SC/NC Roads and Cruise

[wacobipe]

I was planning to attend but I hit a deer on I77 in WV coming home from my parents in Ohio on Tuesday so now the 135 is in the shop...I may try to track you down when you are in Asheville to t least see everyone.

[merlinbk]

Sorry to hear that man. Hope the damage wasn't too bad.


Give me a ring tomorrow. We can try to meet up. We'll be in asheville in the later afternoon.

[wacobipe]

The damage wasn't that bad all considered. It hit the front passengers corner and grazed down the side of the car. Front Fascia is ruined, oil cooler is gone, and the passenger door is pretty wrinkled but that is about it. Given the ciscumstances it could have been much worse.

[Impervious]

How was it? Pics?

[willwin2day]

WOW!! Did we have some fun!! Thanks to everyone that made it down to the Performance Center and then onto the infamous, "Tail of the Dragon"! For me to look in my rear-view mirror and see a bunch of 1 Addicts eating me up....well....it just does not get any better than this!! Thanks to everyone especially Camilo for setting this up.

[panoz7]

I just wanted to give a big thanks to Merlin and Donnie for organizing such an amazing weekend. My girlfriend and I had a blast, and we're both looking forward to meeting up again for another mountain drive.

Donnie: Thanks again for getting me those factory tickets at the last moment. I'm really glad I got to go on the tour, and I have a new appreciation for just how amazing our BMWs are. I won't soon forget that hot lap in the 1M either. Now I just need to find a way to convince my boss to bring us back for one of those corporate events...

I uploaded some of the photos I shot while we were stopped, and some other random ones from the trip to my flickr account. You can see them in this set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gryffin...7627311539587/



I also browsed through the photographs from some of the dragon photographers. Here's where you can find our pictures:

US 129 Photos
http://www.photoreflect.com/store/Th...8&g=0QAK010V00
EDIT: It turns out the number of pages is determined by the size of your browser window, but they're roughly 3/4 of the way through.

129 Slayer
http://www.photoreflect.com/store/Th...5&g=1WPV004T09
Page: 8

Kiillboy
http://www.129pix.net/jps/store.jsp?...eid=201&page=0
3, 4, 5, 6, 19, 20

I'm considering ordering a few. If anybody else is interested in ordering some, please let me know. If we combine our orders into one large group we can probably save a few bucks on each photo.

Thanks again everybody for a great weekend. It was really nice to meet you all. If anybody is ever near Raleigh / Durham, please PM me and we can meet up.

[merlinbk]

Thanks to everyone for coming out. We couldn't have done it without you. Special thanks to Donnie for being gracious enough to spend the weekend with us and have a few beers at some great local spots. I got in about 2 am last night and am running on about 5 hours of sleep. Gonna put things together and post some of the video we took as well as any photos we have.





My personal highlights:

- Taking a spin on the track in the new 1M.
- Eating some great southern food, drinking some good Asheville beer at the wedge, and meeting some great people.
- Experiencing the tail for the first time.
- and of course... a ticket free trip!

Hope to see you guys again soon! Another event should follow, or worst case... an annual meet.

More to follow...

[tibookM3]

Got in around 1:30am...I'll post my thoughts later, but to sum it up, I'm ready to do this again. Pick a weekend in late September lol.

[merlinbk]

Originally Posted by tibookM3

Got in around 1:30am...I'll post my thoughts later, but to sum it up, I'm ready to do this again. Pick a weekend in late September lol.

Haha great to hear!

Man I hit my driving wall around 10pm. At that point I had been traveling about 12 hrs. I was struggling. I had just entered Florida. All I wanted to do was stop, unfortunately I had a early morning appt. I had to make. No matter. It was all worthwhile. Next time we'll bring a caravan up.

I'll post my driving stats. I managed to get the car up to 34MPG.

[Jason]

Glad to see the drive take place and all the great reactions!

If someone wants to post up a new thread with a write-up/recap of the event and drive, along with photos/videos/, I'd love to feature it on the homepage!

[willwin2day]

Great pictures Griffin!! Jason...this will give you a good reason to return east for our next trip.

[merlinbk]

"Driving in the Carolinas

The trip started out really well… the weather was good, no bad traffic, and I was travelling with a
friend, which is much better than going alone. After about 12 hours on the road, we made it down to
Spartanburg, SC in just enough time to shower and, well, that’s it. We cut it close. The BMW plant tour
was not going to wait, so we hurried over there.

Following the tour, I realized why they actually give tours there: because it’s something to be proud
of. It was clean, efficient, high-tech, amazing, etc. What I think is even more impressive than the
performance of a BMW is the process to make them: fields of machines and humans working to the
beat of a 101 second takt time (meaning every 101 seconds a BMW rolls off the line).

After the tour we met a couple more companions of the rest of the festivities and quickly headed over
to the BMW driving performance center. There, we met Donnie Isley, the man with the funnest job
ever… teaching people how to rip on their BMW’s, amongst other things. With not much delay, we were
out to enjoy a ‘hot lap’, which is basically doing every awesome, crazy driving move in one lap. The only
way I can describe it is like a roller coaster without the heights… and frickin awesome.

Then we were off to chow down in a nice restaurant in Greenville, SC where we ate good food, talked
about cars, and drank alcoholic beverages. I chose Petron Silver and local brews and was probably the
most inebriated out of the group. That’s okay though, because I wasn’t driving and……..

I didn’t wake with a hangover!!!

Saturday was the main event. We travelled through the catacombs of mountainous roads, hazardous
paths, and treacherous pitfalls of North Carolina to meet the Dragon… actually only his tail. Just over the
border of NC into Tennessee is a twisty road known as the “Tail of the Dragon” worldwide. People come
from all over to drive the awesome curves. So, after driving a couple hours in a group of 7 cars (6 BMWs
and 1 Mustang Cobra), we took on the tail, speeding through 318 curves in 11 miles. After my Cobra
and I defeated the Dragon, the only harm we sustained was the shouting of a state trooper to “slow
down” in a very angry tone and my brakes not working because the brake fluid started to boil. But after
a couple minutes, the brakes came back and all was good. What a blast.

Following all that, we ended up in Asheville, NC where we ate a lot of food, drank local beer, and slept (I
was beat from all that adrenaline induced driving). Next day was a long 12 hour drive home. But I was
entertained by my thoughts of when I was going to it again and where to find an empty parking lot to
practice some ‘performance driving’ in.

I would like to thank Donnie Isley for taking all of us out to enjoy all the great food, beer, and roads
of the Carolinas that we experienced. Thank you to Camilo Arevalo for setting up the trip and getting
everyone together for such a memorable experience. And, thanks to everyone who attended and
helped add to the joy of the weekend."

- Ed.

[merlinbk]

http://vimeo.com/user3377691/1addicts

[panoz7]

Originally Posted by merlinbk

http://vimeo.com/user3377691/1addicts

Thanks for posting that, and a big thanks to Ed and Merlin for taking the time to shoot and edit all that great footage!

Merlin: do you have an album with the pictures you shot? I'd love to look through them outside of the video.

[merlinbk]

Originally Posted by panoz7

Thanks for posting that, and a big thanks to Ed and Merlin for taking the time to shoot and edit all that great footage!

Merlin: do you have an album with the pictures you shot? I'd love to look through them outside of the video.

PM Sent.

[Lexington]

Great drive.

Thanks to all for putting it together and participating.

Thanks for posting the video.