BMW Car Club GB 70th Birthday Celebration Club life, great memories. Tatton Park 2010 and BMWs as far as the eye can see. Just the turnout you want at a club event!
Club Life! Words/Photos Jeff Heywood
As the Club celebrates its 70th birthday in 2022, we’ve asked our longstanding members to share anecdotes and reminisce about club life in a series of articles running throughout the year. First up is Jeff Heywood.
I
joined the BMW Car Club GB back in the early 1990s, so I’ve nearly done a thirty stretch. You get less for murder! Joking aside, the club has brought me and my family many happy memories, one or two sad ones and the odd annoyance. Plus hundreds and hundreds of friends, some who I now consider close friends. Like many others, after passing my driving test in the early 1981, I started my car ownership off with a banger, a Hillman Avenger that was more rust then clean steel. But it gave me mobility, a back seat for plenty of lurve action and a car to hone my driving skills. My first proper car was a Ford Escort Mk2 1600 Sport, in gleaming black with silver stripes. A pair of larger spotlights soon found their way onto the front of the car, it was a beauty. It’s surprising how many people soon get to know you when you have
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a nice car, plus it was a babe magnet. God I loved that car. I reluctantly sold it and after lusting after an RS2000, but unable to afford the insurance (this was the mid-80s and anything sporty got nicked!), I purchased a black Mk1 XR2. What a car, just 4k on the clock, same crossflow engine, easily tunable and a chassis like a go-kart. I then went through a My first proper car, a Ford Escort MK2 1600 Sport finished in black with number of XR models, but silver Sport striping. It was a real eye catcher and a bit of a babe magnet I was getting lured away by a serious looking German bird from and followed the RAC Rally) and also Wolfsburg! had a near dalliance with a Mk1 Vauxhall I did have a short ‘want one’ moment Astra GTE, which never happened for an Opel Manta GTE (I loved my rallying because the salesman thought a young www.bmwcarclubgb.uk
