BMW DAY GP 2

It’s been 2 years since we last had a BMW Mass Park-off event in the Gauteng region.

The venue for this years’ instalment was once again The Glen Shopping Centre, south of the Johannesburg CBD.

With the amazing turn-out we experienced in 2013, we were again looking forward to a packed series of Beemers on the roof-top of The Glen in 2015.

The keen participation of various Clubs, Businesses, Dealerships and individuals all relating to the BMW brand created an atmosphere of fantastic togetherness which ensured that any passionate fan would enjoy the outing together with fellow friends and family.

A sunny and a sweltering 30+ deg Celsius temperature couldn’t keep a total of over 500 different Beemers away over the course of the day, and the cars certainly contested the heat with their looks and style.

BMWfanatics, which is the countrys’ most popular internet-based forum for any BMW owner (or even if you just want to chat with a cool bunch of guys) arranged a meet-up point and convoy to the event. Yaseen Arbee (BMWfanatics events co-ordinator) wasted no time in arranging the meet-up and convoy from the time he first learned about this eent a few months ago. It was probably one of the biggest one-brand one-lined convoy with a total of 89 cars travelling together on Gautengs roads.

Other clubs which arranged convoys to the event were CarCandyInc, Slutla Crew as well as Craig and his team all the way from Port Shepstone KZN driving up with 5 mint 325iS’.

The BMWCarClub of Gauteng also attended and had a good setup displaying some cool proper track prepped cars.

Sponsors and exhibitors on the day were, TuneTech (BM Mechanical Specialists), SpeedWay (Car Care products), Zambesi Auto BMW M Dealer, Alberante BMW Dealer, MZ Customs, German Wheel Shop (suppliers of Quality rims and tyres), Crazy Detailer who also sponsored a fantastic Meguires Car Care kit, and Funky Creations t-shirts.

Other supporting clubs were NAS concepts, Southside Crew

Behind the mic we had the illustrious Vic Pardal, a true gem in our car-loving culture.

For the kids we had some pedal-carts

The show competition winners were as follows :

BEST FACTORY STOCK STANDARD

1^st Place – Khalid Baba (1992 E30 325i with only 59600kms)

2^nd Place – Tevin Naidu (2015 M4 1300km)

3^rd Place – Sa’eed Valjie (2014 M135i 23000km)

Khalids car is such an example that if you want to see and experience what an E30 that came off the showroom floor in 1990 looked like, it would probably give you a 99% idea. It is a very prime and unmolested example.

BEST OLD (PRE 1985)

1^st Place – Raeez Abrahams (1971 2002 83000miles)

2^nd Place – Dilip Jivan & Jyoti Badal (1980 635csi 229000km)

3^rd Place – Roscoe (1983 E28 525e 300000km)

Raeez’s 2002 was just awesome. My favourite of all the cars that attended (I wasn’t a judge btw so my vote didn’t count here). This car was apparently in a sad state and was brought back to life by Raeez over a 2 year period.

BEST E30

1^st Place – Faisel Karim (1990 Alpina B3 2.7 273000km)

2^nd Place – Vaughn Stemmet (1990 325i )

3^rd Place – Sharred Nabesur (1992 E30 245000km)

The winning E30 Alpina was apparently built by master technician Shaun Sing when he worked at Stuart Bromfield BMW Dealer (The authorised Alpina agent in South Africa)

BEST 325Is / 333i

1^st  Place - Mark Richards (1990 White, 143000km)

2^nd Place – Multi Car Sales (1992 Polaris Silver 60000km)

3^rd Place – Mohammed Hoosen (1990 Glacier Blue 150000km)

A very tight class with all 3 in very very good condition. Thankfully these gems of a motor-piece are still being preserved. Mark and his buddys drove all the way from Mpumalanga and back for this event showing that the car is still a car and not just a garage queen.

BEST M (earliest till 2001)

1^st Place – Nishar Karim (1994 E36 M3 2D 40000km)

2^nd Place – Dhiresh Dewnaryan (1998 E36 M3 4D 132000km)

3^rd Place – Bret Joubert (1998 E36 M3 4D 55000km)

Again a tight class but Nishar’s well-maintained Red E36 2door was driven from Mpumalanga and is kept clean by themselves over week-ends.

BEST M (2002 till newest)

1^st Place – Waheed (2014 M4 2000km)

2^nd Place – Vaash Govender (2010 E93 M3 55000km)

3^rd Place – Zahid (2005 M3)

Admittedly this class need to be broken up yet again to separate the newer ‘TurboM cars into a separate category for fair competition.

BEST RARE CAR

1^st Place – Faisel Karim (1990 E30 Alpina 273000km)

2^nd Place – Ziyaad Saloojee (1978 E12 186000km)

3^rd Place -  Dawid Scott (1981 E21 316i 280000km)

My personal best category of the day as I always appreciate seeing fine examples of rare classics not usually seen on our roads, and all of these 3 looked like typical daily drives, yet were such rare beauties.

BEST TEAM, CLUB or CREW

Slutla Crew

A fine selection of E30s –all cabriolets neatly maintained by a group of down to earth guys who are passionate about participating in any event.

BEST CONVOY

BMWfanatics crew

Certainly one of the biggest convoys Gauteng has seen

BEST FEMALE RIDE

1^st Place – Khulsum Lalla (E93 M3 Convertible)

2^nd Place – Farzana Chaumoo (2012 1series convertible)

3^rd Place – Androniki Pouris (2014 125i)

Unfortuantely we cannot ask that owners papers are produced to confirm that these rides are lady-owned, but we take the publics’ word and honesty that cars bought and maintained by males weren’t merely entered into on the females’ name. We’d obviously prefer fair game.

BESTMODIFIED

1^st Place – Dwayne Galloway (E46 M3 Supercharged)

2^nd Place – Illias LETHAL-1 GP (92 Silver E30 2.9 stroker)

3^rd Place – Chris dos Santos (E46 M3 Supercharged)

Dwayne’s car was a previous Rob Green creation with apparently R2m of mods in the car. It is currently for sale.

BEST EXHAUST NOISE

1^st Place – Mpho (1981 E21 323i)

This little guy going up against V8 M3s and E46 330’s was too awesome, showing that the classic straight six M20s still rule when it comes to a Beemer exhaust tone

BEST SHOW CAR

1^st Place – Wayne (2015 335i)

2^nd Place – Anesh (E92 2007 325i Coupe)

3^rd Place – Vaash Govender (2010 E93 M3)

Best Dealer goes to Zambesi Auto M Division

Our judges for the day were :

Peter Karvelas  - an active member of the BMWfanatics forum as well as a long standing member of the E30clubSA forum. Peter Karvelas is also a member of the Ferrari Club and has extensive knowledge on BMW vehicles. He also works on BMW cars from his home and is good at restoring vehicles to their original spec.

The 2nd judge was Rizo from JHB Parties and the 3rd judge James Schlebusch - a salesman from Zambesi Auto BMW M Dealer. James unfortunately had to leave early due to a family emergency.

The judging was all about originality and staying within the  heritage of a BMW vehicle - if wheels were changed, was it original OEM wheels, if steerings were changed was it original OEM BMW related stuff and so on and so on. If a guy modifies his car to an extent that he cannot enjoy the car to BMWs motto of Sheer Driving Pleasure then he loses points. Changing items that disallow the BMW to run to its full potential will be trumped by an original daily driven car with all the details taken care of. The car must obviously be as clean as materially possible. Original paintwork counts, original interior materials count, original backboards, boot carpets engine components etc etc. All of the bits that make a BMW stay a BMW despite age and mileage.

There were, as there always is with competitions, a few unhappy souls after the winners were read out, but it is understandable. I think even if the judges were more lenient, the outcome would have been the same.

 It just shows the level of commitment that owners have with their cars and the amount of time, effort, and cash that can never fully be compensated.

Everyone wants to be a winner, and if I had it my way, I would give everyone that joined us on the day a heart-welcoming prize.

So to everyone that pitched, and got sun-burned, and struggled for parking, and drove from far, and were patient went we ran over schedule time and made efforts for this event, we thank you.

It’s the passion for BMW that brought us together…. The day that Passion spoke louder than words.

An epic video captured by Chris dos Santos

Pics were taken by various attendees on the day, Special thanks to these guys.

Diki 'LoungeLizzard' Sehlabo, AEM Photography, Dhiresh D Dewnaryan, Asif Ebrahim, Shafiq Bawa & Yusuf Omar.

TO SEE THE PICS GALLERY CLICK HERE

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