cars there were!


Still there was a long line for hours!


On the other side, they were playing polo


Lots of interesting sights not just car-wise


Lots of vintage BMWs too


I liked this M6, very well done


Check out those brakes on that M3


These brakes are over $20,000


Did you think I'd forget about those models?


Even the view from behind was nice too


Italian mafia in full force

 

Another popular mod was a huge stereo setup


I loved this blue


They were demonstrating the M3 for all of us to hear. It was surprisingly not very loud


Looks like a very nice "wrap"


She was beautiful and intelligent


Nice rear


I couldn't resist jumping with those kids too!


I liked this theme


More nice scenery..mmmm


This E46 M3 had a WIDE body!


Nice interior by Benchmark Motoring up here in Seattle


Even the calipers were color coordinated


Beautiful 2002


This 3002TTii was by far my favorite of all the cars here with a E46 turbocharged I-6 stuffed in!




Even the undersides looked deadly serious


More interesting sights


This is the first E34 M5 Touring wagon ever made with a VIN number ending in 001


Larry with a familiar face, Sal


Nice 7 series

 

A funky interior to go along with it too


More eyecandy


Even a R8 came to play too


People were standing on some of the cars too


Miss blonde taking a break behind a serious machine


Ready for the Gumball 3000


Another popular mod was hoods made of carbon fiber


Yummmmm...


M3 done up CSL style in Laguna Seca blue


Miss Falken


Me too!


She was beautiful inside and out


Some race machines came to play too


A few generations of M3s


More eye candies






Again with them on their cars, even while moving


Yellow haze


BMWs and Beer, a good combo

 

Good way to light things up


Creme 997, YUCK! And those headlights, double yuck!


Ladies and their "toy" dogs seemed to be everywhere


Bimmerfest banner


M colors!




Miss Falken again


Now that's a WIDE load


Afterwards, a few of us headed to State street in downtown Santa Barbara for some pre-dinner desserts


Heading to State street


Check this "bear" out. He knows our pain


And there's that R8 again


A funny sight of a lady picking her "toy" dog up


Yum yum






Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to pick up the others and head out to dinner. The following morning, Larry and I made our long trek back up North. Along the way, we picked up a few stragglers including this M5




Of course I had to eat lunch here too


We met up with a very fast vintage Mustang on I-505. I tried to keep him in my sights

 

But he managed to pass me a few times


Taking a break for a photo shoot




Time to go


The weather got really ugly as we headed North


This was a very fast BUG! Must've been heavily modified!


Even in the corners too!


We saw an unfortunate semi that went off the road in the Shasta area


We stayed the night in Redding that night but the following day it really started to get ugly with RAIN!


It was pretty much like this for the rest of the trip for me


Taking a break at a rest stop to rest my bleary eyes


And at the end there was one


Overall, it wasn't quite like the Gumball 3000, Player's Run, Gold Rush, etc...but it was still a fun trip for us boys. No casuality to report of any sort unlike that lost tailight I had last year.

All the rest of my pictures are here: Bimmerfest Album

 

You must have been near us the whole time, haha. We stopped in Redding on the way back too and say the Semi accident. It was really nice seeing all of you. You took some really wonderful pictures. Would you mind sending some to me?

 

Looks like you guys had a blast.. Nice pix as usual..

 

great pics, looks like a good time

the blue tape/wrap is getting old though, no?

 

very nice photo journal

I wish I knew you were there, I would have come and said hi when my polo match was over :-)

Me likey Ms Falken

 

great stuff Jason, thanks for sharing

 

Great pictures and I love the narration! Makes me wish I could have experienced it right along with you guys. Thanks for sharing.