In May, the BMW CCA Foundation, home of The Ultimate Driving Museum launched it’s sixth major exhibition, The Power of M: Celebrating 50 Years. We kicked it off with two back-to-back event weekends. Many of our exhibitions have been based on a major anniversary for BMW. 50 Years of BMW M is the theme for this year.
We gathered 25 exceptional street and race cars as well as the new BMW M 1000 RR motorcycle, the first motorcycle made by M. To go with this, our display cases are full of interesting M memorabilia, some of it, quite rare. On the walls and overhead is an exceptional collection of art, posters, and banners representing 50 years of BMW M.
We started with our grand opening evening reception on Friday, May 13. Visitors spent the evening viewing the 50-year history of BMW cars and motorcycle while enjoying heavy appetizers and beverages. Later, our guest speakers were Jackie Jouret, Tom Plucinsky, Matt Russell, Larry Koch, and Erik Wensberg talked about the history of M and their experiences working with BMW throughout the past 50 years.
On the following day, we opened the Museum to a larger crowd. Once again, Jackie Jouret and some of our guest speakers talked more about the collection of cars and other stories from BMW. We had several vendors outside along with a couple of food trucks for our guests to visit.
The following Friday was our normal opening to The Vintage group. Every year, we have invited The Vintage folks to visit the exhibition on Friday before they head to Hot Springs, NC for the Saturday event. Once again, Jackie Jouret was available to interview some of the exhibit car owners. Jackie and Rob Siegel signed books for many of our visitors. Outside, we had several vendors, food trucks, and a great display of vintage and current BMWs in the field. After the last couple of years where crowds were smaller due to the pandemic, it was nice to see more people venturing out for the day.
Both weekends and the exhibition were dedicated to Eric Keller. Eric had been the founder of Enthusiast Auto Group in Cincinnati, OH. Eric had a love for BMW M cars. Eric, his brother Evan, and other friends and family built a great business for the BMW enthusiast. Unfortunately, Eric tragically passed away last year. Evan, his family, and many of the EAG employees were here for The Vintage weekend to honor Eric. We were playing several videos Eric had created on the cars in the collection. Guests also had the opportunity to sign a banner dedicated to Eric. This banner will be on display throughout the exhibition for others to sign and will be given to EAG when finished.
One of our exhibition sponsors, FCP Euro/Liqui Moly offered to giveaway a free oil change to one attendee from each weekend. We would like to congratulate Byron Angel, winner from the May 13/14 weekend and Jim Sheibley from the May 20 weekend. Both winners will be contacted by Liqui Moly for further information.
This exhibition is brought to you by Tire Rack, Continental Tires, FCP Euro, BMW Value Services, BMW of North America, The Werk Shop, Coco Mats, Century BMW, Hagerty, and Enthusiast Auto Group. We would like to thank all of our sponsors for their support. We would also like to thank all the car owners, and BMW for loaning us their car(s) for this exhibition as well as the memorabilia owners. Without them, we would not be able to put on these exhibitions.
All photos courtesy of Larry Schettel