When Rusty and Max de Giulio stopped by BMW CCA Headquarters in Greer, South Carolina, they were elated. And for good reason. Earlier that day, they took delivery of matching BMW M2s at the BMW Performance Center. With the cars parked outside, the paperwork finished, and a long drive home still ahead of them, what was supposed to be a quick visit turned into a study in BMW enthusiasm and how it can permeate an entire family.
It didn’t take long before the conversations drifted away from the new M2s sitting outside to the cars that got them to this point. For Rusty, that story starts in 1985. He and his wife, Esther, purchased a leftover 1984 BMW 528e. It was the BMW that started everything, even if the initial purchase was a risk.
“We emptied out all of our money,” Rusty recalls with a laugh.
That 528e rewarded Rusty and Esther with more than 250,000 miles of service before it was struck by a drunk driver, rendering it totaled. Still, Rusty remained one fo the BMW faithful. His journey over the last 40 years includes a European Delivery trip in 1999, memberships in several BMW CCA chapters—Allegheny, National Capital, Tarheel, and Sandlapper among them—as life carried him around the country, and a grey-market M535i that he still misses.
With a Motorsport suspension and interior, and a dogleg five-speed gearbox, it hasn’t been an easy one to forget.
“I sold it to a dentist in New Jersey,” he says. “If he wants to sell it back, I’d like to buy it.”
When he talks about the club, the conversation focuses on people, trips, and experiences, not just cars. Many of those experiences include Max. It’s clear that there was never a single moment when Max became an enthusiast; BMWs were part of the backdrop growing up. His earliest BMW memories are poetically simple.
“I’d hear him get up early in the morning and start the car,” Max says. “Just hearing it purring outside is something I still remember.”
Some families spend weekends at the lake or ball fields. For the de Giulios, weekends involved car shows, chapter events, race weekends, driving schools, and annual trips to the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix.
Max (left) and Rusty (right) pose next to their brand new M2s.
Those experiences became traditions. Rusty and Max have attended Formula One races together, visited the Rolex 24 at Daytona, participated in driving schools, and traveled to Germany. The Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix has become one of the highlights of their annual automotive calendar. During one trip overseas, they visited the BMW Museum, toured automotive landmarks, and found themselves running late for a factory tour while driving a rented BMW wagon. The solution was, naturally, a high-speed Autobahn blast.
“We were doing about 200 kilometers an hour,” Rusty says. “We made it with about 10 minutes to spare. That car was rock solid.”
That shared BMW bond may have reached its peak with the same-day delivery of new M2s, but it wasn’t even something they coordinated from day one.
Max started shopping for a car first, but his search was for an M3. That is, it was until someone suggested he take a closer look at the M2. The more he researched, the clearer it became that the M2 was the right choice. When Rusty started car shopping, the M2 wasn’t even on his radar. Instead, he was considering everything from a Porsche 911 to a Ferrari California. But when Max decided on an M2, Esther pushed Rusty in the same direction.
“She said, ‘We’ve got to get one,’” Rusty recalls. That was it. Rusty’s order was soon in.
Coordinating the deliveries became its own project. The goal was to pick them up together, and despite different production and shipping timelines, everything ultimately came together. The de Giulios spent the day learning what their new cars could do at the BMW Performance Center. That experience confirmed to Rusty that the M2 was the right choice.
“The handling was shocking,” he says about his time on track. “It was on rails.”
For Max, the moment that stuck wasn’t on track, it was when he first saw the car in the delivery area.
“I thought it was somebody else’s,” he says. “I sat in it by myself for a minute and thought, ‘Holy shit. This is coming home with me.’”
Rusty already has plans for future trips and events with the M2. There were plenty of miles ahead and, more importantly, new memories to be collected. As for Max, well, after spending years attending BMW CCA events, chapter gatherings, races, and road trips alongside his father, he finally officially joined the club. Considering Rusty’s CCA journey started in 1985, we expect Max to share a similar experience with more family members in 2066.