Chicago--The people, the stories, and the details

[Gayle]

Friday Night:

Brandon J picks me up at the sister-in-law's condo down town. His was the second white e34 to drive up. The first was immaculate and pretty stock. I was getting up to go out, a woman in a suit darts up and gets in. I am like "no, no, its not me." But then I see that the driver is wearing a suit and conclude it is not Brandon. I felt like running after them and asking "do you know about the meet tomorrow?

So Brandon arrives and is driving like a typical BMW driver--cutting in and out of traffic and going through lights when they are pretty pink. We see another immaculate BMW--black and not stock--and we are craning our necks to check it out. Brandon sees the Ontario plate. I am eye to eye with the driver and mouth "Jay" and he smiles and nods. Chicago is HUGE--a metro area with a population of 9.5 million. The odds of us being in the same place at the same time are roughly 1 in 81 million!!!

So we are zipping along to the karting place. We are talking suspension (I was very impressed with the ride on his sachs kit), how much his new paint job costs, yada, yada, yada. I am wondering why his 525 seems so much faster than my 535. I am thinking my dinan chip must suck. Then mentions the s38. I am like "what's that?" and he explains "that is an M5 engine." Guess that explains it.

So we get to karting. There were 18 people. We put on jump suits, helmets, neck braces, etc. There are 3 qualifying rounds of about 10 laps and a final race of about 25. I was the slow person on the track everyone was complaining about, but in those suits, no one knew who it was. A guys who teaches driving explained that the trick is taking the corners fast without braking and not speeding up on the straight aways. I got better after I tried that but I still had the girl hand-cap going on.

Scott H. has weird oil karma. In his real life, the car he tracked didn't burn oil til he turned it into a daily driver. His M5 is probably the only M5 in the world that doesn't have oil issues. He brought his oil karma to karting and the kart he was driving lost its oil all over the track, requiring the facility to get out the mini zamboni to clean it. And Jay hit a pole. He blames it on the oil but we have our doubts.

A number of the guys there kart regularly. I think Dave Rutkowski came in first, Joshua Gore was up there, JayLebo came in 4th even after the encounter with the pole.

We ate afterwards at 11:30 and then I picked up Ed's daughter's car to take it to the meet the next day. Ed lives in BFE so I got in bed about 3 am. It was pouring rain. The next morning my hostess was very concerned that the event would be cancelled and I told her it doesn't matter what happens with the weather, we will all be there.


Saturday:

I follow Brandon to the park so I don't have to bother getting lost. We stop and pick up the food and his cousins who are doing the check in. I am so impressed with his organization of the event. He probably supervised 7 people and coordinated getting a permit, wooden signs, photography, magazine coverage, food, etc. Told him he should definitely put this on his resume.

When we get there at starting time, a number of M5 guys are already there. They are such over achievers. There were an amazing number of M5s there. Guys from the M5 board. From our board, I think this is everyone who was there.


dacoyote (Charles)
632 Regal (Jeff and Mil and Sal)
BimmerNut Ed
Jay 535i and friend
Brandon J
Qube and finance
Scott H
JR///M5
Bimmerd00d
Dave Rutkowski
Krysiom5
Gayle
Azale (Andy) and brother (Originally mislabelled as Schnell)
E34 530 (Andrew) and his father
Triton 540 (Eric)
Paul in Chi Town

Edit: Realized I left out Greg from Texas--don't know screen name.
Edit 2: Maki is the guy I didn't know and orginally dubbed Mr Gray Beard.


DISCLAIMER: I will undoubtedly leave people out, misspell names, incorrectly label people and cars, and say things that are mechanically stupid. Please correct me. I will not be offended.



People: Left to right--(1)Krysiom5 , (2) guy (name unknown--so here after I will call him Mr. Black Rims) who owns gray M5 and just quit a job at dealership so he ordered all the toys for his he could before leaving (3) our own JR rubbing down the Terri Hatcher of M5s. JR says she is not used to being wet.





This is Jeff (632 Regal), his lady, Mil, (aka Regal's slut), and Jeff's son, Sal. Jeff was wiping his car down too. His car is very pretty in person.

[Gayle]

Mil pretended to help but really didn't. Sal did help and Sal was a really sweet kid. I personally imagine Jeff was a terror as a kid and that his kid would be too, but he was low key and well mannered--who would have thought it?


The next two pictures are Mr. Black Rims car and some of the stuff he added while he could still get the dealer discount.

[Gayle]

Krysiom5 has the daytona violet M5. JR told me that Krys has the door handles that everyone wants--they were added in some later year.



JR pulls out the peak tool and tests Krys's car--no codes.

[Gayle]

Kyrs in black and the guy who was selling the gorgeous gray 535 in the rust shirt.

The thing I love about Krys's car is he actually drives it. It has 216,000 miles. Look at the engine. Can you believe it?

[Gayle]

Brandon J's sleeper M5 (525 on the outside with an s38 under the hood and a gorgeous new paint job. I realized I didn't take many pictures of it. I think that was because I rode in it the night before and had already inspected it so I didn't look at it much at the picnic. (Liquidtiger--this car has replaced yours as the object of my desire. I like your rims better but the engine trumps rims.)



Jay and Qube looking at Jay's car.



Jay in front and Andrew (E34 530) in the background.

[Gayle]

Jay's car is looking fine. The spoiler is original. I think it used to be his Dad's and Jay has been making it his own. He just got the 5 speed conversion about 3 days before the meet--done by Koala in Cleveland (is that right Jay). Edit: I stand corrected. It was Bruno. I should have known that.






Jay gets the good housekeeping seal of approval for the passenger compartment. I was surprised that some of the cars had a lot of mods but dirty interiors. Jay--next year let's have that engine detailed--OK?

[Gayle]

This is Qube's car. Qube--I am sorry I don't remember your real name. I was really interested to take a look at Qube's lights. Qube has ordered every possible light set up to test how it looks. Qube has more lights than I do shoes and that is saying something. These are the depos--right? Qube was the only car there with eyebrows.



I could put on makeup in the reflection off of Qube's rims.


Remember when Qube said that his finance made him put the thing that has the pretty purple flowers and the countdown to his wedding in his signature? This is the woman and she comes across as strong. If she told me to put flowers in my sig I would think twice about saying no.


Other people in the pic-left to right. Not sure about the guy with his back to me. Edit: Oh that is Krys. The tall guy smoking came with Jay. I think his name is Mike. They are high school friends. The future Mrs. Qube and Qube and Jay's head between them. Regal's slut has her back to the camera, Jeff kid, Jeff, and Andy Zale.

[Gayle]

Left to right: Andy (Azale), Charles (dacoyote) and Andy's brother, Brian. While Andy and his brother look serious here, they are ly funny. Talking to the two of them is better than going to a comedy club. Here they are looking at Charles' engine which could make grown men cry.




L to R: Guy from Roundel magazine (I think his name is Joe Farnsworth) talking to a guy named Ben Thongsai who knows EVERYTHING about bmws. Scott compared his knowledge level to Bill R. To quote Scott "if Ben says it can be done, it can be done." Bimmerd00d is telling Charles what he need to do to his car. What I heard was that the same things that it needed this year, it also needed last year. The guy in gray with the beard--I can't remember his name (so I am going to call him Gray Beard). I think he is from Wisconsin. Edit: I was wrong. His car in the lineup has Illinois plates. Double edit: That is Russ Maki (screen name Maki). Thanks for identifying yourself.



Russ Maki, the Dent Wagon guy, and his lady in her leather and black heels. The were having a discussion about the 20 below weather that feels like 60 below and how she is the better driver on ice.

[Gayle]

Dent Wagons' car was really pretty as you might expect. The white grill was interesting. JR comes along, glances at the car, and points out the gap in the bumper trim.

[Gayle]

Mr Dentwagon is aghast and jumps on fixing it. It is a really tough crowd at this event.



This is Triton 540 (Eric). His is president of the Minneapolis club. His car is Orient blue--a gorgeous colour.