When Katrina and Eric Anderson left Woodstock, Georgia for South Carolina, they figured they were simply picking up a new BMW. What they didn’t expect was how surreal it would feel to pull into the BMW CCA offices, see the lights flash on the Ruby Star Neo M3, and realize—this was theirs. Not a dream. Not a joke. Not a “maybe one day.”
They really won the 2025 Dream Car Raffle.
And they’re about as real and passionate as BMW enthusiasts come.
Eric and Katrina with Jeff Caldwell (center), the president of the BMW CCA board.
A BMW Story That Started on Two Wheels
Katrina and Eric have been BMW CCA members for just about a year, but their roots go back much further. Eric’s BMW journey began in the saddle of a motorcycle. “I was big into motorcycles my whole life,” he says. “But when I made the transition to BMW, that was the game changer. I understood what M meant after that.”
For Katrina, her first taste of the brand came in 2016—the day she climbed on the back of Eric’s BMW motorcycle and flew through Atlanta traffic. “That’s how it started,” she laughed. “And all our friends drive BMWs, so it only grew from there.”
Since then, the couple has racked up trips—including riding the Tail of the Dragon earlier this year—and built a garage full of M passion: Eric’s M4 CS in Porsche Shark Blue, and Katrina’s M235i, which she recently replaced with her dream car… even though she didn’t know it was coming.
The Raffle That Felt ‘Meant to Be’
Many members buy tickets with a sense of hope. Eric bought his with a sense of certainty. He had been browsing the BMW CCA website when he first saw the car—a Ruby Star Neo BMW M3. “I saw it and said, ‘Babe, this has your name written all over it,’” he said. “I just felt like it was meant to be for her.”
So he bought her 10 raffle tickets for her birthday. Katrina didn’t just get tickets. She got new purse, a nice dinner—and apparently a destiny. “I felt like I just knew it was ours,” Eric admitted. “I felt like I willed it into existence.”
“Wait… Did We Actually Win?”
When the winning call came in, Eric missed it. Then came the long night of disbelief. “I was checking the numbers for two or three hours,” he said. “Probably longer. I kept saying, ‘There’s no way. There’s just no way.’” But the next morning, when the confirmation call came through, the disbelief melted away. “That’s when it hit us. It was real. We won the car.” And for Katrina—who says she has never won anything, not even a McDonald’s Monopoly soda—this was her first-ever prize. Not a bad way to start.
The Drive to Pick Up the M3
When the couple made the 2 hour, 40 minute drive to pick up their new M3, excitement started building long before they arrived. “We passed the BMW Zentrum and that’s when my adrenaline spiked,” Katrina said. Eric added, “I was pushing the speed limit just a little bit.” When they finally pulled in—and saw the lights on the vehicles flash—they laughed, thinking the cars were “talking to each other.” That’s when the moment became real.
Seeing Ruby Star Neo in Person
Katrina said she had done the research—Googling the color, trying to find photos in full sunlight, even following an Instagram account that happened to feature a nearly identical M3. But nothing compared to seeing it in person. “My breath was taken away,” she said. “It’s not tutu pink. It’s not loud or flashy. It’s just perfect. Especially for an M3. It’s subtle, powerful, and elegant.”
And once she learned only five M3s were made in Ruby Star Neo, the rarity only added to the magic. “Being a Porsche color too… and then my husband’s M4 CS is also a Porsche color… it felt meant to be again.”
“Real Members Win.” This Is the Proof.
As Katrina and Eric stood beside their two BMWs—one Shark Blue, one Ruby Star Neo—they looked like they were made for a BMW CCA brochure. But they’re not actors. They’re not paid spokespeople. They’re simply members who love the brand, support the club, and took a chance on a raffle that changed their garage forever. “No one believes people actually win,” Katrina said. “But they do. We did. And now I get to drive this car like I stole it.”
From Peach State to Ruby Star Neo… these two couldn’t be bigger ambassadors for the club.
When you support the club, real members really do win.
