What amazing driving weather we have been having, and April was no exception.
6th April saw a large group of us attend the GT Racing and Shannon’s Speed Series at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. Great weather but a little nip in the air kept the jackets on but some great racing was had all day. Great fun had by all and some amazing racing. It was good to have some of our members up in race control, March and April has been very busy for our race Officials with track events on pretty much for 7 weeks in a row. Well done guys.
18th April Good Friday appeal and WOW we filled the car park and had cars out on the road. This was a huge day with the sun out again. Great raffle prizes to be had and a nice figure of $1200 was raise for the Children’s Hospital. Thank you to all who attended, helped out and presented their cars in such an amazing fashion.
23-27th April was our big event at Caroline Springs and Calder Park - BMW Clubs Australia Nationals. Some of us arrived on the Wednesday to start set up and get ready to start this fantastic event. We had a dinner meeting and lots of laughs then straight to bed ready for what was a huge but fantastic weekend. Check out our photo link to see some of the amazing photos taken over the weekend, with more coming in daily.
It was so good to welcome all our national friends to our event and all over the weekend there were lots of smiles from all who attended.
The event started on Thursday with Registration and Check In and those who registered using the Nationals Package received some great gifts which were paced in their rooms.
Thursday evening, we all met in the foyer to be coached in to Melbourne BMW for what was an outstanding cocktail night and presentation from Brendon from BMW Group Australia and Daniel from ASG and Melbourne BMW.
Lawrence and the team had set up an amazing display of 3 series with a car from each series through all 7 generations. They looked amazing, both Jo and I and I am sure everyone who attended were just thrilled with how they all looked.
Once the event had finished our members went back on the coaches and were safely taken back to our WestWaters Accommodation for a well-deserved sleep after quite a few of our guests had been driving for a few days to be with us.
Friday morning was forecast to be a bit wet but when we woke the sky was clear and it was quite warm and still . Jo mentioned to me it was the first dawn service in Australia that she was actually warm. It was lovely to see so many young people attending and so many of our members were up early to show their respect.
After the service they did a gun fire breakfast BBQ which was brilliant and then some Two Up which I must admit I have never played but it looked like a lot of fun.
Friday, we had 2 x guided drives which were very popular, both using TourBoss.
Friday Night was our 70s theme night. I will leave the photos do the talking for that, but I might say, the Trivia was brilliant and lot of fun had by all.
Saturday was the big day at Calder and sadly the weather did not stay nice for us. Some drizzle which then turned to light rain.
This did not dampen our officials or members who all showed up and again I will let the photo tell the story, but what an amazing day was had by all. Great stalls and trade stands. Thank you to all who attended this and made it such and amazing day.
Saturday night was our presentation Dinner with special guest Speaker Bruce Stewart from WAUR (Walkinshaw Andretti United Racing)
Wow I knew Bruce was good, but his presentation was so powerful and made us all feel inspired to get up and achieve our goals. Great presentation.
After that I did feel a little sorry for Professor Tony Walker for Prostate Cancer Foundation who followed with his presentation but also a powerful presentation and I think touched home to a few in the audience. Thank you to both these busy gentlemen for giving their time to make our night better. Something Bruce said in the night which is very true, our Jo is a powerhouse and anything she asks for she usually gets and not many people say no to her as they know what she does, she does well and it would be worth their free time.
Silent Auctions and raffles on the night raised $3150.10 which all went to the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Thank you all for giving so generously.
After the night was over and we stayed behind to pull down the decorations, some of us who had been a very important part of this event sat and breathed a sigh of relief that the event was nearly to an end and had been such a huge success. We had so many people complimenting us on the weekend and it was all worth it in the end. It has been a long journey but to see so many happy smiling faces is what it is all about.
Sunday morning saw us at our farewell breakfast spending the last few hours with our old and new friends before they headed back to their homes or off on some more travels around Victoria.
To BMW NSW who will be hosting the 2027 Nationals we would like to congratulate you on you bid and wish you all the best with your preparations for this event. Be sure to have a great leader and a great team to assist you along the way.
As for a great team, ours was amazing, some only coming on at the last week which really counted and others working tirelessly for the past 18 months to make this event as successful as it was. I will not name you all as I am bound to forget someone, but you know who you are and I thankyou all from the bottom of my heart.
Events to add to your diary:
10th May Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship Round 5 at Sandown
24th May Healesville Sanctury Drive and Family outing
31st May Kaos Custom bike come and Try / Drivers Training – Broadford
7th June Monarchs Long Weekend: Port Campbell and Shipwreck Coast
6th July Christmas in July
23 October AGM
31 October – 9th November Canberra Trip over Cup Long Weekend
22 – 23 November – Challenge Bathurst
At the Nationals we had a great 50 years of the 3 series T shirt which sold out within 1 hour.
We will be doing a rerun of this with pre orders. Sizing is true to size so be sure to pick the correct sizing.
We also had a beautiful Soft-Shell jacket which was very successful as well and also sold out.
This will also be on pre order with both our club logo and the Nationals logo versions on offer. This is a little snug so order 1 x size larger to not be disappointed.
We made quite a show of the 50th Anniversary of the 3 Series at the Nationals and at Phillip Is, as we will for all of our display events this year. So, order a T-shirt so you can join in the celebration of the 3 Series.
It has been a huge month, with the Nationals and everything else we normally do, so now we can take it a little easier and get back to our normal routine.
The Nationals was also great for our membership growth, we are very close to breaking through 1000 members, truly amazing! Welcome to all the new members joining us either through the Nationals or wherever you have found us. Remember, this is your club so make the most of it. We run a wide range of events to suit everyone’s taste, so take a loo at the calendar or check the event emails and come and join us.
Our edition 7 idrive magazine was released at the formal dinner at the Nationals too, so hopefully by now you have received your copy.
As always it is a fantastic publication and a credit to Jo and Jess’ efforts in gathering stories and putting it all together. We are always looking for stories for the website and for idrive, so if you have a story to tell send it in and it may just appear in the next edition.
Just to finish off, thank you again to everyone that helped make the Clubs Australia Nationals a huge success, definitely the best Nationals I have been to, especially Jo, who not only Chaired the Nationals Committee, but worked tirelessly for 2 years to plan and pull it all together. Such a huge job and one we can all be very proud of.
I look forward to seeing you out at an event somewhere soon, until then, take care on the roads, winter is coming and with it changeable driving conditions.
Graeme Bell | President
BMW Drivers Club Melbourne Inc.
PO Box 81, Tyabb VIC 3913 Incorporated in Victoria #A0102695G BMW Drivers Club Melbourne Inc is a member of: BMW Clubs Australia and the BMW Clubs International Council Motorsport Australia Affiliated Motorsport Club
Every year we hold a coffee and cars get together to raise funds for the Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal.
Flavours Patisserie in Beaumaris is the coffee part of the equation, as well as some simply irristable pastries and cakes. The owner and club member Christopher seals off the adjacent car park for the cars.
A few shakes (OK, quite a few shakes) of a collection bucket and some enthisiastic raffle ticket selling collected $1,200 donated to the RCH GFA.
It was a relaxed and fun morning with some very diverse vehicles turning up, not all BMWs by any stretch.
The GT Festival at Phillip Island, which is part of the national Shannons SpeedSeries, featured rounds of Monochrome GT4 Australia championship and the GT World Challenge Australia championship (part of the global GT World Challenge with sub-championships in each region). In a packed programme there were also races for Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli Australasia, First Focus Radical Cup Australia and Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge.
Although BMW have won 3 out of the 5 opening rounds of the global GT World Challenge they did not feature in the Phillip Island round.
In the Monochrome GT4 round the best the 7 BMWs could do in race 1 was 7th improving to 4th for race 2.
However, the was some great racing and a lot of fun.
Our car display was visible on the TV coverage and proudly represented both our club and the brand.
Summer is officially gone but boy I love Autumn. Cooler nights but still amazing days, great for running events and getting behind the wheel of our BMWs.
8th March- March started off with one of our Favorite events Phillip Island Historic Racing,
where we had a great display of cars on both days with some of our members getting the chance to do some parade laps of the track thanks to Belinda from Shannons Insurance. Thank you to Lawrence for all your hard work setting up this event but sadly LG’s car had some issues, and he was unable to attend. But with the great members we have, the event still went ahead, and all the members and cars enjoyed the weekend.
7th-9th March was the first Round of the E30 Racing Championship
at Winton. It was a fantastic weekend of racing with one of the biggest grids of E30s for some time. Lots of our members out having fun with the rest of the E30 Racing group. Well done to Royce Lyne, starting off the year qualifying on pole then winning all four races over the weekend. I had a little mishap unloading a car out of the trailer and ended up at Wangaratta Hospital on Friday afternoon and some lovely new crutches to bring home. Thankfully it was only soft tissue damage, and my foot was well enough to spend the following week walking around looking after F2 and F3 cars at the Melbourne FI Grand Prix.
12th March – AGP display.
What an amazing turn out of cars for the start of our story of the 3 series 50th Birthday. They looked fabulous with our new windscreen banners, specially printed for this year to celebrate the 50thanniversary. We had 1 of each series from E21 to G20 and a couple of early cars which also were an important part of this history. Lawrence and Jo attended the display area most of the weekend and they estimated over 3000 people stopping to read the information cards and take the time to chat with them both and also our members who attended the display days too. Many more took great interest in our display as they passed by. Great start to the celebration of this great car, watch out for more to follow.
We had a number of members officiating at the Grand Prix
from Flaggies to Scrutineers and even a few up in Race Control. Thank you all for your efforts over the Grand Prix week. It is a huge commitment and very long days in everything from 38-degree heat to pouring rain… it was fun though! Personally, I love it, being a part of the top level of motorsport in the world is quite amazing and getting up close to the cars and the stars is something only Officials can do. If you want to learn more about becoming a Motorsport Australia Accredited Official drop me a line or have a chat at an event. We are always looking for new Officials, as long as you are over 16 you can be involved.
19th March – Geelong Area mid-Week Twilight Drive
was well attended and everyone who stayed for dinner enjoyed the drive and dinner which is always a bonus at the end.
21 March – Mornington Peninsula Twilight Drive
This left from Mornington BMW which was also well attended and a fantastic evening for a drive to watch to sunset. Thank you, Mornington BMW, for putting on refreshments for our members to enjoy before the drive. These were very well appreciated and kept us all going till the end.
28-30 March – E30 Racing Round 2 at Calder Park
This will be a great weekend of racing with a lot of DCM members attending as drivers, pit crew, Senior officials and general officials. It will be great to see so many of our members at this great historic track and also great to see both Jo and Scott holding senior roles over the weekend. Well done all.
April will see the Easter Bunny visit some of our members and we ask you to make sure you don’t eat too much chocolate and share with those who are less fortunate. If you are sneaking off for a break over Easter, take care on the roads and enjoy your time away.
April 18 Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal – Coffee & Wheels morning
This has always been held in the car Park near Flavours Patisserie in Beaumaris, we have reserved parking thank you to Christopher George, the owner of this amazing coffee shop. Please if you have not registered yet, do so here and give so they can live.
We will be doing an Easter raffle on the day, so bring coins so you can buy raffle tickets, but we will also have a portable EFTPOS machine there for your convenience. This is event is not just for BMWs or cars. If you have something special hiding in your garage, please bring it out so we can all enjoy it.
We will be doing an Easter raffle on the day, so bring coins so you can buy raffle tickets, but we will also have a portable EFTPOS machine there for your convenience.
This is event is not just for BMWs or cars. If you have something special hiding in your garage, please bring it out so we can all enjoy it.
24-27th April. BMW Clubs Australia Nationals.
This is a 4-day event, BUT you do not have to attend all the events. Pick which suits you or come to them all. We have some great sponsors on board, and we thank them all. This is going to be the highlight event of the year for our club so please come join us. Entries officially close on the 31st of March so if you have not registered you may need to pull some strings with people in high places to get in now.
Save the dates:
31 May – Kaos Custom Bikes Come and Try Day – Broadford – (entries open soon)
7 – 9 June Monarchs Long Weekend – Port Campbell and Shipwreck Coast
9th July – Christmas in July
12 July – Kaos Custom Bikes Come and Try Day – Sandown (entries open in June)
23 October – BMW Drivers Club Melbourne Annual General Meeting – German Tivoli Club
31 October – 9 November – Canberra Trip over the Cup Day long weekend
22 November -23 November – Challenge Bathurst
7 December – Christmas show and Shine annual picnic – Cruden Farm.
CPS – we will soon have an additional CPS officer, possibly starting in May, who lives in Hawthorn East, to make it easier for city dwellers to have their club documents signed. He will only be doing renewal signatures at this stage, but we will inform you if he starts to do new registrations. This is great news. Watch this space for updates. We are still doing online CPS renewals for those who can’t make it to events or to our office.
Membership is going through the roof we will be over 900 very soon. Welcome to all the new members joining us, this is your club, so join in and make the most of everything we offer.
Merchandise is selling well go to our on line store to purchase something you want for the cooler months. We have quite a bit of stock on hand, so have a look at the web site and order away.
Once again, I hope to see you come along and enjoy the BMW Club Nationals we are hosting in April, there will be something for everyone, so go to our dedicated Nationals web site and have a look and join us. https://bmwclubnationals.com.au/
Take care out there and I look forward to seeing you at an event somewhere soon.
Photo Lawrence Glynn
Well, we called it a "Twilight Drive" but the Geelong Area Mid Week drive certainly was a "sunset" drive. A spectacular sunset very accurately aligned with an 11 km run straight into it! Could not have lined it better if we had tried!
Photos Stephen Wesson
Apart from a pleasant drive (not too many twisty roads around here) and a very nice dinner at the Beeac Farmers Arms, we had some lovely cars and great friendship. Which is really what these events are all about.
A thoroughly enjoyable evening.
Photo Simon Wilkins
Our weekend at the Phillip Island Classic Festival of Motorsport did not get off to the best start as my car “failed to proceed” en route to the meeting point where I was to hand over the entry passes.
To make things worse I was not on the route our members would be taking to get there, having taken the sensible precaution of staying on the Island overnight.
But time was of the essence for those wanting to do the parade laps as they had to be at the track by 7:30 am.
Thankfully Simon Wilkins was staying overnight at San Remo and was able to collect me from the roadside and take me (and the passes!) to the meeting point. From there the parade lappers set off in haste to meet their deadline and Chris Allen offered to sort out the display area pending the return of the parade lappers.
Between them they got our display organised, flags up and everything sorted.
Great work.
I had not planned to attend day two due to another commitment but Daniel Roberts had agreed to be my pass distributor on Sunday. Simon would look after the flags etc.
Meanwhile Danny O’Callaghen offered to drive me back to my stricken car to await RACV, stayed until a tilt tray became the solution and generously offered to store my car at his house (within the 100 km towing limit) pending resumption of business on Tuesday after the long weekend. An offer he then extended to driving me home to Geelong for which I was very grateful.
What a brilliant group of members we have who can, and will step in and help out. Absolutely blown away.
I am very grateful to all who pitched in to make the weekend work despite everything.
Read on for some summary comments by those who did make it to the track!
Lawrence Glynn #3
Thank you and everyone who organized such a brilliant event.
To say that I had a great time is an understatement. I haven’t had so much
fun since my trip to Nurburgring. Looking very much forward to a similar
event. Thank you very much again.
Albert Kuperman #580
We enjoyed the classic it was great. I’m sure you would’ve liked to of had enjoyed it yourself. Always next year.
Daniel Roberts #844
Very good to hear that you were able to sort things so your week end wasn’t a disaster.
Hope the JPS car will be ok.
Very heartening that club members were so supportive.
Thank you for your organisation for Saturday, the laps were great fun and the rest of the day went well.
Best Regards
Clive Meaby #877
It’s been some time now since being awarded the New Member of the Year for 2024 {awarded at the Presention Cocktail Evenig Feb14 2025 - ed) and yet it still doesn’t quite seem real, nor have I been able to find the words to aptly describe how wonderful it was to receive. I accept this award totally, it’s genuinely been a real pleasure to be a part of such a fantastic, welcoming club and join in on the amazing events that have been on offer during this time. To those who have joined the club more recently than myself, needless to say you are all in for an absolute treat and I thoroughly look forward to passing on the baton for next year’s deserving winner.
A heartfelt thanks must go to Jo, Graeme, Lawrence and everyone involved for their time and effort in putting together these events and making them an absolute riot in which to take part, I absolutely cannot wait to be there for many more to come.
Brayden Burnett #1044
Note - the New Member of the Year award is given to the member who accrues the most membership points (for attending events, providing articles etc) in their first full year of membership. Members joining during 2023 accrue points in 2023 and 2024, with the "2024" award presented in 2025.
Dear members,
With 2 months down into 2025 we have covered so many events already.
The month started off with a huge bang with a 1-2 win from BMW WRT Team at the Bathurst 12 hour. We had a great group of our members attending this event and some from interstate as well. It is always great to share our events with our fellow club members from across the borders. Read Jo’s article in our next edition of idrive which will be out late April.
4th February we did something a little different with a nice group doing a mid-week trip away to Halls Gap for a Fire Recovery Trip to help inject some much needed funds into the fire ravaged areas of our stage. This was a huge success, and the locals welcomed our members with open arms.
8th February Pre Torquay Motor Show Drive – always a great event and the drive prior is a nice way to catch up with members before the display day with a plesasant drive and dinner after. Greatly appreciate all who attended.
9th February Torquay Motor Show – what do I say? some amazing cars on display and we always thank our members for attending and making a huge effort to present their cars so beautifully. The weather was a little windy, but this didn’t spoil everyone having fun. One of our members, Andrew Brown, won $1000 gift voucher from Hello World which was well received, and Jeff Palmer won 2nd in Class in the MG group. Well done again to all who attended, all who visited our display said it looked amazing.
9th February had a few of our members attend Round 1 of our Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship at Rob Roy, put on by the MG club and part of the Motorsport Australia Interclub Challenge. This was a lot of fun, and I even got out there and had a drive too. Been too long for me and I really enjoyed the day. It was also great to see some of our non-competing members come along for part of the day to support those who were out there having lots of fun.
14th February was our Presentation dinner at Waverley BMW, which, as you all know, was a little earlier this year due to us hosting the BMW Clubs Australia Nationals in April. Fantastic night. Thank you to all the staff from Waverley BMW, Guest speaker from BMW GA Daniel Silverwood, for doing an amazing presentation, Bailey Gifford Chair of BMW Clubs Australia who also did a short presentation on what BMW Clubs Australia’s role is.
Thank you to Grip Auto Timepieces for donating the watches as prizes this year for our Show and Shine. These were well received and looked great on the night.
We had some well deserving winners from 2024, Shannon Cooper taking out the Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship, and class B Championship as well, and to top it off he was awarded Member of the Year! It was lovely to have all his family there to enjoy his awards with him.
We will have the list of all our winners in the next edition of idrive as well so make sure you read this when it arrives at your door in April.
I would like to thank Nella and Emma who worked tirelessly serving drinks all night, keeping everyone well-watered.
Jo had been unwell the week before and we were worried she would not attend but in true Jo fighting spirit she was there, well maybe running on 40% but was there to guide us through the night.
Massive thank you to Ross from Celebrations Cellar in Clarinda for helping us out with the drinks on the night. Please call past and buy your drinks from them as support for all they do for us. Let them know you are a member of our club too, so they know we are supporting them too.
16-17th February was the BMW Clubs Australia AGM held in Melbourne. You can read my report here.
Most of you would know, being an Official BMW Club we are a part of the worldwide network of Official BMW Clubs. Our immediate overseeing body is BMW Clubs Australia, and as Delegate, I attend the Clubs Australia AGM each year to catch up with all the Delegates from the other 15 Official BMW Clubs in Australia to share ideas, learn from each other and then spend a day at BMW Headquarters in Mulgrave to talk with BMW Australia about the year gone and the year coming. We are very lucky, as we do get a lot of support from the BMW Group. Not many manufacturers support their supporting clubs like BMW do. In fact the BMW Club network is the biggest manufacturer supported Club Network in the world, with over 800 Official Clubs spread over every continent, except maybe Antarctica.
21st February was our Twilight Drive and Dinner Northwest. Great attendance again and great driving instructions using TourBoss. This app has been a great addition to our drives, making the navigation much easier and safer, as well as more environmentally sound, as we no longer need to print out and distribute maps and written instructions. Lots of trees saved!
23rd February was Round 2 of our Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship at Sandown. Again, greatly attended with fantastic weather. Not too hot and all our cars had a great time with everyone leaving the track with huge smiles on their faces.
23rd February also had some of our members attending the Shelford Duck Race, a fun day out which included a car display. Great attendance with lots of interest in our club and cars. None of our members won but at least the charity did.
What a busy month for the shortest month!
March and April will also be huge months with already jammed pack events coming up.
8 March – Phillip Island Classic Car Display
8th 10th March E30 Racing Round 1 – Winton
12th March – AGP Car Display – (Event Full)
18th March – Geelong area Mid-Week Twilight Drive and Dinner
21 March – Twilight Drive Mornington Peninsula – Leaving from Mornington BMW.
30th March Round 3 Traction Tyres/Yokohama Drivers Championship – Bryant Park Haunted Hills.
Dates to remember –
24-28th April – BMW Clubs Australia Nationals.
7TH June – 9th June – Great Ocean Road – 12 Apostles Long Weekend (EVENT NOT RELEASED YET - SAVE THE DATE)
6th July Christmas in July – Russo Winery.
31st October – 9th November 10-day trip away to Canberra. (EVENT NOT RELEASED YET SAVE THE DATE)
22nd November Challenge Bathurst
7th December – Christmas Show and Shine Annual Family Picnic.
We are looking at a family fun day somewhere but have not locked in a date yet.
Our BMW Clubs Australia Nationals is coming up fast and for all of those who have yet booked, please make sure you go here to register. Registrations close at the end of March. Don’t miss out!
Membership has gone through the roof which is fantastic. We are heading toward 900 members, just amazing! Welcome to all the new members, we hope you enjoy your experience in the club and remember it is your club, so get involved. It is as great as it is because of the people in it, you all included.
Our welfare team are still working in the background to help some of our members through some hard times. Personally, I can say it is wonderful to have the support of friends from the club when you are going through tough times. It was wonderful to have so many people call and visit whilst I was recuperating. Very much appreciated indeed. Thank you all.
With so many events coming up and new things being added all the time, keep an eye on your emails and the club socials for upcoming events you might like to come along to. As always, if you have an idea for an event you think others would enjoy, drop us a line, we are always looking for new ideas for events and places to visit.
I look forward to seeing you out at an event somewhere soon.
Take care,
A Day at the Shelford Duck Race
An Unforgettable Sunday Adventure
On a very blustery (but sunny) Sunday, we embarked on an interesting journey to the Shelford Duck Race, located 46 kilometres from Geelong. This annual fundraising event promised a day full of fun, and it certainly did not disappoint.
Our adventure began with participating in a show and shine, where we proudly displayed our vehicles alongside around 90 other makes and models. The variety of cars was astounding, each with its own unique charm and history. It was fascinating to see the enthusiasm and care that each owner had put into their pride and joy.
As the day progressed, we indulged in a great display of food. The food stalls offered an impressive array of options, (but not forgetting the traditional sausage sangar!) To complement our meals, we could sample local wines and craft beers.
Entertainment was abundant throughout the day, with live performances from the “kilted” Police Pipe band and to ladies demonstrating their proficiency at delivering excellent covers of ABBA classics and many other songs. The market stalls were a treasure trove of unique finds, offering everything from handmade crafts to vintage memorabilia.
For those seeking more interactive experiences, there were demonstrations showcasing various skills and crafts such as the SES attempting to demonstrate the “jaws of life” cutting open a crashed car. Children and families enjoyed the amusement rides, their laughter and excitement adding to the festive atmosphere. The colourful rides providing thrills and joy to the little visitors.
The highlight of the day was the famous Duck Race at 3pm. Spectators gathered along the riverbank, eagerly anticipating the start of the race. As the 1250 ducks were released into the water, cheers erupted from the crowd. The sight of the brightly coloured ducks bobbing and floating down the river brought smiles to everyone's faces.
The Shelford Duck Race is a fundraiser for the village school, the cricket club abd the local Progress Society. It is more than just an event; it was a celebration of community, creativity, and joy. It was a day well spent, and we look forward to returning next year for more fun and excitement.
Anne Lane #1112
The BMW Clubs Australia (BMWCA) AGM this year was productive and some good information and ideas.
Some things to come out of the Sunday group discussions:
· BMW Drivers Club New South Wales (DCNSW) will run the next Nationals in 2027, proposed to be at Bathurst date to be confirmed, we suggested over or close to the Challenge Bathurst weekend, so there could be some form of Motorsport. See what happens.
· BMW Classic, BMW Group Australia (BMWGA), BMW Ag and BMW CA all want digital copies of all club's magazine each year but not paper copies.
· We will be having quarterly Zoom meetings, probably cars only, with the Executive and cars delegates, starting in April
· BMWCA will be sending out a quarterly magazine and want content.
For issue 1 they want a short history of the club, plus Steve’s story about winning the International Club of the Year Award.
· Most of the clubs have issues getting and retaining volunteers for events and for committee roles. Some clubs actually pay people to support most of their key roles and are looking at how to reduce their overheads. Some have paid helpers for treasurer, secretary, social media, graphic designer for the magazine to name a few.
· Common theme is lack of communication from BMWCA about anything, and interaction and sharing of ideas between clubs is lacking. I put as number 1 on our list, as not having the view of other clubs as rivals and we need to work together more.
· Side discussion with Craig Florence (SA) about the corporate program and how they make new members joining for the BMW Corporate Program ( - to get the 3 year BMW Service Inclusive at no cost offered by BMWGA to BMW club members) to sign up for the three years of the program. Their dealer pays the membership and tacks it onto the price of the car. Something we could look at, or a three-year corporate program option on the membership page, that would have to be taken up if they want a letter confirming membership for the corporate.
· All agree it is very hard to run motorsport days without combing with other clubs, cost of track hire etc..
· Also lack of facilities to use for motorsport and driver training in some states
· All clubs are supporting Charities in similar ways
· Most clubs up on membership, 3 or 4 losing a little, membership up as a whole.
Monday:
· CEO of BMWGA Wolfgang Buechel is very much in favour of having a close relationship with BMW Clubs and now that BMW Classic is under the control of Marketing instead of corporate, we should see a lot more interaction between BMW and clubs.
· We can request a letter directing BMW Dealerships to engage with and support clubs and it will be signed by the head of BMW Classic.
· Seems we have come full circle, and BMW recognises we are their best salespeople instead of just consumers. His words were ‘Clubs are more important than ever’
· BMW no 4 in ev sales last year 7,700 ev’s in Australia
· BMW sold 29.6% of ev’s sold in Australia: more than Volvo, merc, Audi, Hyundai, GWM, Porsche, Lexus, combined
· Next generation of batteries will see 900km range coming end of 2025
· I asked about long term ownership and second/third owners, did BMW have a strategy for long term ownership of ev’s or were they designed to be recycled in say 15 years? Answer was good, BMW batteries can be replaced as modules, so if you have one module fail in 15+ years you can replace the one module at hundreds of dollars instead of the whole battery pack at many thousands of dollars. Current generation batteries are expected to last 15-20 years, even old i3 batteries are still only showing roughly 3% loss of capacity/use, far exceeding what they expected when they built them. Due to the quality of the materials in the batteries they use apparently.
· All ev m3 next year with 1500+ hp, 4 electric motors and so much torque it can’t be measured, so they reckon. The numbers are ridiculous they reckon, and computers will control everything to keep it on the road. But there will still be an ICE version of every M car as well.
· 1 in 5 BMWs sold in Australia are M cars
· Very interesting chats at BMWGA with the BMWGA people we saw at Bathurst. All of them want us to be involved with the GT4 series at Phillip Island in the Speed Series at Phillip 4-6 April, to do a display and support the BMW GT4 cars, apparently going to be 7 racing. No details yet.
· BMW looking to be even bigger at Bathurst in 2026 and they want a club display up there. Asked about the possibility of laps on the Monday ride day, they only had 2 cars up there this year, the journalists took all the track time driving the new M3cs touring and M5, next year they said they would have a truck load. Hoping to have some rides to give away. We talked to NSW and Canberra about a club display up there next year. See what they do.
· Bikes do some training at a place up near Myrtleford that can accommodate cars too. Probably x5’s or X cars, as it is dirt roads to get there. I’d love to do an X drive; this could be an interesting option. Vic Bike club do about 6 training weekends there each year.
· Most of the bike clubs report that club meetings have transitioned from at someone’s house or business looking at how to fix things on bikes or tune them up to how to diagnose them with a computer and fix electronic issues.
· Bike sales pretty static in 2024
· All clubs report membership fees static
· BMW is allowing Dealerships to hire out floor stocks of bikes for weekend rides, apparently this is huge in Europe.
Clubs International Report
· BMW Classic now run as part of Marketing Dept
· Most challenging time for BMW with emission targets coming, so far they are years ahead of the curve, ev sales helping this.
· You will see more use of heritage cars in BMW ads, and more of a heritage focus and closer ties with clubs.
· Social media very important to have a presence and link to BMW
· BMW love Instagram in EU, more facebook in Australia
· BMW have 9 lawyers chasing trademark infringements and illegal copies of parts but none chasing people or clubs using the roundel wrong.
· Whilst they frown upon wrong use of the roundel etc, they won’t chase you unless you are making money from it.
· They have allowed some huge online ‘clubs’ to keep using the BMW name even though they aren’t official clubs, as long as they don’t bring disrepute.
· 50th anniversary of 3 Series very important to BMW and want us to focus on it.
· Will run awards for best promotion of 50th Anniversary
· BMW Clubs International Council (CIC) put out 2 electronic newsletters a year.
· New BMW CIC website up and running, but still being built, so some areas not working yet: https://bmwcic.org/
· BMWCA are starting a quarterly newsletter to go to clubs/members… they want content about major events etc.
· 5th May is declared the actual 50th birthday of 3 Series and BMW will be doing 50 Days of the 3 series around that time. We should too.
Summation
· Overall, a pretty good weekend.
· We got to drive some cars to teach the clubs about TourBoss, CCV not using it yet, but Tony W wants to. Jo and I took a full ev x2 ixe, I was pretty impressed with it, on the return we had a 118i, comfortable M seats and nice as an introduction to BMW,
· There were some questions about what happens if BMW stops paying for the licence for TourBoss and some were scared they would get to love it and then be left holding the bill.
· It was accepted by most though I think.
· BMW are paying $13500 odd for the corporate licence. An individual club would be way less than that,
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