Spring in Sydney is perhaps the best time of the year. Sunny days, cool nights and clear skies. Sunday was no exception with a pleasant 14 degrees C at 6 am. You know when you wake up and have that feeling that today is going to be a good day. Yes, well I had that feeling yesterday morning, but I was wrong in one respect. It wasn’t a good day it turned out to be a great day. A last minute flurry of phone calls and e-mail saw the start time pulled back to 7:30 am to ensure parking. I had enough time to get up, wash the car then head off down to Balmoral Beach. Its about a 30 km drive from my place and to be perfectly honest, I hadn’t driven the car much and found that after driving the E30 with no power steering, in the E34 a sneeze could have you changing lanes without intending to. Despite leaving late I still got there about 10 minutes early to find Phil Sanderson already there in his wife’s sparkling E34 540I with a gorgeous set of Throwing Star wheels and bullet proof windows. Seriously! It’s a South African built E34 with um, bullet proof windows. At this stage there was plenty of parking and within a minute Trevor Doornbos had rolled up and triumphantly displayed a bootful of witches’ hats appropriately "borrowed" from the local council. Well they must have been for us as each one hat "E34" stencilled on it. These were placed along the street quickly enough to turn away an errant E36 driver and some bloke in a Merc who had their eyes on our spots.

The next car to arrive was Kingsley Conomos who had borrowed his brothers E34 520I that sported Throwing Stars and a great sounding exhaust. Kingsley is my trackmate in the BMW Club Supersprint Series, and when he was invited he knew exactly where to get his hands on the appropriate car. Mind you, his E30 318is is immaculate and wouldn’t have been disgraced in this company. People started rolling up pretty quickly after that. Julius arrived in an outstanding looking Grey E34 535is quickly followed by David and Michelle in their immaculate Silver 535is and on it went. By the time Henry and his Dad arrived in their E34 525I we had 12 cars, which from memory was the same number as the Chicago meet. All but two were E34’s. The constant question asked of me was "Where’s Quentin"? Sadly he couldn’t have made the trip up to Sydney this time, but he was greatly missed.

We had breakfast in the Bather’s Pavilion at Balmoral Beach with a sparkling sea as a backdrop. Our presence caused a lot of chaos as people kept arriving and adding chairs and tables until we had taken up about a fifth of the place. Great food and most importantly, caffeine! After an hour of talk and eat we paid the bill by throwing a lot of money on the table and leaving Trevor to sort out the financials. As we moved en mass out the door all could be heard was Trevor’s plaintive cry "But I’m an IT person, we need an accountant for this"… It took a while for him to sort this out. So long in fact that we thought he had been dragged off to the kitchen to wash dishes. Just as we were about abandon him to a day of soap suds he appeared looking quite relieved.

We then assembled our cars at the other end of the beach for a photo shoot. This was a ticketed parking area but we reasoned that since we wouldn’t be there long it didn’t apply to us. So all lined up out came the digital cameras and a lot of people as well who stopped and looked and gaped and smiled. One bloke came up in great excitement and pointed to David’s car saying over and over, "I’ts an is, it’s an is". When he saw Julius’ is there as well he has truly impressed. Apparently he had one as well but his wife was driving it and he was reduced to driving a little compact which in such company, he obviously felt very badly about. Henry reused to climb a tree to take photos from an elevation. These young blokes, no sense of adventure! About the time we finished taking all sorts of shots, a Ranger arrived to ensure all the law abiding citizens had parking tickets duly paid for. It was obvious we didn’t so he smiled and started checking cars at the other end of the car park giving us plenty of time to escape, which we duly did.

In convoy with David up front we drove through north out of Sydney, stopping frequently when traffic lights split the group up. This convoy made very impressive sight. Twelve immaculate BMW’s with lights on nose to tail. Other drivers looked, smiled, pointed and gaped. Other E34 drivers were clearly astonished and one poor fellow nearly ran off the road trying to look up and down the line at the same time. Whenever we stopped we drew lots of attention and on some twisty bits the sight and sound of all those engines doing what they were designed to do was just thrilling. With sunroof and windows open it was a treat to watch and experience the sights and sounds of cars swapping positions moving through the traffic and putting on a very refined display.

Finally leaving the city edges we headed down into Galston Gorge. A very twisty narrow road down the side of a sheer drop. Other cars and the narrowness of the road kept speeds down but there were some bends where the cars could exercise their dynamics. Further on we descended from the escarpment to Berowra Waters, a small settlement on the edge of the river system north of Sydney. A car ferry connected both sides and a number of the group took leave to head home. Tim from the Central Coast and Henry decided to take the car ferry. The rest of us settled down at the local seafood café for lunch.

After a hard morning’s driving the first thought for most of us was a cold beer. Disaster!. No beer, at least not on that side of the river. So, being bold, adventurous types, Kingsley and I headed for the car ferry to hitch a lift across the other side. But being smarter than the average bears, we decided to go in style. There we spied Henry’s car in the queue so we leapt in the back much to Henry’s consternation, I think he thought we were car-jackers. Across we go, trot off to the liquor shop/general store/chandlers. By this time it was apparent we weren’t going to make the ferry back to the other side so Kingsley asks if we could get a lift in one of the small "tinnies" (Aluminium boats) tied up alongside. "Sue, no problem" was the answer, and so, with great style, we not only beat the ferry back but got dropped of right near the café, much to the delight of the rest of the group.

So with beer and seafood we had a great lunch in the sun, looking out over the water, talking about cars. Life just doesn’t get better! Quite interestingly, half the group had tracked their cars and the others were pretty interested in doing it as well. Hmmm, there’s a thought! As all things do, our day came to an end. The group split up, some to take the ferry, the remainder to drive back the way we came. It was very reluctantly we all said goodbye and headed home, still in glorious sunshine but now with quite a wind building up.

Although we didn’t get an opportunity to really give the cars a workout, the group still had a great time meeting, talking and driving together. The casual approach was a great success and Trevor deserves an accolade for organising it in the first place. Everyone in the group got on well and it was particularly pleasing to see so many of the partners attend and enjoy the day. I think the ladies had a lot of fun because its wasn’t strictly a ‘boys’ day out, no-one was trying to be Schumaker and the object was to be relaxed and have a great time.

But having made the first event such a success, I reckon we will be doing this again. One suggestion was to drive to Canberra to see the spring flowers (hey, come on, we need a wife convincing excuse) and spend a few hours having Quentin shows us some of those police free roads he keeps posting messages about.

So in the end we had one M5, two 535is, three 525I’s (two autos, one manual), one 540I, one 520I and two 535I’s plus an e36 and an e30. Many of us who are in the BMW Club know each other but the great thing about the day was meeting new people who shared our enthusiasm and passion. All the cars looked great. No that’s not true, they all looked fantastic, even Trevor’s which was sporting evidence of a run in with a moron earlier in the week. The biggest decision will now be, do we all take another drive or just head for the track? Hell, no… lets do both!