That sure looks like our man Ian.......Good catch Wayne......

C.

 

Yeah, great find Wayne. Almost certainly that is Ian. I'm sure he's having himself a blast.

 

Yeah.... that be me

...just got back, 11pm last night.
An absolutely amazing event, I'll post up more details and pics when I've recovered a bit.

 

Welcome back. Lookin forward to the details.

 

Welcome home partner.

Looking forward to hearing more about the details.

 

....you know the joke about BMW owners and porcupines?
I'm here to say, it just ain't true!
Anyone that lets you drive his car on the Dragon, sure doesn't fit that mold.

....just found my online Dragon pics.
me at the wheel of my buddies M Coupe

 

Welcome back, Ian.....Sounds like you had a great time -----

C.

 

Welcome back Ian. I am sure you had an amazing time. I'd love to drive the Dragon at some point.

 

Welcome back Ian, sounds like a trip you couldn't miss. I can hardly wait to see the pics, and get some trip pointers for our trip down there next summer.

 

How about making this our summer cruise for next year????
I'll go back in a heart beat.

 

We are in

 

OK... just to fill in a few blanks;
The reason for the road trip was BMW Roaster Homecoming.
The Z series has been mfg'd in Spartanburg/Greenville SC since the inception of the Z3 12 years ago.

They have been doing a homecoming event at the factory since the beginning.
2008 is the last year of production for the Z4 & this was the last Homecoming event.

Here's a snippet of what we did......

Day1 was a travel day 6am to 6pm.
We went throught Detroit & down I-75 to get to Clinton just outside of Knoxville.

Day2 was a quick run in the morning to get to the Great Smokey Mts. & a day of fun on the twisties.

- we started off from Tellico Plains on the Cherohala skyway;
a great maintain ascent & then descent into Robinsville.
it was a little foggy and misty that morning... I'd love a re-do in clear conditions.

- We then headed up to Tapoco Lodge, where we met the rest of the Z crew.
This is the start of the Dragon.
The Dragon is an amazing stretch of twisties, something every enthusiast should see at some point.
What really surprised me was the amount of banking on he corners.

- After the Dragon, we wound through some back roads that were truly amazing driving roads.
- We wound through to the Blue Ridge parkway, which proved to be one of the most spectacular drives of them all.

Day3 was performance driving events at the BMW Performance Center
We got to run several different events including;
- slalom course
- Timed autocross
- Wet/dry autocross (2 car race)
- Rat race on a wet oval
- A wild, man made off road course

The cars we drove?
- The new M3, 650i, 335i, X5

Then it was back to the Hotel for party central, outdoor dinner & ending in a fireworks display.

Day 4 was back to the factory to do a huge panorama picture on the front lawn.
There was over 650 cars!!!!!!
- all kinds of other things going on all day including factory tours, etc and a tech tent where factory techs worked on cars for free!!!
The day finished with a reception/banquet in the factory with live entertainment.
They also rolled out the last Z4 produced, that rolled off the line that Wednesday.

Day5 … it was back on the road & headed for home.

I have been to a lot of events over the years but this was the most spectacular ones I've ever attended.

 

& the pics......

 

....more