Year after year, Bimmerfest has proven that BMW owners are truly passionate about their cars. In April at the Santa Barbara Auto Mall, another successful event attracted BMW enthusiasts from all over California, the neighboring states and even as far away as Alberta, Canada.
Jon Shafer is the man who made it all possible. In 2004 the event left its traditional location at the Santa Barbara BMW dealership because of a change in ownership. However, the new owners were keen to have Bimmerfest return and opened up their doors wider than ever, providing a warm welcome and even more space for visitors.
The weather report suggested clouds and rain, but it turned out to be a beautiful day. Like kids in a candy store, it was hard to get around so many Bimmers without stopping to gawk at them all.
As usual, the 3-Series dominated. We played a part in this by parking our Project 330i (see p26) in the showroom alongside Turner Motorsport's #96 Grand Am M3 race car. The M3's driver and reigning World Challenge champion, Bill Auberlen, was on hand to sign autographs. He was joined by Michael McDowell and Memo Gidley, who drive for Finlay Motorsports. The team brought along its impressive BMW Daytona prototype and M3 race car. Both drivers also signed autographs for the fans who waited patiently in line for a free poster and photo op.
Elsewhere in the showroom was an E46 M3 belonging to Taber Schroeder from TNB Autotech. He'd built it with Lambo doors and had given it a blue flame paint job. He'd also anodized many of the car's parts blue, including the wheel rims and StopTech calipers. The motor had an Active Autowerke supercharger, which proved very popular at this year's event. Outside, everybody was talking about Vijay Patel's eye-catching supercharged 330i sedan. It had a custom widebody and was finished in a stunning golden orange. This is one car we're hoping to have in et as soon as it's complete.
The old skool fans were well represented, with E21s littering the place and a nice trio of E28 5-Series, including a very clean Alpina B9 3.5 parked alongside an M5 and 535is. We were also drawn to Ary Minassian's stunning E30 325i. He works with Eurostop and had a nice combination of custom work that was as good as anything there
The longest line at the event was for food. Complimentary hot dogs were cooked on grills and offered with an assortment of drinks and chips. This definitely provided a draw for the very large crowds. Since entrance is free, the only figure the organizers were able to provide was for the 2,472 people who registered on the internet, but the actual number seemed far higher. And that's definitely not counting several homeless folks who were spotted enjoying the free food and collecting empty soda cans throughout the day.
Jon also claimed that a total of 951 BMWs showed at the event. Again, this figure is based on internet registrations, but the number can't be far off because the local police were having a headache with illegal parking around the area
There were many vendors scattered through the maze of cars - companies like Brembo, Sirius, Umnitza, B&M, Yokohama, Wheel Power/Hamann and more. They showed off their latest products and donated prizes to the charity raffle, which generated close to $6,400. The proceeds went to the Family Service Agency of Santa Barbara.