Event date: 7-9 October 2022
Motorclassica is the most prestigious car show event on our calendar with the gloriously atmospheric wooden floored Royal Exhibition Building housing up to 200 of the finest cars from yesteryear in Australia. Augmenting this extravagant array of finery, car clubs, such as ours, are invited to display member’s cars for one day each in the outdoor area between the Exhibition Building and the adjoining Museum.
Since our inception DCM has been one of those invited clubs and this year we were elevated to 3 day status to put on a display in conjunction with BMW Australia celebrating 50 Years of M – which has been our display theme all year.
BMW Australia had put together a bold and exciting display stand to showcase M cars new and old and a top secret “significant product reveal” with our member’s cars alongside. Initially intended to be housed in the same space as the club display the location had to be changed at the last moment when the multiple parties involved (I counted at least 8) realised that erecting the stand required a mobile crane and the outdoor display space is actually the roof of the underground car park, which is not strong enough for such a crane.
In the end the result was good for all. BMW Australia’s stand was now in front of the main entrance and our display area was enlarged and right outside the door from the main hall to the outdoor area with seating for the food vendors’ area at our perimeter.
Our member’s provided an excellent selection of M-cars allowing us to tell the story of M from its inception in 1972 (with an E9 3.0 CSL road car) the iconic E30 M3, the start of the “non-homologation” M-cars with one of the early 5 series M models which preceded the M5, the remainder of the M3/4s generations plus most of theM5 family. To add to the narrative we had an E46 M3 CSL back to back with the E9 CSL and a 1M alongside it next to its spiritual successor the M2. Completing the line up we had two XxM models, showing that M is not just 2 door coupes and an M6 to complete the spectrum of M’s modern reach.
To say that our display was popular would be an understatement and I was very glad to have assistance from several members, Steve Garth, Adrian White and Tim Oh in particular.
BMW Australia’s stand featured club member Keith Olsen’s E9 Group 4 3.0 CSL “batmobile” in Motorsport racing colours, the new XM, BMW Australia’s E46 M3 CSL, an F82 M4 GTS, the Jeff Koons M8 art car and the new G81 M3 Touring.
And the secret reveal? The new M2 in a special room with no mobile phones or cameras allowed.
The display of cars inside was markedly different from previous years with a new curator team at work. There were less of the pre WW2 cars and more of the contemporary models – not to everyone’s satisfaction but you can’t please everyone. Whilst I felt this was a change for the better, my own view, if one must find fault, is that too many cars were there because they are special in terms of being expensive or in exceptional condition rather then being special because they are different or historically significant.
Overall, a brilliant weekend. A big thank you to all our members who surrendered their cars to the vagaries of the weather (which included torrential rain on Friday) to make our display so magnificent.
Lawrence Glynn | Member #3
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne
