Have You Ever Been To The Factory Where Your Car Was Made?

In late 1999, I got really lucky in the stock market and found myself with $110K in cash as a result. What did I do? Why I bought 2 cars with it! Being happily married for 22 years at the time, I bought my wife a car first (an Audi A6 2.7T) and then bought myself a sports car.
I got an Oxford Green 2000 BMW M Roadster which I purchased from BMW Seattle, but arranged to pick up at the factory where it was made in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It was a great trip. My then 21-year-old son and I flew down to SC and were picked up at the airport by the BMW folks who whisked us off to the hotel for dinner and a sleep.
After breakfast the next morning they picked us up for our day’s adventure which included three stops; a tour of the factory where they were making all the Z3s in the world (at the time, though they have since switched over to the X series) and the Zentrum attached to it, a chance to beat on their M Roadsters at their track, and then delivery of my new baby in the mid-afternoon. The factory was pretty cool and it was interesting to see all of those Z3s in various stages of assembly. It gave me a new appreciation for the complexity involved in building cars on that scale. Soon enough we were out of the factory and museum and off to the track where we got put in a bright yellow M Roadster and got the chance to put it through a series of driver training maneuvers (quick lane change, wet skidpad, ABS ‘stab and steer’ practice, etc). After lunch in their cafeteria we ambled on down to a delivery bag where my dark green metallic beauty rested. It seemed to take forever for the guy to explain all the stuff to me, but eventually he handed me the keys and I backed it out of the bay and we took off.
The best part?
We were all the way across the country and now had to drive it home to Seattle! Because we had relatives spread fairly conveniently across the southern tier of the US, I had made plans for overnight stays with four of them. Also, I had decided that we would, inspired by William Least Heat Moon, travel the Blue Highways, the two lane wonders of America rather than the Interstates.
So, for next 11 days and 5,500 miles Francis and I drove some of the most amazing two lane roads in America. On my first full day of ownership, after breakfast and saying goodbye to my cousin in Gastonia, NC, we headed for Deal’s Gap and the Tail of the Dragon. Perfect break-in road for a new car; mostly 2nd and 3rd gear corners, no need for WOT, and constantly varying engine speeds. I think we drove that road 4 times, twice for each of us, before we decided to push on.
Other highlights of the trip? Route 89A leading down into Sedona, Arizona from Flagstaff, the Angeles Crest Highway heading up out of the LA basin, most of the Oregon Coast. We had a great time and it all started with a visit to the factory.