bmwcca members?

[johns1974]

anybody out there a member of the bmwcca? is it worth the $40? i'm in los angeles so any specific info regarding the la chapter would be appreciated...

i wonder if the m6 and 760i people look down on the old schoolers...?

probably not if you rolled up in a 507...

TIA

[bobthomas]

Member since the 70s. It's worth the $ for lots of reasons which I'm sure will be noted in posts after this one. Haven't gotten a thumbs up from non-'02 in years until a couple of weeks ago when a new M6 flew by the M2 with a BIG thumbs up. Way back when there wasn't a BMW on every street (in 1976 I owned 1 of only 3 or 4 BMWS in this smallish town),we flashed headlights at each other.

[steve k.]

i wonder if the m6 and 760i people look down on the old schoolers...?

probably not if you rolled up in a 507...

TIA

not usually. not when you show up to the autocrosses and race them oldshool way!

yah, it's worth the $40. you get to participate in a lot of bmwcca events. Well, we have a lot of them in Bay Area. And the Roundel magazine is pretty cool.

steve k.

[Ian]

I've been a member since the early 90's. I've met a lot of good people through the CCA, many of whom had (or still have) 2002s. Plus the BMW CCA track events are some of the best organized around.

Ian

'76 M2

[John_in_VA]

to see if there's anything that interests you. I'm sure the members would love to meet you and show you around!

http://www.bmwclubla.org/

[Chris_B]

anybody out there a member of the bmwcca? is it worth the $40? i'm in los angeles so any specific info regarding the la chapter would be appreciated...

i wonder if the m6 and 760i people look down on the old schoolers...?

probably not if you rolled up in a 507...

TIA

Well worth it. I easily save much more than the $40 fee with the car club parts discount at the dealer. This may not be worth much to someone who only owns an 02, because only a subset of the dealers are willing to hassle with Mobile Tradition parts.

Yes, many of the club members who are buying new BMWs today do not appreciate the old skoolers, but the club tries to achieve a balance in the Roundel and social events.

[f1reverb]

membership, but as many dealers charge above list price you only go there when you have to for parts.

I've been in the CCA since 1990, but I was in the former BMWACA (Automobile Club of America with Portland, OR being the only chapter left) in the L.A. Region starting in 1973. The CCA took over the ACA chapter here in the late '80/early '90s when the ACA went belly-up. In the '70s the ACA was THE club, and the CCA was a bunch of bozos. If you wanted to go to the Nurburgring school back then it was only for ACA members. As far as I'm concerned, the CCA today is a lifestyle club as opposed to being, along with the ACA, an enthusiast club back then. It really started changing when Hoffman Motors sold out to BMWNA starting in 1975. Here's some Los Angeles Region BMWACA Whispering Bombs from the '70s (and the club newsletter is still the same name) . . .

[gwb72tii]

don't mean to hijack this thread, but the pinnacle of sedan racing was the 320i turbo's driven ny hobbs, posey and others. we'd go to laguna seca and they absolutely hauled major ass.

got any pics jay?

[f1reverb]

don't mean to hijack this thread, but the pinnacle of sedan racing was the 320i turbo's driven ny hobbs, posey and others. we'd go to laguna seca and they absolutely hauled major ass.

got any pics jay?

as all those pics are mine. I have a ton in the saltmine that haven't seen the light of day since then (both color and b&w), as that was one of the years I was the competition editor for the Whispering Bomb so I could get credentials for various races. Essentially my unpublished stuff is better than what was published over the years, as the journalistic content for publication was more important than just having a great shot that didn't fit a story. The real hard part was having both at the same time, or having an art director like Bill Motta from R&T, who would make my art shots fit as journalism. I had just hit the big time with my first shots in R&T in the July 1978 issue and I was flying high when I went up to the Portland IMSA race in July 1978. It was great driving my Turbo striped/flared/spoilered '69 1600-2 up to PIR. Hobbs was a dick after he won the race in the parking lot at PIR as he was in a 6er and floored it in the dirt and shot rocks all over us.

[WH]

membership, but as many dealers charge above list price you only go there when you have to for parts.

I've been in the CCA since 1990, but I was in the former BMWACA (Automobile Club of America with Portland, OR being the only chapter left) in the L.A. Region starting in 1973. The CCA took over the ACA chapter here in the late '80/early '90s when the ACA went belly-up. In the '70s the ACA was THE club, and the CCA was a bunch of bozos. If you wanted to go to the Nurburgring school back then it was only for ACA members. As far as I'm concerned, the CCA today is a lifestyle club as opposed to being, along with the ACA, an enthusiast club back then. It really started changing when Hoffman Motors sold out to BMWNA starting in 1975. Here's some Los Angeles Region BMWACA Whispering Bombs from the '70s (and the club newsletter is still the same name) . . .

Excellent post and gives some "history" to the ACA and CCA. I was a CCA and ACA member since the late 1980's, but dropped out of the CCA being they have no local presence today still (Portland,OR) and the fact that paying (2) yearly fees for being in both clubs became tiresome and redundant let alone expensive! I for one agree the CCA is more a "lifestyle" club much like many other "new" car clubs. The events are dominated by 1995 and up new cars. My main perk for being in the CCA for years was the Roundel Mag, but the last couple years in the CCA I barely read it any longer, so I don't miss it today. I still get parts discounts being in the ACA but I rarely use it.

WH

[Chris_B]

The club really has to be viewed from the perspective of the local chapters, and they vary significantly in the level of "enthusiast" type activities that are sponsored. My chapter (Golden Gate) is quite active and sponsors or participates in all sorts of great activities. For example, here is the schedule for August:

Thunderhill Driving School (HPDE)

Club Racing School - Thunderhill

Backroads to Big Sur (160 mile drive…)

BMW Festorics (gathering at Monterey Historic Races)

Ultimate Clean Car Contest (Held in conjunction with Central CA Chapter's parking corral at Concorso Italiano) ,

Autocross (Steve K.?)

East Bay Meet & Greet

The GG chapter also regularly hosts car control clinics, teen driving clinics, tech sessions, etc. These are not just "life style" activities.

[Delia]

When I bought my '69 2002 (#1666747) back in 1972 and joined BMWCCA shortly thereafter, responding to a one-inch ad in the back of Road & Track or Auto Week/Comp Press. I've had a continuous membership for 35 years, and hold member number 1974.

The advantage for me is because I lived in Michigan there were few owners with whom to associate and some of the more common weaknesses/characteristics of the 02 series were shared through the Roundel articles and tech information. Aftermarket performance equipment and accessories were discussed at length by informed 2002 gurus like Michel Potheau from Circle Tire and others.

With the newer models superceding the relatively limited Coupes Bavarias and first-gen Fiver offerings in the early seventies, the club changed. I bought a E21 320i and BMWNA seemed to forget about their roots - choosing to focus on the boring E30. It wasn't until the '87 325is and E30 M3 things livened up again for the enthusiasts. I kept my membership but drove not one but two Toyota Corolla AE86 GTS models to salve my small -rear-drive-performance-car fetish.

With my my membership intact, I skipped 2002 ownership until I used up both my Corollas...took me until the new millenium. And though I read Mike Self's column religiously, I found no real reason for my membership to continue...but I did. By then the club ranks had swelled to 60,000 members. Ownership of a 2002 for daily driving was becoming rare and rust as well as other maladies were decimating the ranks of cars as well as knowledgeable owners and enthusiasts.

When the calendar year 2002 approached, things turned around for 2002 owners. Maxmillian and M/T were there for parts. The BMW CCA Annual O'Fest in Keystone, CO was to feature the model number designation's "Coming of Age." I bought "Orange Julius" and headed West to meet up with about 100 other 2002 owners, swap stories, replace radiators and head gaskets in the 2002 Corral. The group photo of about 80 or so cars up near Loveland Pass (11,500 ft above sea level) is one of the high points (literally) of my years as a 2002 owner. The final evening we heard keynote addresses by iconic Motor Journalists like David E. Davis Jr. and BMW IMSA-RS Series pilot, Nick Craw.

Since then, the 2002 has received recognition from everywhere as an icon of mid-century design, engineering and the seminal beginnings of BMW's image as manufacturer of high-performance sports sedan.

In Munich, when the factory museum was closed for renovation, they built a 2002 tii in a conservatory under glass. That car shows up in the darndest places including Motor Trend Magazine and the Monterey Festorics in 2006. It serves as the company's homage to the car that saved BMW from extinction.

Certainly I'll keep my membership even if I don't have an 02. I may just be driving an E30...it's not a 2002 but its spiritual successor.

Now that I'm out here in the Bay Area, things are a bit different. Most 02 owners aren't, as I had expected, driving their cars daily. I don't get to many of the GG Chapter Events but I have met some of the more hard core 2002 enthusiast members like Bill Arnold, Bill Watson, Sean Casey and hot-shoe 02 drivers like Jay Kehoe and Steve Ostwald...even got a shotgun seat ride for some hot laps in an '02 at Sears Point...uh...I mean Infineon.

The discounts are OK, the articles by Satch and Mike Self are entertaining and informative. An even if I never attend another O'Fest, I still have my grill badge and recollections of a good time "back in '02."

Cheers!

Delia

[f1reverb]

membership, but as many dealers charge above list price you only go there when you have to for parts.

I've been in the CCA since 1990, but I was in the former BMWACA (Automobile Club of America with Portland, OR being the only chapter left) in the L.A. Region starting in 1973. The CCA took over the ACA chapter here in the late '80/early '90s when the ACA went belly-up. In the '70s the ACA was THE club, and the CCA was a bunch of bozos. If you wanted to go to the Nurburgring school back then it was only for ACA members. As far as I'm concerned, the CCA today is a lifestyle club as opposed to being, along with the ACA, an enthusiast club back then. It really started changing when Hoffman Motors sold out to BMWNA starting in 1975. Here's some Los Angeles Region BMWACA Whispering Bombs from the '70s (and the club newsletter is still the same name) . . .

Excellent post and gives some "history" to the ACA and CCA. I was a CCA and ACA member since the late 1980's, but dropped out of the CCA being they have no local presence today still (Portland,OR) and the fact that paying (2) yearly fees for being in both clubs became tiresome and redundant let alone expensive! I for one agree the CCA is more a "lifestyle" club much like many other "new" car clubs. The events are dominated by 1995 and up new cars. My main perk for being in the CCA for years was the Roundel Mag, but the last couple years in the CCA I barely read it any longer, so I don't miss it today. I still get parts discounts being in the ACA but I rarely use it.

WH

chapter back in '70 or '71. Nice to see someone still in the Portland ACA, as Gary gave up on it years ago as he's an Audi Sport Quattro snob now.

Now I joke about the CCA back then as being bozos, but they were really a counterculture version of the ACA then, but aspired to ACAdom. The choice was simple if you wanted to go to the Nurburgring school at some point. Gordon up in Portland was in the first batch of Americans at the 'Ring ACA trip in '74, and my bro and I in '75 and '77. Gary went in '83.

It is the local chapter that counts. Frankly, the S.F. Bay area, to me, both then and now, is the real spiritual and historical home of the true BMW enthusiasts, especially with '02s. We, meaning L.A., had Vasek, Dietel, Hyde Park Motors and the like here back then, but the anti-establishment ambiance of the NorCal '02ers was where I felt most at home when I started going to IMSA races at Laguna in '74. Here in L.A. in the '70s my bro and friends in the ACA were looked down upon as heretics, but when we went North we were welcomed with open arms by the BMW freaks.

I too don't even open my Roundels anymore. I have piles still in the plastic or let my bro read them (he's too cheap to join the CCA but he buys new BMWs every few years and could have saved thousands with the CCA rebates on a new purchase). I have to say that I don't even read my Road & Tracks either even though I have a subscription (hey, three years at 25 cents an issue via ebay is almost too much to pay for its value to me today).

I believe it was the 5er and 6er BMWs that ultimately corrupted BMW enthusiasm in the mid to late '70s. I still remember, when I worked at a local Shell station in 1970, a guy pulled in in a new '70 Fjord 2800CS and was mad that I, a gas station punk, knew all about his BMW. Back then owners liked it when someone said, "BMW -- British Motor Works, right?"

I met Gary at the 1978 Sears Point IMSA race I pictured above. Like I said, I was flying high from the R&T pics, and went out to my '02 at lunch in the parking area, and this guy was getting some stuff out of his '02's trunk parked two cars away from me. I asked him if he read R&T and asked him if he saw these pics (I just happened to have the July 1978 issue in my trunk which I had opened), which he said he did, so I said I shot 'em. That freaked him out, and when I said we were going up to PIR the next weekend, he invited my and my bro to stay at his house (his wife didn't dig it though) and we've been extremely close friends ever since. '02ers were good then and still are.

[dubois]

02's are always welcomed at club events. The Roundel is a very well written magazine. You will find helpful tips, entertaining articles and good photographs. I found that the $40/year is money well spent. Assuming $25 for the Roundel the other $15/year are easily recoverable. Like a check for $1000 when we purchased my wife's 530 in 2002, so I am well ahead. Driving schools, scenic drives, social events, control clinics, the corral in Laguna Seca during the Festorics, are a few of the events I have participated. I find value of being a member, even if only go to one of those once a year.