Well after about 18 months of owning the M5, after I sold the Sapphire to Bud-Weis, who then sold it to Staffi, who then sold it to Max, who has now sold it back to Staffi.......LOL. I've been spending the last year trying to get the M5 into the same condition as the Cosworth,........Maybe even a little better. So after a years hard work I decided to enter it into the Southern Region Concourse being held at Athlehampton House near Dorchester today. Arrived in good time this morning having basically done the final prepping of the car over the last week, and fully intended to just enter it into the Show n Shine (Working Class)............... but when I arrived I found out there was no Show n Shine class, just full regional concourse. So I thought I may as well enter it just to see just how far off full blown concourse I was. Having been used to the Cosworth Scene put me in good stead, as to be honest the RS Owners Club Concourse is one of the highest in the country, which helped me have pretty high standards even though I'd only intended to do the Show n Shine catagory.

To cut a long story short, I wasn't expecting anything, as the BMW Scene also has quite high standards, I watched the judges checking the car over and pointing out bits and pieces that could have been cleaner, so wasn't expecting to do too well against all the regular entrants and their garage queens. But at the end of the day when it came round to the results, I got the shock of my life......winning 1st place for being the highest placed Novice Entrant, and getting second in class.......!!!!!! Not bad for a car that I only rated as good enough for Show n Shine. Just goes to show that all the practice on the Cosworth over the years, put me in at the right level with the BMW's....... It seems that "Originality" is the key to the BMW Concourse Standards. So got to limit what I do to the car if I want to keep doing the concourse.

The good thing is that now I know the bits that need doing that would have given me a 1st place in class, and I only lost that by 8 points.......dust in the material on the rear parcel shelf, rear calipers dirty, and the wrong tyres..........(Not Original Brand as fitted when new) plus a few lost marks for little bits I'd missed in the engine bay and carpets. If I'd had those three of four bits right, I'd have got first place in class, in my first concourse and an automatic entry into the National Concourse later in the year. Now I either have to do a few more to get enough points to qualify for the Nationals, or a first place in any of the next three regional events.

Here's a few pics from today.



































Forgot to take one of the Engine Bay during concourse, but this is it.



Still got plenty of other bits I can improve on, it's damned addictive once you know where you lost points and knowing you were so close to pulling away with the 1st place.