Great event yesterday! Thanks to the volunteers and exotics owners. Here are my photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/apexral...7629910811590/

 

Thanks for sharing your great set of photos!
I particularly enjoyed the shots of the vintage AM racer. Someday...

 

Great shots Kristian, thanks for sharing and thank you to Tommy and all who continue to work so hard and sacrifice their weekends for all of us, much appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 

are imports welcome?

 

Are you asking about E@RTC or the Ste. Michelle event?

 

I took a few pics as well. They are in a set on my Flickr mixed in with some other shots but everyone is welcome to look if you like

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9918875...7629947002008/

Great event! I'm always so happy about the quality of cars and the organization of the Seattle events I attend.

Quick question, does the Koenigsegg show up at the regular Saturday morning event often? I spend a lot of time in Portland and may drive up with a friend who would like to see it.

 

It makes it out to E@RTC a few times a season. If we know ahead of time, and the owner plans to come out, we can make a special request. It's a very popular car at E@RTC.

 

The event is great but I do have a question: since when a BMW is an exotic car? What actually does qualify for an exotic I have the nerv to ask you TN since you are so much involved with this event?
Parking lots full of them, uninteresting would be a superlative when someone is referring to most models of this manufacturer, I do understand the urge to show off for some ( way too many) of these owners but I'm sure there are other venues and events for such cars. How exclusive in an M3? Or a 1 series? For example a Z8 is one BMW who never really made it with the big boys but still an exclusive example but the rest who flood lately this event aren't interesting at all. It might be just my isolated view on this...

 

Oh Jesus not again. I guess the answer is worth repeating after all these years.

First, lets not exaggerate, BMWs are just one line in a parking lot, NOT "parking lots full of them." They don't "flood" our event either. We have the lot photos from every event.

First, the bigger point. Do you come out and have fun? If so, then this is all somewhat rhetorical, right? Do the BMWs keep you away?

But since you asked, and I'm sure others are wondering the same thing, if you're looking for the hard definition of exotics, you are completely correct, many of the BMWs that arrive don't fit what typically comes to mind regarding the term, "exotic".

There are many car groups that have attempted to define it, some using the metric to not include daily drivers, or use number built, or some age or price parameters, while others use number of cylinders or horsepower to weight ratio, etc., factored into some long formula to come up with a score. We simply blur the line and tell people that if it's typically seen in a Safeway parking lot it's probably not exotic...I guess it depending on where you shop right?

But that said, we get some who are rather indignant when we don't see their car as all that exotic. We had to turn one car away at Ste. Michelle, and it clearly was not exotic, and not even in the shape one would expect for that show. It definitely was the only car to show up with a dent anywhere, as just one side point. (Dents are not a good sign.)

When we try and hold to a higher standard, then some want to brand us as snobs, elitists, etc. (pot stirrers). I ask people to separate themselves a bit and ask themselves, are people going to crawl out of bed on a Saturday morning and drive twenty miles to come see your car?

We let people police themselves and it generally works. Still, our primary objective is to unite a car culture and not divide it, so if we have the room, we still let them in and try and set a limit for the day.

Keep in mind, no matter what we do or how we define the event, someone's going to take shots at us, regardless of where we draw the line. The beloved Thugs make the call every Saturday and we do sometimes turn away cars. We turn away modern everyday 3 and 5 series. 1s are still a bit rare. Ms are were we blur the line. Steve's 7 is not exotic either, but if he hangs onto it a few more years... yea, but we still let him in with the other BMWs.

I say, "not again," at the opening of this response because after wrestling with this topic for two years, it's not come up since 2010 and everyone seems to have a great time so we thought it was finally settled. Saturday was a perfect example. There was plenty to see as it was, even with a row of cars that are not all that exotic. So what? Right?

What annoys us is when someone shows up with attitude that their own non-exotic car is somehow more exotic than someone else already there. On Saturday we had one classic car show up, the guy had attitude about his car being more exclusive than others, and yet there were others there who didn't think his car was rising to the standard either. It happens now and then. We did our best to make it work anyway and simply ignored the gripe as an example of that overused line, "you can't please everyone." We never-ever get complaints about E@RTC's overall quality.

From a tactical point of view, we have six to ten guys on radios every Saturday chattering about which car goes where; moving them into the entrance and getting them in the right section in a matter of seconds. Saturday we sorted, positioned and landed 255 cars in 90 minutes (the bulk of those cars in less than an hour) and that's not nearly as easy as it looks. It came from four years of the same guys working together, doing their best to GUESS what's coming and still make it a great show. Believe me, it's not that easy and without planning volunteers can get very confused very fast. We meet very early every Saturday morning to plan the lots so we have it down by the time you roll down your window and say good morning.

I know this is a long post, but I did want to give you the clearest answer to your question. I hope you still come out and manage to have fun and simply ignore the cars that don't interest you.

 

Well done Tom I will cut and paste this for other forum questions that are similar in the future. I like the quote, "if you don't like it, don't look at it".
What makes this weekly event awesome, is that one week you may have 10 BMWs then the next week we have none. You just never know whats coming out.

 

Yeap a fair answer I would say and of course no visitor should be ignored, the point of the whole gathering is to enjoy what's happening out there and of course no bimmer or any other non-exotic will make anyone not show up. It is an interesting site most of the time and what I really like is when non-owners enjoy themselves looking at cars, sipping their morning coffee, walking the kids and such. It was just a simple question and you took the time to answer it and that's nice.
I guess same happens when a certain retailer/dealer brings out a new non-exotic model, Evoque was one of them this past weekend or the CRZ last year etc. I'm not sure if these companies contribute to what's happening @ RTC and it is a complete opposite from let's say when FoS came out with their own new production car...I do try not to mention names or brands. Definitely e@rtc is a nice and enjoyable event for many who own or not such cars, some unique models, some rare, some limited and some just amazing examples of what not long from now will be only seen in history books and car shows due to this new trend of saving the planet and reducing this and that.
Once again thanks for the answer TN.

 

Thanks for the question, kidding aside, it really was overdue and hasn't been written about in a while.

Yea, at the end of the day, we're all car guys, right? It's sort of like when we had the big Kenworth T680 come out. We could argue if that's exotic or not... at the moment it sure is, but give it a year and it will be widely deployed. I wanted Kenworth to come out since last year after visiting their tech center because I know I'm like a big kid and I just want to see cool, unusual stuff, things we never get to look at up close to come out. One of the biggest draws we've ever had was when Matt brought out his patrol car from the Redmond PD. We tried to get them to bring their assault vehicle because it's kind of cool, but I guess it's a pain in the *** to move and probably only fun when you get to drive it through a wall.

I think what I love most about E@RTC is that it's not any one brand. I love it that the BMW guys have their own thing going and spend a lot of time talking to each other or same with the Cobra guys, or any other category and brand. I know E@RTC has shifted my tastes in cars a bit and the biggest lesson of them all for us Thugs is that we just don't see the stereotypes that are typically handed to each brand. You can't walk around and tell who is or isn't an owner or even determine what they own. We love that about the event. Take a look at the low speed motion camera footage that just went up and outside of the theme cars, the crowds are fairly evenly spread around. This goes back to our early days when some began to believe that certain spots in the parking lot had higher status than others, so we began to constantly switch the lots and spaces around. It also made it easier for us to identify which photos were taken which week.

One question we've not received in a while is about the inclusion of tuners. Sticky subject. I love looking at a lot of their work, but that's the one group that gives us problems as an overall category every time they show up as a group. Seems like every time we get a bunch, even as spectators, one of them has to do a burnout. Sort of like the Honda that buzzed E@RTC on Saturday (neeeeee.... shift...neeeeeeee... shift...neeeeeee) and he wasn't past the end of the event lot) and the kid had no idea how foolish he looked. We get it, some feel that the only way to show the mods is to demonstrate the performance. If they conducted themselves better, we'd include some of them somehow, and we still welcome some examples, but it always means we've got to talk to them.

See you at E@RTC!

 

I'm proud to say TN has never felt the need to remind me about being mature in my tuner cars!
Thanks for these responses and for putting on such an enjoyable show last Saturday. I thought the thugs did an amazing job. Especially considering the turn out.

 

I'm always glad to see you making it up from your neck of the woods. It's why we want to put on a worthwhile event, so it's worth your drive! Thanks for being a great supporter from the very beginning.