The Drive Out
The plan was simple enough: drive from home to Santa Barbara, California for Bimmerfest — the largest BMW gathering in North America, founded by Jon Shafer of Cutter Motors and held annually at the Earl Warren Showgrounds. Simple, that is, until somewhere on I-40 the range display ticked down to zero.
Not "low fuel." Not "find gas soon." Zero. Miles. Remaining. In the middle of the interstate, in a 540i with a V8 that had been enjoying the open road rather more than the EPA had anticipated. The photo says it all — the gauge doesn't lie, and neither does that particular shade of panic that sets in when you're watching the needle and wondering exactly how optimistic the engineers were when they designed the reserve.
It worked out. It always does. But the zeromiles photo exists as permanent evidence of exactly how close it got.
The Event
Bimmerfest 2004 drew over 800 BMWs from across the country to the Earl Warren Showgrounds at 3400 Calle Real, Santa Barbara. The event was founded by Jon Shafer — then General Sales Manager at Cutter Motors, the local BMW franchise — and grew from a small dealer event into the biggest BMW show in North America.
The weather in Santa Barbara was, as it almost always is, perfect. BMWs of every generation, every model, every state of modification, all in one place. The kind of event that makes a long drive feel completely justified. Even a harrowing one.
