Greetings to our reader(s)! My name is Nick, and I am a contributor to this blog as well. I am, as I mentioned, the owner of the 72 Agave and 75 Pastellblau cars that were mentioned previously. Allow me to elaborate on the premise of a BMW "Drive".
Saturday was possibly the most fun I have ever had in a car, or even in life as a whole. I was surrounded by 19 German engineering masterpieces, all of them piloted by true car enthusiasts. The talking was a lot of fun, however the drive was the piece de resistance. I have never driven my car that hard before, and it was possibly the most exhilirating experience I have ever had. My car was working in overdrive, those four cylinders were working their hardest to give me their full 108 horsepower. It was accelerate through second, and then brake hard while heel-and-toeing down into second, and take the corner through the inside, and apply the power smoothly on the exit. Driving a manual and trying to get the most from a car is possibly the most rewarding experience I know of. Of course, my 2nd gear syncro no longer exists on the Agave car, which adds to the fun. I was a bit outclassed, to say the least.
My car was the oldest (1972), but there was a 74 2002 Tii there, but he had a fuel injected engine with 30 more horsepower, and an aftermarket suspension and tires. My car hung in there well, however, it gave a valiant effort. I was inbetween two E46 M3's, which have 300+ horsepower. I was able to keep up however because the M3's weigh about twice as much as my car does. My car weighs ~ 2100 pounds, but the M3's weigh over 3600 easy. New cars are very heavy, in my opinion. The difference is the M3's speed up before the corners, and brake hard to go through them. I simply maintained speed through the corners because I do not have the same power on tap.
Near the beginning, I had to stop because my toolbox was sliding around in the trunk. I pulled over and moved it to the back seat, and in the process the club continued on without me. The other 2002, the blue one with fuel injection, was running "sweeper". This means that he had to wait for me, and make sure all the cars stuck together. The stop was about 2 minutes, so we needed to make up time. I blasted down the road like I never have before, but I ended up cooking the brakes by the time I caught up. There is nothing like the smell of burned brakes, let me tell you. Throughout the whole thing the other guy hung with me like glue, later he said he wasn't trying very hard. I didn't care, however. I managed to keep up with the M3's, although by the end my car needed a rest.
The most surprising thing was there were two african american ladies in the 3 series behind me, and I figured they would be bringing up the rear. But actually, they stuck right behind me the whole way. I was convinced from then on not to judge a book by its cover.
The drive in total was about 180 miles, and took most of the day. My car is the green old looking one, by the way. Now I think it may have blown a head gasket, or had some other calamity, because it started leaking a lot of oil from various points on the engine. I need to look at it here in the next couple days, will keep updated.
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