New BMWCCA Area Contact

     Mark Wartena is the new SLO Area Contact for BMWCCA's Golden Gate Chapter.  The group held a Meet & Greet on July 21 at Panera Bread in Santa Maria, followed by a driving tour to Santa Ynez for lunch.  Seventeen attended the meeting, where Mark outlined plans to continue and expand our activities here. 

 

     Our driving tour took us north on Bull Canyon Road, then east on 166 to Tepusquet Road, a favorite of sports car and motorcyle enthusiasts.  We finished our drive through the vineyards along Foxen Canyon Road to our lunch destination, Vineyard House in Santa Ynez.  Mark has been attending board meetings in the Bay Area to meet with chapter officers and will introduce new trails to the group. 

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Me and Dennis paddling at Pismo...

Classic Cars, Classic Planes

Paso Robles, CA, 11 May 2013  (Text & Photos by Dennis)

      Temperatures hovering near 100º did not discourage a large turnout for the Estralla Museum's "Warbirds, Wings & Wheels 5."  This event is maturing into a major happening, and is free to the public though donations to the museum and veterans groups are welcome.  
       WW1 planes were in the sky at the same time as a P51 Mustang made a high speed pass, quite a contrast.  The cars were primarily classics and hot rods, with a few sports cars and exotics plus a few drag boats and race cars.  
      The indoor permanent museum has a large exhibit of military and automotive memorabilia, plus a small car collection including a beautiful example of a Southern California midget racer from the 1940's.

Solvang Motorcycle Museum

The Central Coast branch of BMWCCA had their final 2012 outing on Saturday, December 1.  We were fortunate enough to avoid the rain, and took it fairly easy on our drive over Black Road towards Lompoc via Harris Grade Road.  We then headed South on Route 246 to Solvang and lunch at the River Grill, located at the golf course.

 

After an outstanding meal we toured the Solvang Motorcycle Museum only a few blocks away. It is an a vast collection of historic and racing bikes that Virgil Elings has put together over the last 20 years.  The technology is amazing, with many bold experiments attempted to gain the advantage in pursuit of racing glory.  There is information posted with most of the bikes, with very honest reviews in cases where the engineering turned out to be suspect.  I am not a two-wheel guy but plan to go back for another visit - too much history to absorb in one visit.

28 October Drive

From Dennis: Here are a few pictures from the drive, one of our best. Two hours of hard driving and excellent food at the Hunter Ranch Grill.

Saturday Morning Donuts & Cool Cars

Taken 1 Sept. 2012 during a visit with Dennis Harrold. Just about every Saturday morning a bunch of old guys with time and money on their hands meet on Oak Park Blvd and James Way in Arroyo Grande to look at and talk about.....cars. Old cars. Newer cars.

For Car Guys.

 

From Tacoma Ron.....hadn't heard of them but they were real.  There are links if you search, at least one with a dyno run to 5000 rpm.

 

Dennis

 

 

.    Subject: Show this to the car guys.

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Laguna Seca ALMS race 12-13 May 2012

The race was not quite as Formula 1, but worth it. The track is very accessible - you can walk around if six hours of concentration on the race feels overwhelming. Besides, you can view the race and take pictures from virtually every location around the track. 


The BMW corral was very well organized, placed near turn five. There were many vendors, booths of VW, McLaren, Chevy, Cadillac, etc., but unfortunately, BMW wasn’t present. 


I would highly recommend the event for race aficionados who do not want to travel far or pay a pile of money for a real race experience. The cost of the ticket was $50 per person plus $15 corral pass per car. Compare this to the typical $500 and up for an F1 race and the experience feels even better.
-Damian Kachlakev

Photos by Damian Kachlakev