Real BMW Car Club of America members are winning real—and fantastic—prizes from the 2017 BMW CCA Membership Drive! For 2017, the BMW CCA had two recent drawings—one for those referred to the club who entered an existing member’s membership number when joining the club and another for those who referred new members. For the referred members, there was one prize—a one-day M School at the BMW Performance Center. For the referring members, the first prize was also a One-Day M School. Second place was a social package for the 2018 O’Fest held this July in Pittsburgh. Third place was a $200 American Express gift card.
Windy City Chapter member Peter Maloy won the second-place prize for the referring member drawing. Chicago is fairly close to Pittsburgh so this social package should come in handy, especially since Peter is interested in the track activities at O’Fest. A free social package should make the entire event even better!
National Capital Chapter member Robert Getz won the first-place prize for the referring member drawing. That’s a one-day M School program at the BMW Performance Center! It seems fitting that Robert won it, as he spends many hours a year as a driving instructor, so now he gets to hone his skills even more behind the wheel of Performance Center M2s, M3s, M4s and more.
All members who referred a new member to the club in 2017 received one entry into the drawings for those three prizes. The more members referred, the more entries. This year, we are awarding winners throughout the year! Every month, we will award the member with the most referrals that month with a free one-year membership renewal! Every quarter, we will have prizes for the first, second and third place referrers who referred at least six new members that quarter. At the end of the year, we’ll have the same referrer drawing from 2017, but for 2018, we’ll also have a Membership Driver Award—a grand prize worth more than $5,000. It consists of a $500 Griot’s Car Care Kit a $1,200 tire certificate from Michelin, and a two-day M School at the Performance Centers! To be entered into that drawing, members need to refer ten or more throughout the year.
For 2017, we also had the drawing for the winning referred member—the one-day M School at the Performance Center. The winner is Puget Sound Chapter member Cody Gunter. Cody represents so many of our friends, colleagues, relatives and acquaintances out there who are passionate about BMW—or about receiving discounts and rebates that we offer through the club—but just hadn’t joined the club or had at one point but weren’t at that time. He drives an E36 M3 (fellow winner, Peter Maloy has one in his stable, too!), but Cody has put a little work into this to come up with something he knows purists might scoff at, but they’ll have to do it while looking at his tail lights. Cody has dropped in a 5.7L LS engine now producing 450 whp while saving weight compared to the S52 engine.
The big secret of Cody’s E36 M3—the LS swap.
So why did Cody pull the trigger and join, besides a club member asking him if he wanted to join? “The BMW CCA puts on so many great events up here in my area, I had to join,” he explained. “From track days, to dyno events, cruises, and the best show of the year, M car day at Griot’s Garage, it’s great! Everyone is so friendly and the instructors on track days really do make driving more enjoyable. My three-year plan is to go through all of the steps, CCC, HPDE classes and eventually I would like to become an instructor.”
If you find someone with a BMW-associated tattoo, that is a really big hint that he or she might make a fantastic referral candidate and club member!
He didn’t just benefit from all that energy that so many of us (and those out there waiting to be referred will enjoy, too!). “I think winning the M school will kick start my education on the track and motivate me even further to my goal of becoming an instructor,” he reasoned. “’I fully believe there is no better car on the road better than an M car, period. I am so brand loyal that I even got the M tattooed on my leg! Thanks again to the club for this awesome opportunity to go learn with the best, in the best. Oh, and my girlfriend owns an X5M, so we keep it in the family! She’s a member, too!”
Cody isn’t just stopping at those aspects of his club enjoyment. “We’ve got a few people we will be contacting to get signed now, too,” he added. “I can’t tell you how appreciative I am of winning this contest and of how awesome the BMW CCA is!”
These names, winners and stories could be you after this 2018 Membership Drive! There are so many automotive and BMW enthusiasts out there who simply don’t know about the club, its benefits, its activities and how much they can enjoy for $48 a year. Who do you know who might be interested in joining? It’s a pretty safe question to ask, so give it a shot, grow the membership, meet more people, learn more about BMWs and possibly win some great rewards and prizes, too! — Kyle van Hoften
