[Esmallstii]

I plan on going as well. Will be bringing the 1er and the wifes Cooper S.
Hotels filling up already? DAMN!
Tough planning that far ahead.

[larryn]

Nice to see you guys are coming! Make sure you sign up for the autocross on Thursday or Friday!! I'll be officiating the event, along with the other Boston Chapter autox chair.

Btw, I got a request to haul this to a General forum, so that more people might have a chance at seeing this thread, which I did.

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by izzodesh

dam hotels are booking up.
hmmm wolf which one did u pick?

we got in at a "motel" just outside of watkins glen just after the host hotle filled. We had a group of 6 couples looking at houses also, but could not find anything with that many double or larger beds and the group couldn't come to concensus so we ae all spread out now. Still kind of looking around to see what we can find, but at least we have a place to crash for now.

Larry, I signed up for the autocross on Thursday. Looks like the poor slow 330 has to run against the 1's this year. Just doesn't seem fair. I will make a point to meet you then if not before.

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by whiplash

There's a group of about 12 of us coming up from Houston for it. Instead of staying at a hotel, we rented a huge 7-bedroom house on the lake (actually worked out a lot cheaper than staying at the hotel in Watkins Glen or Ithaca). Not sure why Animal House comes to mind....:drinking:

I assume that you will be heading up with Dan and the rest of the road monkeys? Are you planning to make this a 2 week drive or something more direct this year? Oh, my wife reminds me that O'fests take three days for all ya'll to get to.

[whiplash]

Originally Posted by Wolfpack

Are you planning to make this a 2 week drive or something more direct this year? Oh, my wife reminds me that O'fests take three days for all ya'll to get to.

It's all about the road trip!! We're not sure yet if we're going up into Canada and then working our way down or if we'll head to Chicago and work our way over. We'll play it by ear.

So did somebody on here end up with registration number 135?? I just checked and it's not available but oddly enough, lower numbers are?? Somebody specifically asked for 135..... which one of you snagged it???

[larryn]

Originally Posted by whiplash

It's all about the road trip!! We're not sure yet if we're going up into Canada and then working our way down or if we'll head to Chicago and work our way over. We'll play it by ear. So did somebody on here end up with registration number 135?? I just checked and it's not available but oddly enough, lower numbers are?? Somebody specifically asked for 135..... which one of you snagged it???

:smile:

[larryn]

Bump!! How about a new roll call? How many 1ers am I going to see at Watkins Glen International? Whiplash is driving up from Texas, what about the rest of you?

http://www.bmwccaofest.org/home.phtml


1. larryn
2. wnta135i
3. JackMac
4. 1996_328ti
5. Wolfpack
6. E82TT6
7. whiplash
8. TazioNYC
9. adc
10. Esmallstii
11. ??

Wolfpack.... very much looking forward to meeting you! I redid classing for the N54 cars, as well as a few others.

[Wolfpack]

Larry, I am looking forward to meeting you also. Are you going to be in WG for the whole event or just Thursday/Friday?

I see Dan Baker is the only 135 signed up for the autocross as of now. What gives guys? I thought Thursday was going to be a 135 day, but maybe the 330's will have a chance this year!

[larryn]

Btw... somebody else did already have 135.

[whiplash]

I thought for sure somebody on here would have bribed Steven for registration #135!

I can't POSSIBLY be the only 135 that's going to autocross, am I!!? If I am, I guess I'm guaranteed to be the fastest 135 in the autocross at O'Fest!! :thumbup:

How about the driver's school? I'm signed up for Friday...anybody else??

[adc]

Originally Posted by whiplash

How about the driver's school? I'm signed up for Friday...anybody else??

I'll be doing the driving school on Fri and Sat... better watch out for the big fat 335i... :biggrin:

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by adc

I'll be doing the driving school on Fri and Sat... better watch out for the big fat 335i... :biggrin:

I am set for Friday as a student also. I submitted as an instructor for Saturday if they need extra help, otherwise I will be off with my wife sightseeing before the banquet.

[larryn]

I'm working there on Thursday and Friday for the autocross. Will likely be on the track on Wednesday.

[adc]

Originally Posted by Wolfpack

I am set for Friday as a student also. I submitted as an instructor for Saturday if they need extra help, otherwise I will be off with my wife sightseeing before the banquet.

So I may end up with you as an instructor on Saturday? That'd be way cool... :thumbup:

It's my first time at the Glen.

[whiplash]

Originally Posted by Phiberglass

I've never heard of this before. Can't wait to see pictures!@

It's the annual BMW CCA Oktoberfest, this tells you all about it: www.bmwccaofest.org
It's a great time! I've been going for several years now and wouldn't miss it for the world. Rumor has it that next year's event is going to be held at the Performance Center in Spartanburg! They had it there a few years ago and we got to use the Performance Center test track for the autocross.

Originally Posted by larryn

I'm working there on Thursday and Friday for the autocross. Will likely be on the track on Wednesday.

Working!? That sucks! If you're working timing and scoring...do you accept bribes?

[larryn]

Originally Posted by whiplash

Working!? That sucks! If you're working timing and scoring...do you accept bribes?

Yep.. working: http://www.bmwccaofest.org/autocross.phtml

Christo and I run the Boston Chapter's autocross series, which are very popular, and were asked to chair the O'Fest's autocross too.

Btw, did you see the location of the award's banquet on Saturday evening? That place looks incredible! On top of all the aviation stuff, there's going to be a car show intermingled, it sounds like.

[whiplash]

OK, so I have to ask....who decided to put the 135 in class 3A? I don't mind competing against cars that have a slight advantage on me but sheesh! Since I have an 1800 mile road trip to get there, I'm just going to drive on the run-flats (the wife wanted room in the car for suitcases and stuff...not tires?? Go figure...?) and the car is still bone stock but class 3A is basically the 'unlimited' class. Looks like the stock 135 on run-flats is competing against fully tricked out 325's, 330's and 335's on coil-overs and R-comps!?

Doesn't hardly seem fair to those other cars...:biggrin:

[larryn]

That system of classing is not one we use for our autocross series. As I understand it, that's a legacy classification system, with minor tweaks done each year.

It's funny you mention this now, as there's been emails floating around today of possibly adopting another system for future years O'Fests. It's far too late to do anything to this years, after we have a bunch of people signed up and classes already.

There's absolutely no reason why a stock 135i (or 128i) shouldn't be going against stock e36 and e46 M3s, in my mind. Our Boston Chapter system would allow for that. Add a few mods.. it adds points to your car, and you compete in point bracketed classes with differing base points for every model of car. We top it off with a Modified class, for cars that topped out beyond our points system allows.

So an example is:

Class A 138.0-158.0 Points
Class B 121.0-137.9 Points
Class C 104.0-120.9 Points
Class D 87.0-103.9 Points
Class E < 87.0 Points

A 135i is 108.6 base points
add chip to turbo car: 15 points
increased negative camber: 3pts for each .5 deg (9 points for added 1.5deg)
Tire width increase: (it's scaled by change) 8 points

and that car totals to 133.6 points - Class is B

Typical Class B cars are tweaked M3s, ZM3s, MiniS, etc.

this system cuts down the number of classes, but pits very comparable cars together.

[whiplash]

We use a very similar points structure in our chapter (in fact, we may have stolen yours :biggrin: ).

I appreciate you guys working the event so the rest of us can have fun! I chaired the gymkhana at the O'Fest in Ft. Worth so I know how much work goes into running these things!

The O'Fest classification system has always been hit or miss. The years when I trophy, I figure the system is perfect. The years I get my butt kicked, I think it's the worst system ever. Funny how that works? Oh well, I'm just doing it for the fun this year (trying to prepare myself now for getting creamed).

Looking forward to seeing some of you Addicts out there (and yes, I'll be sporting my 1Addicts sticker in the window).

[Wolfpack]

Originally Posted by whiplash

OK, so I have to ask....who decided to put the 135 in class 3A? I don't mind competing against cars that have a slight advantage on me but sheesh! Since I have an 1800 mile road trip to get there, I'm just going to drive on the run-flats (the wife wanted room in the car for suitcases and stuff...not tires?? Go figure...?) and the car is still bone stock but class 3A is basically the 'unlimited' class. Looks like the stock 135 on run-flats is competing against fully tricked out 325's, 330's and 335's on coil-overs and R-comps!?

Doesn't hardly seem fair to those other cars...:biggrin:

I was trying to figure that out also. 3A has always been a crap shoot as to what level of prep someone has done. Each year, I seem to see a totally different group of cars. I know that they want to keep all of the ///M cars together, but part of the fun is wailing on the ///M cars with a "lower" level car:thumbup:. The system does need to be changed in the future.

I have been trying to decide what to do with the tires also. I plan to load them up just like every other year, but I am a bit concerned about running accross the border to Canada and back with a car load of parts and tools to go through customs. I even debated shipping tires out and back to avoid that.

Hey Larry, if you have a say in the layout of the course, make it a good one. Longer runs of a minute or better would be great for me. No sense hauling stuff out there for a few 30 second runs!

[larryn]

Originally Posted by Wolfpack

Hey Larry, if you have a say in the layout of the course, make it a good one. Longer runs of a minute or better would be great for me. No sense hauling stuff out there for a few 30 second runs!

Wait until you see what we have planned. Our course designer is unparalleled in evilness. Don't worry about getting long runs in. We got the entire huge lot next to the paddock for our playground. :smile:

[whiplash]

Originally Posted by larryn

Btw, did you see the location of the award's banquet on Saturday evening? That place looks incredible! On top of all the aviation stuff, there's going to be a car show intermingled

That should be outstanding...and Bobby Rahal is the guest speaker!! Maybe he'll award my new car to me (I crack myself up sometimes...).