Flying the Flag

Keith (L) and his mate Albert sat on the bonnet of Keith’s Mk2 Jaguar at Santa Pod in 1973. Not bad for a starter car (lovin’ the 70s hair and big flares – Ed)

How did I get involved with the BMW Car Club? - Let’s go back to 1970...

Istarted work in 1970, at age 17, in a BMC parts department, knowing I wanted to do something to do with cars. I was offered two parts jobs, one with a VW agent or one with BMC. Remember, Volkswagen only really had Beetles around at that time, while BMC had Morris, MG and Wolseley. I learned all the different aspects of the job over six years, but then saw an advert for a BMW dealer requiring an experienced parts man. So late summer 1976, I started with BMW. I remember the M.D. had one of the last 2500s as his company car... Total number of staff in the dealership? 15 or 16! Yes, total. Sales, service, and parts. Compare that with today, which could be around a hundred including a body shop. It was 1976, so no computers and no printers. Although in Parts, I had a microfiche reader for the small, laminated, flat exploded diagrams. You’d slide these cards under the glass plate of the reader and they’d be magnified onto a large screen.

At the initial dealer, I was the whole parts department, but as a parts manager I had a new E21 316. ENF 527Y, where are you now? After the move to my second dealer, I then had an E12 518i (a part-ex), then an E28 525i (ditto),

Flying the flag. Keith’s beloved Carmine Red (1 of 1) E28 M5 at the Sharknose Meeting, Holland, in 2019. Keith is a true club stalwart, always selling the club to BMW owners and flying that Sharknose club flag at events like the Sunday Scramble at Bicester

amongst other swappers. At the third dealer, I had new cars, including two E34 520i Saloons, an E30 320i Saloon and an E30 316 Touring. I have never owned a new BMW, but have driven quite a few. I could never afford one, with mortgage, family (wife and two daughters), holidays… I bought my first BMW, a 1987 E28 520i manual, around 1997, and second and current BMW, a 1986 E28 M5, in 2004. The 520i left us in 2006 and it was still running well at 180,000 miles. Again, E802 TBA where are you?

Around 2000, Jeff Heywood, the BMWCC Chairman at the time, asked me if I would allow for my name and work phone number to appear in Straight Six as a Parts Problem Solver, for Car Club members’ parts queries and problems. Because I saw it as being a part of my daily job normally, which I still enjoyed, I agreed. Quite often I’d receive calls from members from all over the country ringing for advice. Questions like, “does this part fit this model?” If I solved the problem I could sell the genuine parts to them - a win-win situation for everyone (and an invaluable service – Ed).

The Club was a different animal when I joined in 1987. Malcolm and Kay Firth were North West area chairs. We had a regular monthly meeting and visited various places of interest. Some of the best were at Manchester Airport behindthe-scenes tours. At different times, we visited the Airport Fire Station, with two

huge fire engines for us to explore, with a central steering wheel so the driver could enter and exit from either side, and be sold on to both RHD/LHD countries. They could blow water and foam more than 100 feet, perfect for all the detailers out there!

Another trip to the Airport took in the Maintenance Hangar where they repaired aircraft and carried out resprays. I have a photo taken from the top of an aircraft tail fin, looking forward, taken from scaffolding erected for a respray, which required something like three tons of paint! The wiring loom in the cabin roof would give an auto-electrician a nightmare, too; it must have been about two feet in diameter.

One of the most fascinating trips was to a sub-contractors for in-flight food, just on the outskirts of the airport perimeter fence. Talk about organised chaos. They made a choice of meals. Not just vegetarian, vegan or halal options, but also for different classes (business, economy, etc.) with different crockery and utensils for different airlines. while at the same time trollies come in with the remains of meals to be emptied, washed, dried and refilled, and all done just-intime. Absolute bedlam.

We went to Oktoberfest 1999 at Donington, Woburn Abbey National Rally in 2002, the National Festival at Gaydon numerous times (helping out in the Club Shop for a number of years), local runs and visits around Cheshire, Lancashire, and even changing our money to go into Yorkshire! Dealer visits, Tatton Park Festivals (sometimes sharing with Porsche), Harewood House, museums, weekends away including the Bicester Sunday Scrambles with fellow NW members, Sharknose Festival in Holland 2019. I still enjoy them. I hear that only about 10-15% of Car Club members go to rallies, runs and visits. The other 8590% need to get out more. They might even enjoy it.

Lynn and I have had a great time with the Club. With plenty more to come. We have visited places not previously on our radar, met plenty of lovely people and seen lots of lovely cars, both standard and modified. We hope to be around for a few years yet.

Keith pictured at Woburn Abbey in 2002 for the club’s Golden birthday celebrations. Keith often manned the club stand and shop at National events where his experience working in parts came to the fore. To the right of the photo is the Mobil Oil million mile E30 325i that we used on display at a number of events

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