SIGFest 2019 - 20th Annual Event - BMW NA on September 21, 2019!

[fronton]

How was the turnout? Let's see some photos!

[Grinder]

How many so far? Four of us coming together from Mass/RI

[MTree]

Thank you James, Registered, can't wait to see everyone there! I'm bringing my little guy to see all the E30 M3

[L James]

Final Bump.... Registration closes today! Hope to see everyone there!!

[L James]

Posted by John H earlier today to the SIG:

Gruppe,


SIGFest 2019 kicks off in 2 days! If you haven't registered we urge

you to do so immediately, registration will close tomorrow (Wednesday)

evening.


Please come and join us in celebrating our 20th Annual event.


We'll see you there!


Cordially,

The SIGFest Team

[L James]

Posted by John H earlier today to the SIG:

Greetings Gruppe,

SIGFest 2019 is rapidly approaching. The deadline to register is Wednesday, September 18th. If you plan on attending please register as soon as possible. Your registration allows us to accurately account for all in attendance, and finalize our plans.

Register Here:

http://www.sigfest.com/events.php

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Cordially,
The SIGFest Team

[L James]

Everyone, Tony posted this to the SIG last week, it provides history about SIGFest and how it started. It's a nice read.

We're now less than two weeks away. We will be closing sign ups next week. Please sign up today so we can provide BMW NA a head count. We're their guests and would like to be as accurate as possible.

SIGN UP here: http://www.sigfest.com/events.php

Thanks in advance!
L James Liu

Sorry if this is a bit long- I'll try to keep this as brief as possible.




We are just 15 days away from SIGFest 2019, our TWENTIETH ANNUAL EVENT.

Registration is now open, and I encourage anyone with a love for the E30 M3 to sign up and attend this special event.


A little bit of history about this grass-roots event:


I conceived of the idea after seeing an E30 M3 pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike on the way to a National Sales Meeting back in 1998. I thought-

"Damn- why do I see so few E30 M3's on the road?". Then I brainstormed with Filippo Morelli (he's one of the original creators of the E30 M3 SIG) and a

local E30 M3 fanatic (Ralph Angersbach) to come up with the highly un-original idea to set up a meet for members of the then 2-year-old E30 M3

SIG email list. I searched the archives on the old bimmers.com website, and found my first email gauging interest in the event:


Gruppe,

As you may or may not recall, I have been trying to get permission to host an E30 ///M3 picnic/gathering at a local park for the past few

months. After going before the board of advisors of the county, I have been granted permission to proceed with plans to host a small gathering

in a grassy park in Lincroft NJ. The Park that we will be reserving is Thompson Park, just off of exit 109 off of the Garden State Parkway.

The space rental comes complete with bathroom facilities, a large tent, and several grills for cooking burgers and the like. The space that I

am reserving is also quite private, so there will not be any peasants wandering about our fantastic machines.


I have already compiled a list of people who showed some interest in attending the gathering when I last posted about it in December, and

they have been contacted privately. If you did not respond then, and would like to be added to the invite list- please contact me ASAP so

that I can get a rough idea of who is interested in attending, and how many cars to expect. Also- please let me know which weekends in May or

June would work for you, as we basically have first pick of a primary date and a rain date.


Tony Rausch
'88 ///M3


I cannot find the actual attendance list of those who attended that first event, but the list of people who were on the private email are as follows:

Ralph Angersbach, Chet Marfatia, Alex Schonfeld, Geoff Atkinson, George Fotopoulos, Chris Smith, Mark Finn, Daniel Barber, Ken W, Maneesh Jain,

Russ Highton Jr., Todd Crossley, Paul Ngai, John Henriquez, Robert Talbot, Ron Checca, Henry Farber, Mitch Herman, Narayan Raja, Gary Lin, William

Mackie

In total- there were 9 cars that attended that first event at Thompson Park in Lincroft NJ. I know Ralph A was there, and I remember receiving a $10

check from Chet M, because his checks had a picture of him autocrossing his E30 M3 on them. It was a pretty basic event, but everyone had fun, and a

few of us went on a drive afterwards and stopped for a burger and a beer. I felt like I was on to something. We had a lot more ideas to make the event

bigger, draw more SIG Members, and collaborate with those interested to make this gathering the best it could be. In the years that followed the event

became larger and more organized, thanks to the infusion of support from SIG Members, sponsors, and The BMW CCA (who partially funded the event back

then). I organized the event mostly by myself for the first 10 years at that very same location, with assistance from Filippo as well as a few

enthusiastic local SIG Members. (Then the park changed their policy and no longer allowed car gatherings, so we had to find new locations.) SIGFest

benefitted from the efforts put forward by Dave Alberts in creating S14.net, which also brings E30 M3 enthusiasts together. The enthusiasm and

camaraderie that is generated there brought the community together as one big family. Meanwhile, there were SIG members who chose to participate and

volunteer to work during the events, year after year- and the events could not have succeeded without their help. A few of those "assistants" became

partners (James Liu and John Henriquez), and they provided a lot of fresh energy, ideas, hard work and expertise to move the event forward. More

recently, we welcomed Nick Plakas into the SIGFest team, and those who know him will agree that he brings an entirely new type of thought process and

energy to the event.


Those who have attended SIGFest will recall that we custom make trophies every year for this event, as we have from the beginning Thinking back-

some of them have been better than others, but personally I'd rather have no trophies than purchase ones from a trophy shop. The first one was a

Warsteiner bottle (Ralph A and I had fun drinking all of the beer since the bottles had to be emptied to mount them onto the marble bases). There was a

"buzzing shifter" trophy, a holographic E30 M3 trophy, a few iterations of an E30 M3-inspired clock, an S14 watch, and several acrylic sculptures we

created. I always prefer making the trophies out of real, used E30 M3 parts. Thanks to several SIG Members (Don Fields, Gary Bossert and Ron

Checca amongst others) I obtained used E30 M3 pistons used in several of the trophies over the years. I also used cam gears and bent valves to make the

trophies. As parts become less, and less available- we have had to improvise and come up with other ideas. This year- we tried to do something

special, but you'll have to be there to see what the trophies look like.




Back through the years I have assisted in running SIGFest South (run by SIG Members in Florida) as well as SIGFest West (as part of the Bay Area M3

group) but neither continued on for probably a myriad of reasons. Understandable, as running any event can be difficult, tedious, time

consuming and expensive. I often think back to a time before marriage and kids, and how much easier it was to plan and run this event. It's easier to

do it as a collaborative effort with the team, but we do it because we enjoy it. Also- those who attend love it, and it continues to be an event where

people meet and become friends, and continues to unite people of similar minds and interests. We are proud that it is still a one-of-a-kind,

hand-crafted event by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, and supported by businesses run by enthusiasts. One of the many friends of mine that I met

through SIGFest when he owned an E30 M3, (Dave Flogaus - I believe he is still monitoring these SIG posts) once said to me that this event should

have the following subtitle: "SIGFest- You Come For The Cars, You Stay For The People". I think that about sums it up.


Thanks to all of those people who participated back in the beginning- and all that continue to participate in, and support SIGFest. You are the

reason we are still doing this 20 years later. With your continued participation, we will keep it going for another 20 years.



Please check out the SIGFest Website at www.sigfest.com. Registration is open now, and you can see the event details and register by going to

www.sigfest.com/events.php.


Tony Rausch
SIGFest 2019
///20 Years

[L James]

TTT - A little more than 3 weeks away!! Sign up today!!

[Andyman746]

Cant miss it, my favorite show of the year. See all the boys there!

[Afish]

Gonna be a great show, can’t wait

[L James]

When is the registration opening???

Registration opened yesterday!! Looking forward to seeing everyone there!!!

[evommm]

When is the registration opening???

[FahrerGruppe]

Lit

[Kevin///m3]

I should be there

[evommm]

Cool hope to see the same great crew and their cars
mike