Hello BHPians!
Summer has come and gone, and Fall us upon us for those of us Stateside.
The supercar scene is drawing to a close for the season, so it seems like everyone is trying to squeeze one last event out of 2018. The arrival of Fall doesn't just mean colder weather and colorful leaves, though. For those of us in Chicago, fall also brings ///M-Vade.
///M-Vade (
MVade, I can't keep typing /// followed by M and then - and then Vade) is an event that happens twice a year, (open to all makes and models, but highlighting BMW M-Division cars) once in the spring and once in the fall.
Now, if you're a visual learner, and want a summary:
The plan:
9:00 a.m. : All the cars meet in a Marina parking lot on the shore of Lake Michigan, one of the five great likes of the U.S. midwest.
9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. : Cars arrive, and park up in the Marina. We take it over. It's packed, and the cars sit bumper to bumper to the point where people don't walk in-between cars.
11:00 a.m. - undefined : Rally from the center of Chicago to a place in the suburbs, called the Glen (Google Maps image below, to make it clear). If you've seen Dhoom 3, or any movie set in Chicago/New York City, you know how crazy traffic can be in a major city. Bumper to bumper, buses, cops, cyclists, other cars etc.
Now imagine 60-80 (maybe more, it was hard to keep track) M-Division cars, some heavily modified - loud exhausts, wide bodies, slammed, etc. all driving through the narrow streets, revving and generally causing a bit of a scene
As you can imagine, it's pretty fun.
undefined - 2:00 p.m. : Once you get to the Glen, everyone parks up again on a parking Garage, and we all get lunch at the Glen. The Glen is a shopping center, kind of like a strip mall, but it has restraints and all other sorts of stores as well. The event wraps up around 2, because the cops usually get notified of the event on our drive to the Glen, and tail us there, so that's a wrap for the day.
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So that's the agenda for the day. Now for the
details.
Woke up at 7:30. Drove from my college campus to Chicago the night before, so I was running on about 3 - 4 hours of sleep. Plus I was pretty excited, so I didnt sleep much for the few hours I did try (lel). People generally don't like to show up to bigger events alone, so a few of my friends from Chicago and I all met up at my friend's house, and we decided to leave from there (Map 2). I'll put the city we started from, but for obvious reason not his actual house address.
His house is in a suburb of the city, so about 45 mins from the actual start point. Left from my house at around 7:50, drove to his, and we left his place at around 8:15, after all our friends showed up. Our little group consisted of:
My M6 Gran Coupe (Bone Stock). F10 M5 (very modified). F80 M3 (very modified). E90 M3 (kinda modified). M5 E60 (not sure tbh).
So once we all left my friends house, did the mandatory fuel stop, and blasted into the city pre-rush hour (weekend, so bumper to bumper starts a bit later).
9:00 a.m we pulled into the Marina, and there were maybe 20 cars there when we got there. Almost all M Cars, but an Alfa Giulia Quad, SQ5 and some others were there as well. Some tuned Evo's, Impreza's, AMGs and Porsches, too. (there were quite a few cars, so I can't remember all of them, but if you're a fanboy of a certain brand, it was probably there!)
Map 1 (Event Start & End): We don't take the shortest route, but rally through the city first.
Map 2 (Getting to Event):
The Marina we start at is nestled between a harbor, and the Lake. It's a public parking lot, so we have to behave (an important detail), or we risk getting kicked out or arrested, if the cops catch you doing something. We're allowed to park there, but they have tight security, since there's literally million dollar yachts parked a few feet away.
So 10:15 am comes around, and one of my friends that was riding in my car had a small emergency (non bathroom related lol) so we had to leave the parking lot for a half an hour and go to a store nearby. 10:50, we sorted everything out, and were on the way back to the event, when my friend called me and told me that everyone was bailing from the marina because someone started doing burnouts.
I was a solid 12 minute drive away from the rally point. R.I.P
Long story short, I missed the start, and missed my friends completely. Since there's no fixed route, packs of cars just drive together and are all within a few blocks of eachother, but because of red lights and traffic and such, once you miss your group, it's impossible to catch up. So I ended up cruising with another pack of friends.
Cruise was pretty straightforward. Hearing the cars' exhausts resonating off the buildings is amazing though, and sadly we were having camera problems (this was the first time we tried shooting an event like this, so please excuse).
Got to the end point, had some traffic in-between. Cops tailed one of the groups to the end point, so once we got there, we had to be on our best behavior.
6 cops showed up in the span of 5 minutes, so everyone got a little nervous that they might start handing out tickets for having no front license plates (BMW's don't have front license plate mounts for some cars, and people don't want to drill into their bumpers, so a lot of cars run plate less). In illinois, you need front and rear plates, but they only really enforce that rule in Chicago limits. So once 6 police cars showed up, people got nervous about tickets and started leaving.
I have front and rear plates, so I was good. Met up with my friends at the endpoint, we all hung out for an hour or so, and then we all left.
I hope that didn't get boring.
If you scrolled straight to the pictures, I don't blame ya. The pictures are all from the Marina. I couldn't capture the sheer number of cars in any frame, so if you want to see that, watch near the end of the video.