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Unofficial Rally - Terrible

31K views 73 replies 27 participants last post by  Richard in NC 
#1 ·
Well, I went with one of my friends (Jon knows them) Matt Poulin in his beat up E30 and was extreemly dissapointed with the turnout. It was mainly the people from SBEuroclub and a few others, probably only around 40 cars total :(

Jon, I know that you don't want an official rally, but thats a big part of the fun of bimmerfest! This year there were so few people in the loop about what was going on that it resulted in that horible turnout.

I honestly don't think that if there's an official one next time that you have to worry about wreckless driving. During this rally there were CHP all over the place and even a CHP helicopter that followed us the entire way:yikes:

Just a suggestion, I think you should do an official one next year :thumbup:
 
#2 ·
This is EXACTLY why there is no longer an "official" rally. People are going to drive no different whether it's "official" or not. I assume you didn't read a post I made earlier in a thread.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Fun while it lasted

This was my first time at bimmerfest and I thought the rally was so much fun....right up until the time that the CHP started herding us like sheep.

Those 7-point stars caught up with us at US101/154. There was a chp helicopter watching the front of the pack and two chp units following in the rear. Something like that is pretty much a buzz kill so I bailed out of the rally. The last chp car was unmarked and the officer gave me the dirtest look ever when he passed me on the side of the road. :nono:

Truth be told, I didn't know about the rally either. I was just driving back to San Jose when I was suddenly enveloped by the rally as I passed refugio rd. Talk about great timing.

So what happened for the rest of the drive back to SB? Let me guess. :angel: Everybody drove single-file, 5mph below the speed limit for the remaining duration of the rally.

Where are the pics and video of the road rally? I can't wait to see some of the amazing shots from the camera car(s).

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
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#8 ·
I went on this years rally and I really enjoyed it, although there was a very poor turnout. Just thinking ahead for next year but, I may try and be the coordinator of the rally and organize with CHP and local police to make the group drive more legitimate. What do you guys think?
 
#19 ·
Ya, I think that's a great idea:thumbup: It would keep people from doing anything stupid.
 
#9 ·
I just found this on youtube. Thank you to the poster.

 
#10 ·
Oh and for the record... on this years drive, I didn't see anyone do anything stupid or try to race another rally'er. It was a very pleasurable drive. If I were to organize the drive for next year to be larger, I feel organizing with authorities and threatening legal actions against those who don't follow the rally's rules would force the kids and reckless drivers to hopefully be more careful.
 
#28 ·
Oh and for the record... on this years drive, I didn't see anyone do anything stupid...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA8ZPhqUJ4M&mode=related&search=

About 42 seconds into it some asshead does a burnout and comes dangerously close to other cars and the camera man. This kinda stuff is what spoils the rally and is why it is no longer official.

Rather than exemplifying cool and class, people feel the need to make idiots of themselves instead. That isn't very "Bimmerfest" to me.
 
#20 ·
Actually a very good idea. However, what about those under 18 (usually the stupid drivers anyways) they would have to fax the waver back to their moms lol.

But on that note, we could setup a booth at bimmerfest 08' and have people officially sign up for the drive before hand. Then comes up the problem of people joining the drive without signing up, what about some sort of temporary sticker that would be placed next to the licence plate or something of the sorts to let admins and authorities know who is signed up and on the drive.
 
#17 ·
Yeah, it sucked this year. :thumbdwn: I had asked a few people at the fest about the rally and they didn't hear anything either. I went on it anyways. I waited at the usual start point, but when I got there, there were only 3 other cars. A silver E46 sedan, A black older M3 and an Estoril Blue M3 (some asian gal was driving it and took off about 5 mins later).

Most of us waited and a handful of other cars showed up. We were there until the chopper came by and the CHPies kicked us out. :cry:

I always enjoy the drive...regardless of how many people showed up. We need to set something up next year... LONG LIVE THE RALLY!!!!!!!!!!

Whether it's official or not. I completed the rally on my own and I did run into some old Bimmers going the opposite way.
 
#22 ·
I like the rally sticker idea or even a ticket of some sort. Last year's rally was unofficial and it worked out very nicely. Someone handed out a map to everyone coming into the show so people actually knew about it. Nobody really did anything stupid on last year's rally either. It was a nice drive :)
 
#25 ·
Also, how about meeting somewhere else other than an on/off-ramp....maybe meet up at one of the county parks that are on the route....

We could then figure out how to park cars without blocking anyone or any road. Maybe using some of that temporary paint to mark where and where you cannot park...then taking off in an organized manner....just like we all exited the bus back in Elementary...one row at at time..
 
#27 ·
Does anyone know how Harley Davidson manages the Love Ride?

They get a $H|T load of bikes on their ride and they don't get hassled by the law...

Does anyone know anyone who could talk to them and see how they manage the ride?

Also, if they get an OK from the law, I don't see why we wouldn't...I would think that we are a little less rowdy than the Harley riders...
 
#29 · (Edited)
Drives are fun. Especially spirited ones. The problem is that as the group gets larger, the idiot quotient climbs exponentially and 'incidents' ensue.

Personally, I've done one bimmerfest caravan and it will be my only one. It was fun, to be sure, but I witnessed enough azzhattery that I just don't want to be a part of.

When you don't have control (I mean quality control, not physical) over EVERYONE on a drive, there is no telling what you'll end up with. Probably people like those that were racing around, doing burnouts, etc at 2am on Friday night/Saturday morning. I wouldn't really want to share the track with people like that - where there is a huge emphasis on safety - much less would I trust twits like that on the street.

/rant
 
#31 ·
Drives are fun. Especially spirited ones. The problem is that as the group gets larger, the idiot quotient climbs exponentially and 'incidents' ensue.

Personally, I've done one bimmerfest caravan and it will be my only one. It was fun, to be sure, but I witnessed enough azzhattery that I just don't want to be a part of.

When you don't have control (I mean quality control, not physical) over EVERYONE on a drive, there is no telling what you'll end up with. Probably people like those that were racing around, doing burnouts, etc at 2am on Friday night/Saturday morning. I wouldn't really want to share the track with people like that - where there is a huge emphasis on safety - much less would I trust twits like that on the street.

/rant
Spirited drives with a couple buddies is alright, however were talking 100's of cars on a single route. The possiblity of danger is increased dramatically, another reason why the orginization and possible signing of a waver is key to sucess :thumbup:
 
#33 ·
I just wanted to add that I had a great time on the rally. It was dissapointing due to the lack of people, but all in all it was just fun to drive those gorgeous roads with you fellow festers'. I was the red 335 coupe.

About the escort, we pratically had one! The people in my car were laughing because that helecopter never left my sight, they kept saying "Oh! I bet they're saying follow the red one!" How much does it cost to have that thing flying for an hour? Can't be cheap. Point is, the only thing we were all going to get a ticket for was driving too slow, so some sort of an organized rally with pacing leaders might be an answer. Looking forward to the next one!

~Jon:thumbup:
 
#34 ·
I just wanted to add that I had a great time on the rally. It was dissapointing due to the lack of people, but all in all it was just fun to drive those gorgeous roads with you fellow festers'. I was the red 335 coupe.

About the escort, we pratically had one! The people in my car were laughing because that helecopter never left my sight, they kept saying "Oh! I bet they're saying follow the red one!" How much does it cost to have that thing flying for an hour? Can't be cheap. Point is, the only thing we were all going to get a ticket for was driving too slow, so some sort of an organized rally with pacing leaders might be an answer. Looking forward to the next one!

~Jon:thumbup:
Yeah I'm pretty sure everyone on the rally was making fun of the cops for wasting their time and money. I was also thinking the same thing about my color, "yea we have a bright yellow bmw going 55mph... were gonna pursue"
 
#37 ·
While that sounds like a great idea, in reality, many people who show up for bimmerfest don't actually contribute to this forum. There's a huge bf.c contingent, among other forums that show up en masse, so banning a guy who doesn't have an account may not work.

Still, I LOL'd at your idea because it's stupid, funny and brilliant at the same time. :thumbup:
 
#38 ·
not even that, we really wanted this, we would need to first greese up the CHP, Then get that damn traffic light shut down. not croud the on/off ramp @ start point but maybe the turn and the road to the right. then from that point you split the group in intervals of 10 seconds with a pacekeeper as the lead and keep the groups to a maximum of 10 cars and on top of that, set strict guidelines on passing.
 
#40 ·
In the foreseeable future I cannot see this ever working again, unfortantly.

With that said, that car count is just too massive and it impeads traffic not only on US101, but also on SR154 which is unacceptable for anyone traveling on those roads. That's the main issue here, not to mention people's driving habits were getting out of hand all at the same time.
 
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