[calbears]

This is going to be a long thread where my friend and I both took delivery of our Signal Green M3 CSs at the Performance Center in Spartanburg and drove them back home across the country.

It all started back in January of this year, about a week before the official unveiling of the M3 CS at the Rolex 24. Dealers got a cryptic email about ordering a M3 Special Model with paint choices, wheel choice, caliper choice (color and CCBs or not). Each dealer would get only one. Since I handle the orders for the dealership, I knew (looking at the colors) that this was the CS. So I built it for me. I immediately texted my friend and let him know that he should reach out to his dealer and claim the CS and spec it.

I happed to be at Daytona and met Frank van Meel before the unveiling of the M3 CS. And then the next day go to see Signal Green in person. i knew I made the right choice of the 4 colors.

Fast forward to the Long Beach Grand Prix and I approached Tom Plucinsky of BMW NA (and a friend) with an idea about multiple CS deliveries--the original idea was 3 at once! Tom put me in the loop with Josh Barron (BMW NA M boss) and he was supportive of the plan. At this time, the 2 cars didn't have a production week, but he made sure the dealerships (and area managers) and the performance center were aware of the request. We still had to wait until the cars were in status 111 (they were in 102) to request the performance center delivery. This didn't happen until the end of May. Since I have access to make the request as soon as the car got a production week (week 38), I put in the request myself and got confirmation of the request. My friend got week 39--so this was looking really good timing wise.

In August, we were made aware of an event at the Performance Center in Spartanburg that would include BMW NA and the BMW CCA. It was for the first weekend in November. If everything worked out and we got on boats as early as possible...there was an outside chance that we could take delivery just before this event. I reached out to BMW NA and let them know about the request and event. They were very supportive of this...but they had no control of the vehicles and what ships they got on. So we were at the mercy of BMW AG.

And they weren't kind to us. My car was finished Sep 22, arrived at the port Sep 29 and my friend's was at the port a few days later. Still an outside chance...but unlikely looking at the schedules for ships. And there we waited for a month (well, mine was a month). We did get on the ship, but it wasn't until after the event. We arrived at Brunswick November 12th, but it didn't show up as being at the processing center (delivery center) for a few days. We still had to wait until the work orders were completed before getting a delivery date. Once that happened, the process was quick. We got a preliminary date of Dec 6 (and that switched to confirmed in a few hours)--about 3 weeks out at that point in time.

Now the scramble to secure flights (one way). We'd have to leave really early from San Francisco to get to Greenville Dec 5 with time to spare. So we booked a flight to leave SFO at 5:15AM and arriving in Greenville (via Denver) a little after 3PM eastern.

We also reached out to Extreme Colors well before production began and gave them a heads up and arranged the products: full front PPF, tints, and ceramic coating. These guys are super easy to work with and we had appointments set up for Dec 6 at 330PM for drop off (as soon as we had the confirmed date)--we gave them a heads up as soon as we were on a boat. The cars were done end of the day (roughly around 4PM) on Friday. So we had Thursday and Friday to kill around South Carolina.

We rented a vehicle in Greenville for getting around as we waited. We picked this up upon landing. My wife and I headed to the Performance Center to say hello to a few people, one of which wouldn't be there as he was headed to LA on our delivery date. We also arranged 2 hours of private instruction on Friday afternoon and my friends at the performance center were able to accommodate us on short notice. More on that later.

As you may or may not know, effective September 1 only vehicles bulit in South Carolina are eligible to have a PCD. Ours were requested well before that date, so that didn't affect us. Also effective January 1, no more hotel included with the experience.

So Dec 5, we had dinner (on BMW's dime) at the hotel. Breakfast was also included Dec 6 at the Greenville Marriott. It's a decent hotel, the staff was great, and the food pretty good. So at 740AM, we got on the shuttle bus to take us to the performance center. There were 4 other couples picking up cars. My wife took the rental over the performance center so we'd have a car after dropping off the CSs at Extreme Colors.

We've done PCD before--roughly 6 years ago in a 2017 M2. My friend was a virgin for this. I won't go into too much on the program itself since it's been well documented. Our delivery experience instructors were Andy van Cleef and Adam Seaman. I "knew" Andy from previous encounters, but really knew his son Tommy better. And I've known Adam for about 10 years--including his stint as lead at Thermal. The morning session consists of 3 exercises. You get to drive a car similar to the one you're picking up. But they don't have a CS, let alone 2, for us. They also had issues with differential fluid--so no M3 Comp xDrives either as those were broken in, but no run-in service done yet. So we got to choose a RWD Comp. We broke into groups. There were 3 M3 deliveries that day, so we had our M3 group and everyone else went to 2 i4s, and an X6. We first did the skid pad. And remember, this isn't a school. It's designed to let you know about the safety features of your new vehicle as well as some handling. So the skid pad was about demonstrating how traction control and DSC help you out. You get to spin the car with DSC off and then try with DSC on to demonstrate how the car is helping you stay on the road.

Next, we had the braking exercise, where you do full ABS stops and steer adding speed each run.

Then it was the handling course where it's continuous lapping of a small course so you get a feel of how your car handles. The whole session lasts maybe 1 1/2 hours or so. Afterwards, you get a hot lap in the M3. We had the pleasure of having Adam Seaman take us around the course that he seemed to make up as he went.

Then it was time for lunch, provided by the BMW Performance Center. And the food was amazing. Think we had fried chicken as well as some beef stew available that day with the fixin's. After lunch, the CS deliveries went to the Zentrum in X5s as the factory tour was unavailable. I've done the tour twice before and it's always good, but unfortunately my friend didn't get to see it. We did get a guided tour of the Zentrum museum which was fantastic. The tour took about 45 minutes and then Andy took us back to do the off-road course in the X5s. At one point, you'll get one wheel in the air completely and we had an indicated 23 degrees of tilt in the X5! Andy took a few pictures for us of this demonstration.

And then finally it was time for delivery! Our CSs were in the delivery bay. A friend who has done several deliveries (including the M4 CSL) reached out to the center and insisted that Hope took care of my delivery and so it was. Hope was fantastic, but being a product specialist myself, we just really chatted and didn't go over the vehicle too much. We set up the profiles and a few settings and I picked her brain on some of the obscure features and how they worked--like the auto program in the climate menu and when the heated seats come on automatically.

Eventually, we got the cars pulled outside for some photos. Then we headed over to the BMW CCA Foundation Museum just for some photo ops. Disclaimer: he's the President of the Golden Gate Chapter and I'm the Vice President. Then it was time to take the cars over to Extreme Colors and then we realized (before we really departed) that we left the rental over at the Performance Center. So a slight detour to get the vehicle and then over to Extreme Colors.

Then it was off to downtown Greenville for dinner.

More to follow. Will add video of some of the experience as well as a log of the cross-country tour.

Note: the original plan was to drive together across the country, but due to the lateness of the delivery, my friend had to get back to California by Dec 17 and had to stop in Texas prior to this to visit his husband's family. So we did 4 days together. We departed Saturday Dec 9 from South Carolina and did Tail of the Dragon before turning back down to Atlanta to pick up his husband and then off to Memphis via Huntsville.

Stay tuned for more.

[calbears]

December 7 - 8:

With the cars dropped off for PPF, tints, and ceramic coating, it was a waiting game. So we needed something to do Thursday. We started off with breakfast at Biscuit Head after seeing some fellow CCA Members do this in November. So we had to try it. My friend and I tried the Filthy Animal which is a buttermilk biscuit (about the size of a cat's head--hence the name of the restaurant), fried chicekn, cheese, bacon, scrambled eggs, and smothered in gravy.

Afterwards, we decided to travel to the South Carolina--about 90 minutes from Greenville in Winnsboro. My friend is a big train guy, so this was perfect. We had no idea what to expect. We arrived and found out the museum was free and then we got a VIP tour of place for about an hour or so from a volunteer train guy who is also active duty Air Force. He walked us around the grounds, took us inside trains, gave us all the facts about the pieces, and was enthusiastic about the trains (even had a hat that said, "train guy"). Well worth the trip!

Afterwards, it was back to Greenville, where we went to the BMW CCA Headquarters to meet up with Frank Patek (executive director of the BMW CCA). We got a tour of the new building (not so new, but new to us!). Had to pick up a few things from the store, got some recommendations from Frank and company about dinner. We ended up at Fork & Plough which was also very good.

Next morning, it was off to get our friend to Waffle House to break his cherry. By chance, we ran into 2 CCA members that we know (local to the area), so we had lunch with them. Food was plentiful (no drama either) and super cheap. 5 of us ate for less than $60!

After breakfast, we showed up early to the Performance Center so my friend could be on an office call until our private instruction time at 1pm. We arranged for 2 hours of private instruction--note that this isn't cheap--but well worth it. It was $1300 per person for the 2 hours. We arranged for lead-follow and skid pad. We were in the M2 and M3. Started off in the M2 and the instructors (1 per driver) in the M3. We had a few recon laps of the lead-follow course. Then lapping at speed and then the instructors pulled off and we were all on the track on our own with just radio communication as we just had a blast. You could come in and chat about a few things and then go back out. After that, we introduced the skid pad. Only 2 could be on the pad at once, so the third did an improvised reverse course on the section we had been using for lapping. After a bit of time we rotated around so that you could go on the skid pad while another went to the course. I switched to the M3 for skid pad and lapping and it was great. Finally go the hang of sustaining the drift for a full lap and it was difficult at one section that was particularly wet and slippery.

The upside of private instruction is that it's a lot of seat time. You go until you don't want to anymore. Time flew by and we were just over 2 ish hours of time on the course. We said our goodbyes and thanked them for the fun time and the plan was to go to downtown Greenville, walk around, while waiting for the call to pick up the cars. That call came much more quickly and we diverted to pick up the cars instead. Extreme Colors did an amazing job. We also had realized that our radar detectors wouldn't work since we couldn't find a 12V cigarette lighter. So we were on a mission to find a RJ11 to USB cord to power the detectors at Best Buy, then WalMart--ultimately being unsuccessful. So I ordered a pair of them from Amazon for delivery in Atlanta by Sunday at an Amazon locker.

After that fiasco, it was time to drop the rental car off and then head to dinner based on another recommendation: Soby's in Greenville. So more southern cooking and more dessert. All of which was great.

Thus ending our stay in Greenville as we begin the roadtrip on Dec 9. Weather at the Tail of the Dragon was showing a chance of rain, but good on the temperature side (upper 50s). And that was a worry as if it was rainy and cold, we'd have to abandon that idea.

[calbears]

Reserved for Days 4-5: Tail of the Dragon and Atlanta

General route is the first photo.

On Friday, I called 2 dealerships to book a run-in appointment for the M3 CS. Brian Harris BMW in Baton Rouge was my preferred choice--but they didn't have an available appointment until Dec 30. So I called Peake BMW in New Orleans and scheduled the appointment for Wednesday. I then reached out to an Insta friend who used to be a BMW Genius at Brian Harris and explained the situation. He now works for Harris Porsche as an amazing photographer--stay tuned for that!. He reached out to the GM at Brian Harris an amazingly got me an appointment at Brian Harris for 830AM Wednesday. Thanks to Drew for the help!

The trip begins. We depart from the Greenville Marriott, get some coffee and a quick breakfast at Starbucks and then a stop at the BMW Zentrum for some photos and then it was towards Tail of the Dragon. We scouted out locations to stop for lunch since it'd be 2 1/2 hours + on the road. We fond one place open a few miles before Deals Gap: Fontana Village and that was essentially the only thing open. The whole trip from the Zentrum through North Carolina was periods of heavy rain. Luckily, the storm was moving to the ease, so by the time we arrived at Fontana Village--no rain. It was cloudy and not too cold.

After lunch, it was a quick drive to the beginning of the Tail (or the end depending on your point of view). We stopped at the closed for the season area and then took on the Tail. We only saw a handful of cars going the opposite direction. We took it fairly easy on the trail both of us having brand new vehicles. It certainly was technical, but I'm not sure this lived up to the hype for us. It was a fine road, but to us, nothing too special and similar feel to roads in California that we frequent. But then again, it's many turns in a very short route. Bucket list item checked off.

From the end of the route for us, we took many back roads back towards Atlanta. We checked into our hotel in downtown Atlanta. My friend went to pick up his husband at the airport while we waited. We decided to just do dinner down the street and nothing too special: the Hard Rock Cafe. Haven't eaten there in ages. It was fine.

Thus ends our first day on the road. We then spent the next day in Atlanta doing a few touristy things. We decided to have another Southern Breakfast at the Atlanta Breakfast Club--we walked from the hotel and through Olympic Centennial Park. Afterwards, we got an Uber to take us over to the MLK House and National Park. We walked around the area, stopping at the King Center, and the Ebenezer Baptist Church (old & new).

Then we got another Uber to Piedmont Park and took a walk around this very lovely park. Afterwards, we got another Uber back to the Centennial Olympic Park. We hit the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca Cola. The aquarium was quite good. The World of Coca Cola I had been to some 20 years prior. It has changed as I remembered the tasting experience had a different vibe with dramatic fountains and now it's just a bunch of bog standard fountains with different flavors. I seem to remember that before you'd place a cup on an area and the drink would shoot into it from a fountain--prior to cell phone cameras--so can't find any proof of my memory. Tried tons of different flavors. Some good and some not so good.

Dinner location was the idea of my friend. We tried Paschal's (a new location) that is famous for being part of the civil rights movement and amazing soul food. The restaurant has robots that carry food out to the tables, so that was interesting.

The next morning, I walked over to the Amazon locker to get our RJ11-USB cords for our radar detectors. They were made for other brands, but luckily, they worked!

More later...

[calbears]

From Atlanta to Memphis via the US Space & Rocket Center

First picture shows the general route.

While on the road, we saw signs for Buc-ee's. So we had to stop. We had experienced Buc-ee's in Daytona Beach earlier this year at the advice of some other BMW CCA members and had no idea what were in for at the first visit. My friend & his husband had never been--so we took their Buc-ee's virginity this trip. If you don't know, it's a gigantic gas station and store. The store has everything. You got souvenirs, knick-knacks, food, & more. The food is amazing. Everything from BBQ to breakfast sandwiches, a beef jerky counter, baked goods. It's hard to describe, but definitely worth a visit.

From Buc-ee's we continued the journey to the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. An amazing stop with lots of great exhibits, incuding a mock-up of the Saturn V rocket outside and a giant exhibit indoors with the stages of the Saturn V rocket and lots of stuff on the Apollo missions. We also found an SR-71 Blackbird outside and took photos with it as well as the Saturn V rocket. Had to use the iPhone panoramic feature to get the rocket in the frame as the DSLR with a 28MM lens made the cars look way tiny (and they are) compared to the rocket.

From there, it was back on the road to Memphis. We arrived around 6PM to downtown Memphis and stayed at the Moxy in Memphis. A quirky hotel by Marriott that had a vibe. We even got a voucher for free drinks. Checked in, we then walked to dinner at BB King's Blues Club. We had wanted to try some Memphis BBQ, but most were closed Mondays. So we did have more soul food as well as live entertainment. It was fun.

We had parked our cars in an offsite garage that is used by the hotel and the attendant was from Oakland, California--so a small world indeed. The parking lines in the garage were quite confusing with my area having more prominent yellow lines for angled parking and blacked out lines for the simple perpindicular parking. You should see where this is going...We paid for parking via an online website (and text). Verified everything was correct and then the next morning, we came to collect the cars and depart...and my car had a boot on it. It took about 30 minutes for an attendant to come over (paid $50 to have it removed). This person was not very friendly and we just asked why I had a boot and she said I parked incorrectly. I pointed out the lines marked for angled parking and she said it's common sense to park perpendicular and said everyone parks that way and not how I did it. Note that there weren't any cars there when we parked. She would have none of it and cut us off and told us to have a nice day and left.

[calbears]

Reserved for Day 7 & 8: New Orleans & Baton Rouge

First photo shows the route. Again, Memphis we split up, so the rest of the write up is just one M3 CS cross country trip. Run-in service was scheduled for Tuesday thanks to @autoinamber (IG tag) at Brian Harris BMW.

First things first, hitting New Orleans and arriving in late afternoon. Enough time to get the requisite beignet from Cafe Du Monde which was still open (the only beignet place still open). We got the 3 beignets--absolutely delicious and then walked over to Johnny Sanchez (Aaron Sanchez of MasterChef fame). They serve Mexican food with a New Orleans twist. We went with a la carte Tacos and had everything and two of the lobster tacos. The lobster tacos were fried and were absolutely amazing. Also great were the albondigas tacos (meatballs) only complaint about the meatball tacos was that it was a bit awkward to eat, but was great! Highly recommend this place.

Back to the Moxy New Orleans for the night and then an early departure to get the run-in service done in Baton Rouge. Drew met us at the dealership after we checked in the car for service. He now works at Porsche (next door--but also Brian Harris owned). We checked out Porsche and he took us on a little drive with the Taycan Turbo S and launched it a few times. Crazy launches!

Service was done and Drew then offered to get some photos of the car at his usual locations. Original plan was 2 locations, but he had other work to accomplish, so it was Alligator Bayou road and then some rolling shots, with Drew in the back of an X3 with the tailgate open snapping photos (my wife driving the X3 and in communication with me via phone). The results were amazing. Drew had to depart after this as he had some work that needed to be done for Porsche.

After that, it was back to New Orleans and a stop at the South 73 Lunchroom that we just happened to find on teh way back from Baton Rouge. Good food. Then it was back to New Orleans and a breather before dinner at Mr. B's Bistro (recommended by Performance Center instructor and friend, Mike Renner). Only available reservation was an early dinner, so we took it. Another great night of food and that wrapped up New Orleans.

Next stop: Houston. With a stop at the Johnson Space Center. I booked an entry to the museum and the Apollo Command Center for 2:45PM the next day (the day before).

[MT6]

Beautiful M3 CS, nice write up

[mdr955]

Pretty cool trip!!

Did you stop for a 1200 mile service along the way home?

[chicagofan00]

Been waiting for this post after seeing all the photos on Instagram. Congrats on the CS and an epic adventure!

[Soylent]

Great color!

['Cane]

Congrats. Great write up!

[calbears]

Originally Posted by mdr955

Pretty cool trip!!

Did you stop for a 1200 mile service along the way home?

of course...stay tuned

[nordmanmg]

Wow, what a journey, so cool

[aaa335]

What a fun delivery! Looks like it was worth all the planning.

[calbears]

Day 9: Houston

First photo is the general route, basically straight across on I-10 to Houston with a stop at the Johnson Space Center.

Lots of cool stuff at the Johnson Space Center, we arrived a bit earlier than our tram tour, so we spent some time going around the exhibits. Plenty of stuff to see from the new mission to the moon as well as the Apollo program and space exploration.

The mission control tour was well worth the price of admission. You get to relive the moon landing through the actual transmissions and see what mission control saw where the center was preserved and the viewing area you are in was restored--so you're sitting where the families of the astronauts were watching this all happen.

Then it was back to explore more of the exhibits, including the outdoor portion which had the 747 that would ferry the shuttle around. It's the actual plane, but the shuttle is just a mock up. You can explore both as part of the exhibit on the inside. Pretty fascinating stuff.

Then it was off to the hotel nearby to check-in and get dinner. We had found a restaurant called Gringo's near the hotel, so we had to go based on the name alone. Essentially, it felt like a Chevy's, but not bad and relatively inexpensive.

Still have to put together a video of the footage I took...

Next stop: Austin

[g80.py]

Even without including the insane CS’s the views you all are having are outstanding. Keep us updated on the journey!!!

[4DRS55]

Originally Posted by calbears

Day 9: Houston

First photo is the general route, basically straight across on I-10 to Houston with a stop at the Johnson Space Center.

Lots of cool stuff at the Johnson Space Center, we arrived a bit earlier than our tram tour, so we spent some time going around the exhibits. Plenty of stuff to see from the new mission to the moon as well as the Apollo program and space exploration.

The mission control tour was well worth the price of admission. You get to relive the moon landing through the actual transmissions and see what mission control saw where the center was preserved and the viewing area you are in was restored--so you're sitting where the families of the astronauts were watching this all happen.

Then it was back to explore more of the exhibits, including the outdoor portion which had the 747 that would ferry the shuttle around. It's the actual plane, but the shuttle is just a mock up. You can explore both as part of the exhibit on the inside. Pretty fascinating stuff.

Then it was off to the hotel nearby to check-in and get dinner. We had found a restaurant called Gringo's near the hotel, so we had to go based on the name alone. Essentially, it felt like a Chevy's, but not bad and relatively inexpensive.

Still have to put together a video of the footage I took...

Next stop: Austin

Such an awesome experience! hey if you were near north Austin we can have another CS join you for lunch 👍🏼. Congratulations! car looks beautiful!

[GoldfishTX]

This is an epic story! It makes me wish I had done PCD for my g80. Bummer to hear they're making the experience less awesome and more restrictive going forward. I would have loved to put this on my wishlist for the G90/99. Maybe they'll go back the other direction by then. Hopefully will see your cars at a CCA gathering soon!

[nordmanmg]

I just noticed, one of them has CCB and other regular steel

[GOLFFRR]

epic man! great post

PS: need to put this on the front page ASAP

['Cane]

Originally Posted by GOLFFRR

epic man! great post

PS: need to put this on the front page ASAP

No doubt.

[SkyNinja83]

Beautiful write-up and pics so far, thank you for taking the time to share! Congrats on the new addition to the family . Can't wait to see more!

[G MONEY]

Definitely need to make time for some springs/coils Holy wheel-gap Batman