Drove over to Germany early Fri morning. Decided to take the E21 323i Baur as the weather forecast was nothing short of brilliant. On the German A1 we encountered a red Ferrari 365GTB/4 aka Daytona on German license plates and we had great fun doing a high speed drive on the quiet motorway. At the track we decided to cover the paddock and pitlane areas that day as it was still quiet, and flee the crowds and spend time alongside the track on Sat and Sun.
BMW had announced to have a huge celebration for the 40th anniversary of BMW M GmbH and they did! At the BMW Classic stand we met E30 M3 DTM icons Johnny Cecotto, Marc Hessel and Leopold Prinz von Bayern and we run into fellow Dutchman Adrian van Hooijdonk, chief of design at BMW worldwide and successor to Chris Bangle. A little later we also welcome ex F1 driver Marc Surer who will be driving his old E21 320i Group 5 racer for the first time after many years again. Later we run into legend Dieter Quester as well. Then it is time for the BMW Classic mechanics to start warming up the E21 racer... so impressive I decided to record a video for you guys:
Even though other brands also have some heroes at their stands we are quite occupied already, only passing by the old Mr Zakowski of Zakspeed who brought a Group 5 turbo Capri, probably the longest and widest car today because of all its spoilers or tupperware, and one of the loudest as well!
Saturday
Time to settle down alongside the GP track and watch all the different fields pass by, from 1920's and 1930's 328's to early 1980's F1, what a show! It is always nice to see the Brabham BT49 that gained Nelson Piquet his first F1 world title again and its the fastest in the field. BMW does a celebration demo followed by a BMW Classic race with two Group 5 E21's. In the DRM class there's more fun, from 935’s to Capri’s, M1’s and various E9 CSL’s. And another familiar sight for us at bmwe21.net: the Group 5 320i in Junior Team/Eddie Cheever livery owned and driven by Charles Veillard.
In the evening I'm sitting at the hotel bar, looking at my photo's on my laptop. When I open up bmwe21.net a guy taps me on the shoulder and says "that's him!", pointing at a guy that's having a beer in a seat behind me. Charles Veillard is staying in the same hotel, needless to say we had enough to talk about that evening!
Sunday
Time to think what still needs to be covered, all 'n all a relaxed day. For the DRM class race we decide to go to the end of the Nürburgring straight to catch some fire spitting cars, and we succeed!
Noisy Cooper boasting a BMW boxer motorbike engine!
Best drifter in town this Lotus Cortina
Only a little bit of classic F1 as you've seen enough the past years I reckon
Pitlane and paddock tour
Dieter Quester getting ready for his first training in the Z4 GTR
Some of the cars at the combined BMW clubs area
BMW Classic's stand was crowded all the time
But just outside the stand it ain't too bad either
more drooling
all M5 generations lined up
E28 M5 under the hood
Johnny Cecotto
Marc Hessel
Adrian van Hooijdonk
6R4
///M 600?
Brabham BT49 ex Nelson Piquet, 1981
Marc Surer (he was Piquet's F1 team mate during the BMW Brabham era) test sitting his old E21
Dieter Quester
A quick spark plug change before startup
Trunk of the E21
Prinz Leopold von Bayern
Surer getting ready for his first drive in the E21
Surer
Mr Zakowski at the back, up front is the impressive Group 5 Turbo Capri
Maserati Tipo 61 aka Birdcage, nice line from Striezel Stück on the wall as well
More E28 candy
Time to race!
DRM time!
Beware... me together with Charles Veillard (L) and Eric Wassermann (R, M12 specialist) at the hotel
The almighty and scaringly fast 935's, here are the two cars up front changing places all the time
Only turbo M1 this weekend
and changer!
on your screen soon...
Veillard in action, and doing well!
Just another turbo thingy!
What do we want to see? Right!
Other brand please...
