By Donovan Unks, News Editor for BMW Car Club Magazine: Roundel edition. BMW CCA members enjoy this and many more articles, columns, and features as part of their membership. Learn more at bmwcca.org/jointoday.
If you’re not familiar with the HFMSTRS, then take a listen to Episode 10 of the BMW Group Classic podcast for an interview with three of its main members; we’ll wait. In short, the Europe-based group started out only a few years ago on WhatsApp to celebrate car culture with a focus on BMWs, but it quickly expanded to in-person gatherings. Since the Hofmeister Kink is a signature BMW design element, but also found many non-BMWs, the name was a way to convey the community’s love of all cars, but especially BMWs.
However, while your stereotypical static Cars & Coffee get-together is more of a Park & Preen event where rich people looking for acceptance show up in really expensive cars and typically ends with a Mustang driver crashing into a light pole, the latest HFMSTRS event was more geared toward a TikTok/GenZ audience, giving it an Autos & Adderall vibe. Last October the group had their end of 2023 event in Munich named “Thrash ’em—The Rhythm of Speed,” which celebrated the intersection of BMWs, car racing, and skateboarding culture. Collaborating with the creative group/automotive-themed clothing brand Elevens Co., the HFMSTRS community appeared with over 200 cars.
Art by Elevens and Cyril Verbrugge for the Thrash ’Em event.
One of the stars of the show was brought over by the BMW Museum: Frank Stella’s 1976 E9 BMW 3.0CSL Art Car, the second Art Car commissioned. In early planning stages of the event, the Elevens had thought about the possibility of jumping a skateboard over an Art Car, but obviously this was a no-go from BMW. Instead, the group decided to take an “unloved” BMW, the E36 316i Compact, and set it amongst skateboard ramps for skaters to show off their skills at jumping over the car. A late addition to the 316i came courtesy of a friend of the group who decided—at 1:00 a.m. before the event—to weld on a grinding rail to the trunk lid of the car.
If you want to see photos from the unique event, head over to the Magazine section of classicdriver.com and search for HFMSTRS, or check out the Instagram pages of the HFMSTRS (Instagram.com/hfmstrs) and Elevens (Instagram.com/elevens.co).
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