Homecoming 1999

The Homecoming is now an annual event in the US in which Z3 owners drive their cars back to the factory--rather like delivery in reverse. This was the third Homecoming and more than 450 cars were involved, some of which had been driven across the North American continent in convoys of ten or more cars travelling together.

BMW's factory is located in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, close to the east coast of America. Although Carolina was established by King Charles II as one of the early British colonies, many of today's population are of German descent. This helped attract German companies such as BASF to the State. The real pull for BMW, however, when it decided in 1992 to build the Z Roadster in the States, was the deepwater RORO port of Charleston. This enables BMW to build in the US for the US market, yet easily transfer cars to the port for shipment to Europe and elsewhere. The plant location at Spartanburg is judged to be far enough inland to avoid damage and disruption from hurricanes.

George Chadwick and I (Tim Cullis) were amongst the first to register for the event and had the idea of joining one of the convoys as it crossed the heavily-wooded Apalatian Mountains. We flew into Charlotte, North Carolina and negotiated an hire car upgrade to a Z24 convertible. We then headed towards Asheville and stopped Wednesday night at Waynesville.