On October 29th Sunshine Bimmers held their annual car show at Fields BMW in Winter Park. The day started off with windy with misty rain and cool temperatures. It did not look like an ideal day to hold a car show! Eventually, the weather gods smiled on us and the sun came out.
As this was our first car show as a BMW CCA Chapter in a while and we were unsure as to what the turnout might be, especially because of the weather. We were hopeful that 25 to 30 cars would attend.
We were completely blown away when over 55 cars showed up and registered for the event, and at least another 10 were present but were too late to register.
This was a People’s Choice car show. . . . No judging. This makes the event more of a “Gathering of the BMW Faithful” than an actual car show.
The cars were divided into 5 classes, Classic, Vintage, All other or late model and M Class. Ballots were handed out to all attendees and spectators to vote for their favorite cars.
It was decided that since Fields was hosting the event they would make the choice for “Best in Show”.
Here are the results:
Winner Classic: Brandon Pierce for his 1970 2002.
Winner Vintage Class: M. Sosa for his E46 3 series.
Winner Late Model: Kayla Diaz for her 2014 435i
Winner M Class: Jamie Soto for his 2003 M3
Finally, the Best in Show pick from Fields BMW was an original 1975 2002 Turbo owned by Curtis Angle.
Just one brief note:
We all love BMW’s! There was one car at the event which I have seen on a number of occasions. Most people do not even give it a second glance. It is a 1980 E21 320i which is often overlooked because it followed the beloved 2002 or the car that came after it the cult favorite E30. BUT this is an amazing car. This car has OVER 650,000 miles on it and is owned by Joe Neris. I decided to give Joe a winning ribbon just because! The car is in wonderful original shape for a 1980 car with less than 100,000 miles on it. The car is remarkable I hope Joe hits the million mile mark!
I would like to thank Fields BMW of Winter Park for their support in making this event happen. I would also like to thank all the Sunshine Bimmers members who came out to help make this show work. Thanks to Nick Katona, Don Wright, Mark and Amy Rutenberg and especially Tom Betlow who was my “go to guy” in dealing with Fields.
Sunshine Bimmers has already started working on the 2018 event which will be bigger and better!
Happy Holidays to all.
Bob Ziegler Club Sec.
