The last time I went to a local BMW dealer, I confused the young kid working the parts counter when I asked to purchase a BMW calendar featuring 2002s. He did not know what a "BMW 2002" was and kept giving me something else I did not want. Fast forward a few months to Oberammergau, an hour's drive south of Munich where everyone not only knows what a BMW 2002 is (even the ones in their early 20s), the '02 cars were being celebrated at BMW 02 Club Deutschland's reunion.

I had been planning on shipping my 1974 2002 to Germany for the gathering since last year when I first heard of plans for this event. Unfortunately, with all my travels, I found myself in February with none of the preparations having been made to my 02. Actually, they were not that many: replace a door after a few rust bubbles appeared and have some of the clear coat repaired. I was tempted to go for it and have the repairs made in early March but I was to be out of town in late March/early April. But the schedule was going to be too close and how often has a body shop delivered a car on time with the job done properly?

Now I found myself in Oberammergau staring at these beautiful 02s (1602s and 2002s), 2000s, 1600s and wishing I had my car and that feeling was even stronger after I served as navigator during one of the rallies. Well, my feelings went from I should have brought my car despite the needed touch ups to "it's a good thing I left the car behind (without the necessary work having been done)" after I saw how well kept these cars were. We have some nice 02s show up at our Texas gatherings but nothing like these cars. The organizers of the event were expecting some 230 cars. Of those, I think there were only a handful of cars that really needed work (on a scale, let's say a 5 out a possible 10). And these were not just a collection of your regular 02s: we counted at least 10 Turbos and I lost count of Cabrio and Targa models!

The USA was represented by our (meaning Texas) Terry Sayther in his Targa and Evan Chong from San Francisco. Evan got the award for the most distance traveled: Evan drove across America before shipping it to Germany where he made a stop in Berlin before heading south to Bavaria. There were two other Americans with cars there but they purchased their cars in Europe (one a Turbo and another a convertible).

Of course, most of Europe was represented with the Dutch bringing in a big group of cars, a few Brits and cars from Belgium, France, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal, Poland and others represented. The list of those of showing up in rentals (not 02s) was as varied with several of us flying in from the USA, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil.

As I mentioned before, I participated in one of the rallies. Because of the number of cars, the group was broken into two separate routes: west and east. (This was on Thursday - on Saturday we would do the other route.) I was hooked up with Belgium Francois and his Sheltie Zakuski and served as his navigator on the first day, doing the east route. Like most car guys, Francois has several cars and for this event he brought his white Bauer. (The weather was perfect for open air driving!) We made the mistake of following the group of cars in front of us instead of paying close attention to the map. Have you ever done a rally and wondered if you were off course because you were in another country? Well, soon after we started our rally we were in Austria and the notes were not making sense. We do a 180 and figure out where we went wrong. As we do this, we pass at least 30 cars still heading in the wrong direction plus there are still a large number of cars that were ahead of us that have not turned around.

Everything about this rally is different from our rallies: spectacular views, incredible roads which twist up and down mountains and with some so narrow that you have to almost come to a stop to let the other traffic pass. I also noted that, while there were some teams that went all out (both in speed and in enthusiasm), many more opted to take a more leisurely pace stopping to take in a view, take some pictures and maybe enjoy a beer (this is Germany, after all). Francois and I were somewhere in between: we definitely did not go all out but, during some of the twisty parts, I realized we were not on a Sunday drive when I heard the wheels chirping. In a way Francois' carefree rallying reminded of the Italian character in an movie (you know, the one who pulls off his mirror because what's behind him is not important). When a question came up that had to do with local history, geography or anything else that might require us to stop and get out of the car for an answer his response might be "How should I know?! Let's keep driving!" - my sentiments exactly.

Friday's schedule called for a concourse at Olympic Park. We also had the option to take a tour of Mobile Tradition (a rare treat since it is not open to the public), the BMW Museum or the Olympic Park. I have done the BMW Museum several times so I opted for Mobile Tradition. Wow! It was interesting to see these rare cars but it was more interesting to hear the history or trivia. For example: Did you know the origins of the M colors (the red, purple and blue stripes)? Red represented Texaco who had partnered with BMW during the early days of M racing, blue represented BMW (and Bavaria) and the purple was used to represent the partnership and to allow for a nice transition between the two colors. (Once the BMW/Texaco partnership ended, BMW had to buyout Texaco for the rights to the red.)

On Saturday I was scheduled to navigate for Francois and Zakuski but, after checking with Francois if he would mind going solo, I decided to go for a hike. I have been to Germany many times but I have never gone for a hike. Seeing this beautiful scenery, I felt a strong urge to do this. So, I hiked from Oberammergau to Ettal. This is a short drive by car (about 3 minutes) but an hour's hike.

I should say something about Oberammergua: If you get a chance to visit, do it! It is just south of Munich and definitely worth a trip. It is what I think of when I think of old, small German towns with plenty of places to relax whether that means enjoying a beer, staying at a nice inn or going for a hike. On Thursday, while we were rallying, the town was celebrating Corpus Christi with a religious procession through the town (it seemed like most small towns were doing this since we ran into several parades or celebrations). On Saturday we returned from Munich to find part of the town closed off to traffic as another celebration was going on. The firemen were giving rides in their ladder trucks and they also had games for the children. Actually, the day's festivities centered on the children but at night, it was the adults' turn (as we walked back to our hotel around midnight, they were still out there with music).

Thanks to the organizers, sponsors, Oberammergau and all the participants that made this a very memorable event.

Bavaria Tour '02 related links:
BMW 02 Club Deutschland (organizers of the Bavaria Tour)
BMW 2002's Bavaria Tour 2002 (UK) Added 1/1/03
Geert-Jan's 1602 Homepage (The Netherlands)
Chuck Haeger's Love2002tii Community Page (USA)
Joachim Schneider's Home Page - great photos from the event (Germany)
Oberammergau information