The Road to Bimmerfest (Part 1)

As some of you may know, I recently took a trip out to Santa Barbara for Bimmerfest 2009 (its 10th anniversary GTG). We flew out early Friday morning and arrived at LAX (all too familiar from 2 weeks prior) around 8am. Once we got there, I was more than eager to hop in a cab to Autotalent to pick up my car and make the drive to Santa Barbara and check into our villa. Unfortunately, the transport was caught up in Beverly Hills dropping off a GT40, so we had some time to kill.

Inside Autotalent was a real treat. Nestled behind a tile/bathroom shop sharing the same address, you'd never expect to find the kind of clientele that frequented their services. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by a LP460 tucked under a delicious yellow 993 carrera w/champion wheels, a yellow Gallardo awaiting a turbo kit, a BMW E46 330 zhp, a 900+ whp Nissan 300ZX, BMW 135i and a G-Power BMW E90 M3 with a ridiculously HUGE new compressor promising even more power than the current kit (604hp, 444lb/ft @ the crank specifically). Check out a pic below:



I didn't want to bust out the 5D Mark II and start snapping away there, so that's all I've got for now, haha. Anyway, the trailer finally arrived after waiting around for 1.5 hours. My M3 had some good company along the way - a new Ford GT40, a pair of Ferraris, and a Maserati GT. Talk about feeling like the Pinto of the group. Here it is getting loaded onto the trailer:





We hit a bit of traffic on the way to Santa Barbara, so instead of heading straight there, we may a little detour to In & Out in Ventura. It was a drive in joint with an ENORMOUS incline, so I was forced to park across the street so I wouldn't destroy my newly molded front bumper. Nevertheless, it was a mandatory stop in our eyes and it was well worth it.

After some double doubles, animal style fries and shakes, we headed back onto the 101 towards SB. Regrettably, we didn't get a chance to drive on the PCH, though the views along the way were still amazing (they are all on GJ's camera whilst I drove, haha). I was hoping that we'd run into some sweet Bimmerfest cars along the way like last year (including a camo test car of the new 7 series and a BMW individual LSB E90), but all we saw were a pair of busted E36s right before we got off the highway to the villa. Meh.

Okay! So once we got to the villa, it wasn't exactly ready for us, so we took a tour of another villa we may get in the future and then made another mandatory pit stop at Church of Skatan - a church (obviously) converted into an awesome skate shop. I picked up some Blazer Lows from the April '09 SB collection while I was there - sweetness!



Anyway, afterwards we walked around town and did some more shopping including hitting up ANGL - a pseudo-new chain for women. I read a couple things about the new chain a bit ago and it definitely didn't disappoint. Maybe soon enough there will be a store in Chicago, but I definitely like how it's a bit more "underground" right now. Afterwards, we made our way back to the villa to check-in, hang out and get ready for dinner at Arigato Sushi.



Although we were having dinner with IND, GT Motoring, Project 808 and Unscene Media, it felt much more like a collective of friends that were coming together for a celebratory meal than anything else. Business was left to the side and we surrendered to laughs and good conversation. Some of Kevin's (KKSigua from M3post) med school friends also joined us. The dinner itself was mediocre, but nevertheless it was a great time. On the way out, we hit up Spoon across the street which was a VERY nice surprise. Awesome, awesome gelato. We walked out sharing a half chocolate/half mango cup. Om nom nom.



Once we got back, Jae (from GT Motoring) and I both washed our cars so we wouldn't have to get up at 5:30am. Afterwards, we nestled the cars back into the garage and went back to our respective villas for the night. Their new Challenge rear diffuser is the sickness. Can't wait to have it on my car.



Stay tuned for part 2 of our vacation in SB!